Bullying in the 21st Century: How Far We've Come

[Anonymous]

School is back in session. The smell of marble notebooks, pens, freshly sharpened #2 pencils, markers and smell of chalk against a blackboard...the smell of a marker on a whiteboard *choking*... sorry...

Ahem. The start of the new year has started for many children, teens, and tweens. But a lingering problem has been there for generations. No, not what to wear on the 1st day of school to dress to impress.

The schoolhouse punk.

The schoolhouse PUNKS.

The group of the "popular" girls who like to mock those who aren't like them.

And the group of guys or "boys" who do the same thing.

Whether it be skin color, hair color, height, weight, or whatever it may be, bullying will always be there (it also transcends into the workplace but that will be another "mytake" by yours truly coming soon).

*in an echoing voice*

From the beginning of time, bullying has been in the school yard. Since the birth of the internet and social media, bullying has become cyber bullying.

This goes to computer instant messaging (for your young-uns, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ) to present, Instagram, Text Messages, SnapChat, Viber, and whatever else.

Both cases have become bad, and have become prevalent in recent years. For example Tyler Clemeti:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Tyler_Clementi

Tyler Clementi (December 19, 1991 – September 22, 2010) was an 18-year-old American student at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on September 22, 2010. On September 19, 2010, Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, used a webcam on his dorm-room computer and his hallmate Molly Wei's computer to view, without Clementi's knowledge, Clementi kissing another man. Clementi eventually found out, after Ravi posted about the webcam incident on Twitter. Two days later, Ravi urged friends and Twitter followers to watch via his webcam a second tryst between Clementi and his friend, though the viewing never occurred.

Ravi and Wei were federally indicted for their roles in the webcam incidents, though they were not charged with a role in the suicide itself. Ravi was tried and convicted in 2012 on multiple charges related to the webcam viewing. In September 2016, the conviction was overturned by an appeals court in New Jersey.

Clementi's death brought national attention to the issue of cyberbullying and the struggles facing LGBT youth.

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Now I'm not going to go in-depth on "MyTake" just a simple statement.

Do you live in one of these? I know it is a house, but think of it as a metaphor. This is a glass house; we all probably inhabit in a residence, whether it be a house, an apartment, or whatever else we call "HOME."

Here's a rock. Do you think that your house is perfect? Is everything in your house in order? Would you throw a rock at a glass house?