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Bullying has become increasingly popular, especially now that the internet can be so easily accessed. Teens, but not just teens, commonly choose the internet to bully because it's easier to insult somebody without having to face the consequences or see their face. They can see whatever they want, and many times make it visible to others to further the other person's humiliation.
According to bullyingstatistics.org, in 2010, 160,000 children missed school every day because they feared being bullied. That is just plain sad. It makes you wonder what kind of values people are teaching their children. The sad thing is, most bullies act like perfectly nice children around their family, so parents may never know their child is a bully. In some cases, the parents are the bullies. I'm sure most of us remember the mom who cyber-bullied one of her daughter's ex-friends so badly the girl killed herself.
The bullying statistics sites also report that 14 percent of high school students think about suicide and seven percent try. Almost half of these attempts are because of bullying. Bullying can drive children and teens to extremes, like suicide and school shootings.
Bullying is constantly in the media and every time I hear about it, it seems to be worse. When did people become so mean and cold-hearted? Bullying used to consist of nit-picking what people wear or giving somebody a mean nickname every now and then. Not that this kind of bullying is good in any way, but compared to the stuff people are doing now, it seems like child's play.
Children seem to become bullies at a younger age, and they are not just sticking to their grade. About a month ago, all the news stations broadcasted about the middle school boys who brought their 68-year-old bus monitor to tears with their bullying. Who speaks that way to somebody who could literally be their grandma? Who speaks to anybody that way, period?
Those middle school boys went beyond taunting and became downright despicable when one boy said her family all killed themselves because they didn't want to be near her; her son killed himself ten years ago. Now many people probably wonder why the lady didn't stick up for herself.
If she would have stuck up for herself she probably would have gotten into trouble for yelling at the boys or it would have just riled the boys up even more. People think all these children are just innocent angels and who are just crying out for attention. No they're not. They need discipline, consequence, and they need to learn some morals. If they don't, when the younger generations grow up we are going to have one messed up set of societal values.
Bullying is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rude people. Where did all the nice people go? It seems like everybody is always in a bad mood and they take it out on everybody around them. I don't care if you had a bad day. You don't need to be a jerk to others. I have seen people go through checkout lines and ignore the register worker completely, or snap at retail workers for things they can't control.
It also seems that if you live in a bigger city you are expected to not care as much about others. There are videos from New York streets, real and staged, of people walking past injured and dead people on the street, watching people get hit by cars and not looking twice, and people mugging others and acting like it's not even happening. If it's not them or affecting them, they don't care.
Something needs to change and its people's attitudes and morals. If children grow up seeing adults only caring about themselves and seeing adults bullying, we can't expect them to act any different. I'm just so sick of bullying and inconsiderate people.