Month: March 2015

Writing to Argue

Many people are afraid to come to school or work due to bullying. Bullying affects all schools and workplaces across the world. Not one is unaffected by bullying. Every second that someone is bullied, is a second of that person’s life ruined. This is unacceptable in the eyes of a civilised person because we live in a society where bullying is disgraceful and wrong. Then why does it still continue? Many people in the world have not gotten the message that bullying is wrong. This is what I want all bullies to hear; what you are doing is wrong. Abusing somebody, both physically and verbally, is a disgrace to our society.

Bullying doesn’t just take one disguise, it has many forms than just physical or verbal. For example there’s cyber bullying which is when someone sends verbally abusive messages to someone else via text messaging, e-mail or social networks. This form of bullying is very popular with our modern day technology, and like all forms of bullying, unfortunately drives many people to suicide.This form of bullying is very popular because the victim doesn’t always know who’s bullying them. Thus the bully gets to victimise someone without the repercussions and without their identity being revealed. “Some children are biologically predisposed to bullying because such behaviour lent their ancestors a selective advantage in our evolutionary past.” This is one theory by a bullying psychologist. It shows that bullying could be caused by ancestral behaviour that got an “advantage” through bullying. “A Washington middle school teacher allegedly joined bullies in beating a 13-year-old boy to the ground and physically abusing him”. This is a Daily Mail article and shows that although there are many anti-bullying projects, bullying persists throughout the world and still stands strong.

The main form of bullying is physical bullying. This form of bullying is very popular and has been an issue for many years. It is very popular as the bully gets to determine the amount of damage that the victim receives. “The tendency for school children to bully others was conceived as lying along a continuum of frequency, ranging from zero to very high.” This is a quote from a psychologist that specialises in bullying from a young age. Trauma from physical abuse in a persons youth could cause an influential child to believe that it is acceptable to abuse someone for personal pleasure, whether it’s mental abuse or physical abuse. In later life, this is the way that person would treat the people around them. The effects of physical bullying range from slight effects, to physical and mental scarring that could last for many years. “It has been suggested that the mental health of school children can be undermined by repeated bullying at school” this is a quote from the association for professionals in adolescent bullying.

Many people try and stop bullying by starting up anti-bullying websites and by handing out leaflets and so on. However, if there are so many people trying to stop bullying than why does it still persist? Well some believe that the sheer size of people that bully others is just too hard to stop; so the possibility that bullying is abolished is hard to imagine. Some anti-bullying websites like childline work hard to help prevent children from all over the world from getting bullied. They hold events that raise money for victims of bullying and also raise awareness of bullying and its effects. “I am really upset as I am being bullied at school. They call me fat which has made me stop eating. I have tried to talk to my dad and the teachers but they don’t seem to listen or do anything about it. I am bullied online all the time and sometimes get threatened. They say they will find out where I am and hurt me. They tell me I should keep quiet but I really want to tell someone. I am scared that I might get hurt if I do tell someone. Help!” This is from a young boy who contacted childline for help. This boy was so effected by bullying, that he stopped eating to try and stop it. This is an endangerment to his health as not eating could cause malnutrition weakness and illness. He has tried to tell his parents and teachers about the bullying, however they apparently do not do anything. This is because of the ignorance and naivety of adults as they believe it’s harmless fun.

Another major event that takes place to raise awareness of anti-social behaviour is anti-bullying week; “This Anti-Bullying Week we call on children and young people, schools, media, government, parents and carers and the voluntary sector to raise awareness of the children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities that are bullied in schools.” This is a statement from another anti-bullying group called anti-bullying alliance. They talk about a number of young people and children with disabilities who are bullied, they are bullied due to their disabilities. The statement also shows the lengths they will go to raise awareness of the abuse and discrimination which occurs in schools around the world because of someone’s disability.

In conclusion, most people turn a blind eye to bullying, they see it as childish fun until the joke goes too far. However, if someone doesn’t come into school because of fear of abuse or hide in toilets to avoid certain people, then that to me is when the ‘fun’ turns into bullying. No one deserves to be treated like that, no one deserves to be bullied. So if you see a person being verbally or physically bullied are you going to turn a blind eye and be as bad as the bully or are you going to do something about it?

Dear Ms Samantha Taylor,

I find the idea you have presented in this article; that most teenagers are not mindless zombies glued to a computer screen, true and open minded. However I find the opinions of the people you have included in your article untrue and misleading. Mr Franzen believes that online socialising is “creating a uniquely shallow and trivial culture”. I disagree here because some social networking sites do not allow pictures, preventing predjudism. Mr Franzen also talks about how our less meaningful relationships become more important than our significant relationships; this again is untrue as you can still connect with those more important relationships through social networking and keep them vital. You also include a statement that talks about how the world is drifting towards disaster because we spend “countless hours glued to Facebook”. Where as actually social networking keeps us updated with what’s going on in the world through countless people updating their status or tweeting on what’s occurring in the news. The rest of your sources are biased statements and one sided arguments from ignorant people. However you acknowledge the truth of teens and social networking, but I want everyone to realize the truth behind all the lies. I find it reassuring that there are people like you who understand what teens are actually like.

Mr Franzen believes that online socialising is causing a “uniquely shallow and trivial culture”. This is contradicting as he is making an assumption based on a generalisation, this is a shallow statement. Being a teenager myself, I know that this is not true in most cases. Most of my friends (who are around the same age as me) use the internet a lot, despite this they still show a great deal of empathy and consideration for others and their feelings.

Mr Franzen also says that our less meaningful relationships become more important than our purposeful relationships. This is again false, we can still speak to the important people in our lives through social networking, as well as the minor, less meaningful ones. In actual fact social networking improves relationships as it allows the users to speak to numerous people at once, including unimportant relationships, and the ones that matter.

You also include statements by two people, Louis CK and Susan Greenfield. The first being that Mr CK would not allow his children to have phones as he fears they would lose empathy; this is just one example, and I strongly believe that allowing the use of phones would not cause a loss of empathy. Empathy is gained and lost by personal experiences, personalities and can even be affected by the influences in that person’s life. You also include the statement from Ms Greenfield and she believes that parents are raising kids that have been disconnected from the real world. Actually, social networking keeps us connected with news and so on and it is really up to how the parents want their child to be raised. So really the amount of time teens spend on social networking is up to the parents. If parents dislike the amount of time their child spends on the computer or social networking sites, then they should do something about it.

John Henley then goes on to say that many teenagers do not know the dangers of online networking, I disagree with this statement. Indeed the survey conducted is reliable and the results support his statement. However I believe that most teenagers, when contacted by a stranger, would react responsibly and with great maturity. This is because of the constant pressure on teens to do the right thing when it comes to strangers on the internet.

Finally, you include a study by the Pew that says only 9% of teens are very concerned about companies accessing their personal information. I believe this is the case due to the intelligence of the teens allowing this access. Most teens are smart enough to not reveal any information that is useful like their address or anything like that, thus they do not care whether or not their information is viewed.

To conclude, I find it reassuring that there is someone like you, Ms Taylor, that truly understands teenagers and coming from a teen, I believe that you are correct in your ideas about us. It is unfortunate that there people like the ones included in your article, that do not truly understand teens and slander teenagers in front of the public. None the less I wish to give you my gratitude for defending  teenagers from a stereotypical view from others and revealing the truth to the eye of the public.

Yours Sincerely,

Nathan Smith