Blog 5: Cyberbullying

 

Dark blue and lighter shade denoting night time with houses in the background. In the foreground is a cartoon-like figure of a young woman with dark brown hair holding a phone and crying. Text messages surround her with negative messages. The headline says Stop Cyberbullying and the sub headline says, "Words are powerful / choose them carefully"

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Technology is a great way to stay connected and learn; however, sometimes it can be used to spread negativity. Young people could potentially experience cyberbulling around the clock, at school and at home, essentially all day and all night, and this is part of what makes cyberbullying especially dangerous.

As a poet, I was extremely excited to see the number of videos that were spoken word poems. It shows how powerful poems are and how we can use them to heal ourselves and each other. When students can share their stories, it allows them to express themselves, and it shows other students that they are not alone in their thoughts and emotions. My library will definitely have a space for students to share their stories and poetry, and they will have the option of sharing it out loud or through the written word. Watch the video below of a slam poem by a deaf poet from a slam poet competition.

 

Video image of Black teenage boy wearing a white buttoned down shirt and a black and gold bowtie. He is wearing Black slacks. He has a mustache and goatee and is holding up hands to sign.

One thing that surprised me the most came from the Seven Deadly Digital Sins, Wrath video. He mentions that we experience a dopamine rush from “being nasty.” This was an aha moment for me because it describes why some people participate in bullying and are able to recruit other people to join them. The Daniel Cui video shows the opposite of that when people start sharing the picture of Daniel blocking a soccer goal and it “goes viral” by having hundreds of people share the picture and make the picture their profile picture on social media. This shows how people can use their powers for good and it shows us the power of what happens when we counter negative images or information with good.

One way I plan to address this with students is to have Digital Citizenship lessons and refreshers. These can be short warm-up lessons I can create for teachers to share with students. One of the clubs at our school does something similar to the Smile Cards mentioned in one of the videos. They create tear-off flyers that have positive and uplifting messages on them. The flyer says to “Take what you need.” They are always nearly empty in the first few days of them being posted. My library can have some of those -off flyers or promotional flyers with positive messages on them. I can provide students with a small prize like a cool sticker or candy when I catch them being kind in the library. Awareness is important, and reminding students of the importance of being kind and having empathy could change a student’s mind about sending a mean/negative message or image.