Bullying is the deliberate, continuous abuse of power in relationships through constant social, verbal, or physical behavior that causes harm to any individual. It ranges from individuals who abuse their power or seize power over one or more persons who are not capable of putting an end to it. Bullying happens in many ways: online, through social means, or in person. Bullying has many different effects based on the individual, some special teenagers are more prone to having long-term effects and immediate effects. The reason for this is because at that age their bodies are still being developed (puberty). During this time, they are most vulnerable as they are still exploring themselves physically, mentally, and socially and they tend to be a little rebellious and more open to accepting negative criticism as they are very conscious of their look, etc.
Bullying in schools exists for many reasons, a few of them being popularity status, feeling tough and in control, and jealousy. Bullies want that popularity status because it helps them compensate for what they are lacking at home, be it attention to a broken family, etc. These individuals may bully others because of their rich family background and the pressure they have to keep the family name and be at a certain standard. With popularity comes respect, and sometimes even fear. Bullies who go after the popularity status never like to be questioned and always like to feel in charge. Also, some kids bully because they are the top student, the best at everything, and they feel the urge to rob it in everyone’s faces.
As teenagers, it is the norm for teens to want to be in control and want their voices to be heard above everyone else’s. As a result of this, some of these teens will go the extra mile to feel tough and in control. To do that they will victimize other kids by calling them names or hurtful things that could be personal to that child. Some don’t just end on the teen they sometimes may say things about that child’s parents, their jobs, living conditions, and even the family’s social and marital status. Meanwhile, some bully because they want to feel tough and in control because at home the family is a mess, they are unhappy at home, unloved, and sometimes even unsafe. Therefore, bullying is used as a coping mechanism for what is actually happening at home.
Jealousy in my opinion is one of the main causes of bullying it happens in our everyday lives as well. Bullies take advantage of other people’s shortcomings, how intelligent you are, how rich you are, and with that they exploit and get under the victim’s skin. To compensate for the lack of money and their own shortcomings, bullies bring down other kids by bringing out their insecurities to cover their own. Bullies have no end to their torturous ways, and that’s because they too are lacking so much, and they cover it all up with the tough game.
Bullying in recent years has gotten worst and it has affected society tremendously. This is a result of more and more kids exploring their sexual orientation and some of these kids aren’t too open like most of the society. This change has affected teens who are exploring their sexual orientation very dangerously. Statistics show that 34.2 % of kids get bullied for their chosen sexual orientation, and that is because of the religion or social upbringing of these kids.
Another reason bullying has gotten worst and even easier in recent times is because of the use and availability of the Internet. Bullies no longer have to wait for the next school day to traumatize or victimize their peers they can do it in the comfort of their own homes or friends through the use of cyberbullying. Social media has helped with this as you can now post and tweet just with a single click. Bullies may tweet stuff about other kids or share pictures or share indecent memes and videos of their peers or even edited or Photoshopped images. They may even flirt with some of the teens who are less social and then get them to reveal personal information and then use that to their advantage.
Lastly, bullying has affected not only teens or victims in general but our societies on a wider scope. Persons who are bullied deal with it differently. Some individuals may never get over bullying and as a result some result in ending their lives because they feel pressured and have no one to talk to them. Their voices aren’t being heard, and it reaches a point where they begin to hurt themselves by cutting or committing suicide. Others may become bullies themselves, and when they get older, start to retaliate by hurting members of society because they felt that they weren’t accepted and they lash out. Some may hold a grudge against their bullies, and even if the bully changes and has a family, they retaliate in their later years. Statistics show that 12 to 15 victims of bullying in the 1990s retaliated by shooting in schools.
One of the main reasons society gets affected is because often a lot of these kids may result in dropping out of school if the bullying gets too much. With this, there becomes a decrease in academic achievement, which leaves the community and societies with fewer uneducated people.
Currently, to prevent bullying or reduce bullying in schools and out a lot of things are put into place such as helping the kids understand bullying, keeping communication lines open, modeling how to treat others, and so much more. Helping kids understand bullying is an effective way to keep bullying under control, because if students are aware of what bullying actually is, they would be able to spot when they are actually being bullied and, as a result, they may talk to a trusted adult about it who could handle the situation respectfully. Keeping communication lines open is another way as children at that young age are more open to criticism and therefore they would need a trusted adult who they could talk to about their insecurities, etc. In doing so they wouldn’t only learn how to face their insecurities, but be able to stand up against bullies as they are no longer insecure about certain things anymore.
Having good role models as a student would be a great way to keep bullying limited because children at a young age usually follow the things that they see and hear in their homes, community, from peers and friends. Therefore, with a solid role model, these kids would be able to learn positive things and would want to carry out the positivity.
In my opinion, I think that bullying could be kept under control if there are stricter laws against it. For example, expulsion or a thirty-day suspension or by getting the law more involved and writing something down on the kid’s record. That way the ones old enough to understand would be aware of what it would do to them in the world of work, and the ones that are too young to understand the consequences of their actions, their parents would be able to enforce the change as they know what’s at stake.
To conclude, bullying is all around us, and coming together as a people and talking to kids about it, and being one as a nation I strongly believe would reduce bullying significantly. Bullying is all around us, especially in our schools, and our teens are mostly the ones affected because they are at a crucial stage in their life where they are more open to criticism about their looks and physical appearance or even their family’s social status. As a society and community, we need to keep bullying under control a lot more by nurturing and counseling for traumatized kids needs to be done immediately to prevent future pains and learning your students better as a teacher or know your child as a parent.