Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying; A New Way To Bully

In his essay, “You Wanna Take This Online?”, Jeff Chu gives us an insight on the new online trend called “Cyberbullying” and how it is affecting the lives of many young teenagers today. He explains how even a young teenager who loves My Chemical Romance, and the color pink can also a victim of hatred, taunting and harassment by her peers at school, or in this case, online. Chu says” 21% of eighth graders reported being cyber-bullied recently” (727), but still it seems that most parents are unaware and oblivious to what goes on in their children’s lives. By ignoring the fact that their sons and daughters could be facing trouble online, these parents let what could be a one-time thing turn into an everyday occurrence. There is still a lot we don’t know about cyber-bullying but Jeff Chu gives us a small feel of what it is like. What we do know is that cyberbullying has changed the way the kids of our generation get taunted, bullied, and harassed.
Chu’s use of illustration to describe Taylor Hern shows us that even the average 13-year old girl can be a victim of cyberbullying. He states that Taylor logged on to her Xanga account to fin a comment leading her to a list of “Ho’s” and Taylor happened to be on the list. She said the list didn’t affect her, that it was a little hurtful but it didn’t bother her as much as it did the other girls.   But still she was puzzled at the idea that anyone would take time out of their schedule to come up with such nonsense. Only, how long will it take for it to affect Taylor? How long will it take for these little taunts to turn into threats?
Chu also tells us that most cyberbullies were actually victims of physical bullying themselves, in school. He draws a connection and says,” When a cyber bully lashes out it can be a sign of emotional and psychological problems.” (728) Chu shows us that most cyberbullies are actually anonymous, because in the real world the victims will retaliate but there...