On Cyber Bullying

Bullying has likely been a part of life for everyone of us at one point or another. We've all been exposed to it, but unlike past generations, we have had to adjust our views on bullying in the physical world as well as the online world. Bullying in the real world is no different than bullying online, except for the key fact that the online world remains, and what happens online can stay there forever. The real world does not share this problem. So what are we to do about this? I agree with Dana Boyd when she says that a zero tolerance policy is not the solution. Many schools still adopt this method of dealing with bullies, but with little success. The problem is that bullies are generally not concerned about the punishments they will receive for their behavior. Indeed, many times they are simply seeking attention for themselves by engaging in bullying. If we choose to come down hard on bullies with zero tolerance rules, this is not going to help. I don't know of any true solution to bullying, online or in the real world. There probably isn't one, or we should have found a solution by now and bullying would be a thing of the past. More likely, I think bullying will be a social phenomenon forever, but we can come up with better ways to deal with it, perhaps addressing the psychological reasons they have for bullying. As for cyber bullying, for now it may just be best to teach our kids of the possible repercussions of their behavior online. Not in order to scare them, but to teach them to learn from our generations mistakes.