Alaysia is back this month to talk about social media, cyber bullying, and how to keep yourself safe. Please give her a warm MB welcome!
One night while scrolling through Instagram, I began to notice several messages from a friend. These messages weren’t for me, but I began to notice a pattern. Some were hard to read because I just couldn’t believe I was actually witnessing my own friend aggressively cyber bully a girl for her choice of religion. There were many back-and-forth comments as my friend continued to nag on this girl, claiming her choice of religion was all wrong and there was only one religion to follow without being sent to a horrible afterlife.
Later on, a boy I didn’t know began sticking up for the girl along with others, including myself. However, the boy began using profanity and threatening my friend for bullying the girl. Right before my eyes, I watched this situation grow and grow into a battle, both my friend and this boy were publicly humiliating one another.
I finally decided to step in and stop it. I privately sent a message to my friend saying he was better than that and that we all have a free choice of religion. I urged him to understand there are differences out there and that everyone has a right to believe in whatever they want to believe in.
Read More “4 Tips for Dealing with the Pressures of Social Media in Junior High”