Ugh. Wife is watching Dateline

Punchy

Slacker Supreme
It's about cyberbullying. The stuff they're throwing around is tamer than what goes on here on a daily basis and the kids are all "adults say just shrug it off or ignore it but it's hard when it's constantly coming at you" and I'm like "THEN DON'T PARTICIPATE IN THOSE COMMUNITIES."

Is that so difficult? Am I missing something? Am I just yelling at clouds?

Toughen up, buttercup, and for fuck sake, don't get a job in the construction industry :rolleyes:
 
Unfortunately,with today's social media,bullying has a new angle...And I think because of that a lot of kids are more sensitive.........


I remember being in grade six and some dude punched my younger brother in the side of the head and I threw a full can of Coke at his head....It missed.....But then I kicked his ass I was so pissed off..


Today "people" can bully without being within arms reach...
 
Am I missing something?

The problem is that bullies can follow kids everywhere on the internet. If their accounts get banned for it they can just make new ones. And they can bring on real-world harassment—which these days can be sending SWAT teams to somebody’s house. If the bully is a kid at school it can turn into kids being bullied every waking hour of their lives. That’s the kind of thing that turns into a shooting spree at mall or school, and America doesn’t need more Columbines and Sandy Hooks just because it’s easier for adults to keep looking the other way.
 
Then don't go to those places. Or grow a thicker skin and a "fuck you" attitude. My wife thinks I don't remember being a teenager, but I was always the smallest kid in school and I adapted, I made it work for me. Maybe I just didn't see the worst of it, I was usually on the edges anyway.

As far as being bullied every waking hour - unplug. Just unplug. Go for a hike. Shoot a squirrel. Run track. Take up guitar. But I never really bought in to the whole peer pressure thing. Maybe that's why I'm a loner, but hey, I don't cry about it either. Maybe that's why I can't empathize with the victims. Maybe that's why I check this forum every chance I have an internet connection, because it's my only social outlet. :cry: :cry:

There are a billion societies online, there is ZERO reason to be a part of one that makes you feel negligible.

My two cents, YMMV, etc., soforth and so on. Perhaps things really have changed that much. A mass shooting is no way to react to somebody calling you names, or making fun of you, though. One lasts a season or a year, the other is definitely final for all involved. What ever happened to just ordering a pizza to your enemy's house, so they'd be stuck with the bill and a delicious delicious pizza? I really am just an old man, aren't I?
 
You mention being 'bullied every hour'..

When you're a child,and it's real,it really is every hour...

You go to sleep with it and you wake up with it...



To be honest,though it did bother me as a teen seeing it happening amongst boys,(gotta hate those artistic boys),I think the fact that it has gone from the boys to the girls is the main issue...


And when you say don't go to 'those places',do you mean school???
 
I think you are entirely discounting the youthful desire for acceptance and feeling like you belong. It's easy to say "Stay off of the internet", but that's all a lot of these kids have in terms of social gathering. It's a different world than it was when kids socialized in groups at the local hang out spot.

This is especially true for younger teens. So many of these kids have no concept of the freedom of movement that so many of us enjoyed as kids. When I was 13, I could hop on my bike and disappear for hours. No cell phone, no GPS tracking. .. now people call CPS on parents that let their kids walk to the park a block from their house.

When you're whole life is effectively lived vicariously in a virtual world and that world turns against you, it's a lot for a kid to process.

You can argue that we have raised a generation of hyper - sheltered, Sally Sensitivities, but that doesn't make it ok for kids to stalk and bully orher kids, nor does it ultimately affect the ages old truth that kids want to fit in.

Sorry, but I think you are being a little short-sighted here.
 
I think you are entirely discounting the youthful desire for acceptance and feeling like you belong. It's easy to say "Stay off of the internet", but that's all a lot of these kids have in terms of social gathering. It's a different world than it was when kids socialized in groups at the local hang out spot.

This is especially true for younger teens. So many of these kids have no concept of the freedom of movement that so many of us enjoyed as kids. When I was 13, I could hop on my bike and disappear for hours. No cell phone, no GPS tracking. .. now people call CPS on parents that let their kids walk to the park a block from their house.

When you're whole life is effectively lived vicariously in a virtual world and that world turns against you, it's a lot for a kid to process.

You can argue that we have raised a generation of hyper - sheltered, Sally Sensitivities, but that doesn't make it ok for kids to stalk and bully orher kids, nor does it ultimately affect the ages old truth that kids want to fit in.

Sorry, but I think you are being a little short-sighted here.

This is absolutely spot on.

