14 year old girl commits suicide because she was bullied

[We_are_Stevo]

Yes, but when individuals were bullied before the advent of 'Soshull Meeja' others invariably knew about it because it was out in the open, and eventually someone would do something about it...

...and yes, people still committed suicide because of it but far less frequently!

Online there is no facility for someone to step in and say 'Hey, enough is enough' and the SP's are unwilling to do anything that may damage their profits :|

 

[highlandsflyer]

I can't believe there is not more to this than being bullied on one social media site.

 

[widowmaker]

Has facebook improved anyone's life ??????????????? :shock:

 

[JamesM]

I was bullied at school and have often thought it would have been a hundred times worse had smart phones and social media been around back then. However it occured to me that bullying in this modern way leaves evidence, that should the need arise, be traced back to the bullies. Part of the problem for me when I was being bullied was lack of any proof. The result being that if I approached a teacher they just dismissed it as banter and I was made to feel like a fool, often in front of the bullies. This then gave them more ammo to attack me with in the future and taught me there was little worth in telling anyone about it, so I suffered in silence.

If the bullying is all over social media I would have thought it would be possible to collect evidence and build a case agaisnt the bullies. Even if they cover their tracks it should in serious cases still be possible to trace it back to the originator. Smoking gun?

 

[Alison]

...these are what children of today need to keep up with their friends and they should be able to use them safely and not be forced off because of some little sh*t.

Alison

That's just it, NO they don't!

They are just willing victims of of the shallow, marketing-led society we live in today; it's coming to something when foreign holiday bookings are down by 25% on this time last year BECAUSE THE KIDS WON'T GO IF THERE ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH WI-FI TO ALLOW THEM TO SPEND THE WHOLE HOLIDAY GLUED TO THEIR F*CKING MOBILE PHONE PRATTING ABOUT ON FACEBOOK! :shock: :facepalm:

It's no wonder employers are glad to welcome immigrants with open arms when they are better qualified than our home-grown, wannabe trailer trash!

I feel so desperately sorry for the tragic subject of the OP that she won't go on to have the life she otherwise would have because this purile, mind-numbing, vacuous rubbish has worked it's insidious way into the modern psyche...

I still disagree, all the kids in my son's year have gone on to university, except my son who joined the marines, despite all of them being plugged into Facebook and their mobile phones and all are doing exceptionally well and are all studying proper academic subjects, not leisure and tourism or hospitality degrees :roll: Media is a 21st century thing and just because it was not around when we were kids, it does not mean it's destroying society, they said that about radio when it first arrived, then TV, then the first computer games, now the internet, yet we are still managing to study, get degrees, have ambition and achieve it, more now than we did BITD, when my mum was young very few of her friends, male and female were expected to go to uni and she has always been a very intelligent woman, now it's almost taken for granted that you will go, unless you really struggle with education and people have struggled long before any forms of electronic media were available.

Alison

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

That's because GCSE and A level exams have been proven to be getting easier, and because more and more coursework is counted towards the final grade, when in our day it was the exam only that gave you your grade. This system has more than compensated for any distraction that Kyle media may have wrought.

Indeed, today University education is deemed to be a right, where as decades ago it was based solely upon academic ability and altitude.

 

[Neil]

Yes, but when individuals were bullied before the advent of 'Soshull Meeja' others invariably knew about it because it was out in the open, and eventually someone would do something about it...

...and yes, people still committed suicide because of it but far less frequently!

Online there is no facility for someone to step in and say 'Hey, enough is enough' and the SP's are unwilling to do anything that may damage their profits :|

I'm not saying it never happened - never say never - but bullying rarely happens out in the open - bullies are rarely that bold.

And it's rare that anybody steps in to do anything about it - especially at school ages.

Online, or using technology, there's more likelihood for the normal person to be accountable - because many things can be traceable.

There's nothing new under the sun, here, just different - and perhaps more pervasive - means to do the same thing.

 

[Neil]

I still disagree, all the kids in my son's year have gone on to university, except my son who joined the marines, despite all of them being plugged into Facebook and their mobile phones and all are doing exceptionally well and are all studying proper academic subjects, not leisure and tourism or hospitality degrees :roll: Media is a 21st century thing and just because it was not around when we were kids, it does not mean it's destroying society, they said that about radio when it first arrived, then TV, then the first computer games, now the internet, yet we are still managing to study, get degrees, have ambition and achieve it, more now than we did BITD, when my mum was young very few of her friends, male and female were expected to go to uni and she has always been a very intelligent woman, now it's almost taken for granted that you will go, unless you really struggle with education and people have struggled long before any forms of electronic media were available.

Alison

Whilst I'm perhaps not quite the hater of social networking that We_are_Stevo is - although it's probably a close run thing - all the same, there is a difference.

When social media was in it's infancy - it truly was a means to an end - it was a way in which people could more easily reconnect, or stay connected with people in a wider "social" circle than they would normally have the time or effort to maintain.

But that's spawned a new generation of people for who it's no longer a means to an end, but an end in it's own right. I've heard people at events say "This is going straight on my facebook wall..." - there once was a time when people did things for the experience, for what it meant to them. Now, some people do things merely for what they can say, or use as currency, on things like facebook. You can see this kind of mutuality that exists, whereby people spend time doing stuff to put up on there, then being smarmy to people they'd like to shine-on with, so that in turn, they will pour appropriate comments on their own stuff.

I suppose you could say it's just extending the societal or social metaphor - that people are no longer playing so much to people they have direct contact for, but for people they mainly only have virtual contact with, and that all that has really changed is the medium betwixt instigator and audience.

All the same, one way, or another, it has pervaded far beyond a conduit, and has become this self-fulfilling entity all by itself.

That I find much of it vapid and vacuous, I suppose is by-the-by, perhaps that's just an indicator of my misanthropy, perhaps merely curmudgeonly - but it does seem hand-in-hand with the whole celebrity culture and the cult of "reality" TV.

 

[Alison]

That's because GCSE and A level exams have been proven to be getting easier, and because more and more coursework is counted towards the final grade, when in our day it was the exam only that gave you your grade. This system has more than compensated for any distraction that Kyle media may have wrought.

Indeed, today University education is deemed to be a right, where as decades ago it was based solely upon academic ability and altitude.

Funny when children start getting better and better results it's exams getting easier, when they don't do so well in a year it's failing schools and parents, it's no win, although I agree on your last comment.

Alison

 

[We_are_Stevo]

...but as Chopper said, the evidence is proven; as has the plagiarism of online study, and parents wholly composing their kids' course work...

...I have always had a very high IQ (once again, proven ) and my term time work was exemplary, but I used to suffer crippling nerves during examinations and consequently my grades did not reflect my ability.

Under the current model I would have walked everything; without any nefarious assistance...