And this newer cyber bullying is way worse than the real life bullying I had to live through as a kid.
Bullies and internet anonymity allows for some really ugly shit happening.

Remember, each and every one of us react differently and tolerate things differently.
One kid can shrug it off like it's nothing, the other one could kill himself.
And as we know with today's kids (or grownups for that matter, it does happen to a few of those as well) going off social media to escape it isn't an option.
 
You mention being 'bullied every hour'..

When you're a child,and it's real,it really is every hour...

You go to sleep with it and you wake up with it...



To be honest,though it did bother me as a teen seeing it happening amongst boys,(gotta hate those artistic boys),I think the fact that it has gone from the boys to the girls is the main issue...


And when you say don't go to 'those places',do you mean school???
Not often I completely see TP's point, but I completely see TP's point here.

I'm not a sensitive adult, but man was I locker shoving fodder back in high school. I was not a happy teenager. I really didn't have very good friends until I was 16 at which point I was already a junior in HS.

Also, kids are far bigger dicks now than they were back when I was a teen 20+ years ago. Some of the stuff I hear kids say and see them do would've gotten the taste slapped out of even the biggest bully's mouth back when I was young, but it's tolerated by the adults now.
 
The problem with "just turn it off" (or when the parent takes away access) is the kid knows it's still going on and it drives them nuts.

The other issue is bullying used to be local; now someone records a kids getting slapped or pushed in a locker, and immediately posts it to YouTube or wherever and world sees it... forever.
 
Hey, Punchy, I can understand where you're coming from; I think a lot of us are within a reasonably similar age zone, so we had somewhat similar environments during our adolescence; however, I think OGG summed it up perfectly - different times, attitudes, and responses.
 
I'm probably wrong, but based on my interactions with kids I can't help but feel like our well intentioned society has raised a bunch of tech savvy kids who fail at basic human interaction.

All those 15th place trophies given out just for showing up, the banning of dodge ball, and being super overprotective while enforcing this idea that they're "Really special" has a downside. I've met a lot of young people who act like it's going out of their way to actually engage in a conversation. They're stuck inside their heads because they were raised on laptops instead of having to navigate social discourse.
 
I'm probably wrong, but based on my interactions with kids I can't help but feel like our well intentioned society has raised a bunch of tech savvy kids who fail at basic human interaction.

All those 15th place trophies given out just for showing up, the banning of dodge ball, and being super overprotective while enforcing this idea that they're "Really special" has a downside. I've met a lot of young people who act like it's going out of their way to actually engage in a conversation. They're stuck inside their heads because they were raised on laptops instead of having to navigate social discourse.
I can't say I disagree at all with that. You just touched upon one of my rants with the trophies and the banning of dodgeball (not because of injury but because kids get picked last).

We raised a bunch of self-entitled pricks who don't know how to interact with other human beings without bringing them down.
 
It's about cyberbullying. The stuff they're throwing around is tamer than what goes on here on a daily basis and the kids are all "adults say just shrug it off or ignore it but it's hard when it's constantly coming at you" and I'm like "THEN DON'T PARTICIPATE IN THOSE COMMUNITIES."

Is that so difficult? Am I missing something? Am I just yelling at clouds?

Toughen up, buttercup, and for fuck sake, don't get a job in the construction industry :rolleyes:

It is the same with some of my FB fans. They beat each other up on politics on which there will be no winner or loser. Just a long lengthy thread of BS and bickering.

What you said is exactly right Punchy, just stay out of it and turn the computer off. I guess the internet isn't just for porn anymore.
 
Unfortunately,with today's social media,bullying has a new angle...And I think because of that a lot of kids are more sensitive...

I happened to see a news item recently where collage students were demanding trigger warnings on their course syllabi. Well I'm an old bastard so I had to look up trigger warning. Apparently it's a warning that the material may be upsetting to some people.
My mind is officially boggled.
 
I happened to see a news item recently where collage students were demanding trigger warnings on their course syllabi. Well I'm an old bastard so I had to look up trigger warning. Apparently it's a warning that the material may be upsetting to some people.
My mind is officially boggled.
That's just being a bunch of pansies.
 
I can't say I disagree at all with that. You just touched upon one of my rants with the trophies and the banning of dodgeball (not because of injury but because kids get picked last).

Back in grade school I used to get picked last for games/sports all the time. I didn't belong to the 'in' crowd, and I was small. But I was fairly athletic, and my mind-set was always: if they're going to pick me last, I'm going to show them that was a bad idea :)

By the time we all got to high school, they'd pick their friends first, then pick me. They knew I'd play my ass off to try and win :embarrassed:

I guess it's just the mind-set you give yourself idn_smilie
 
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