Prologue: This fictional account was done as a sort of exercise to help us show empathy for those with different perspectives on cyberbullying.
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We were able to get Lucie to tell us about her experience in how her tragedy started.
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My Name is Lucie, I am in 10th grade living in the States.
In January, there was a big party at a place called LIFE most of my classmates were going to. I really wanted to go but had other plans made for that night. I was so upset that I couldn’t go, I wrote a mean post on my spam account on Instagram rather than accepting that I couldn’t go, I made it seem like I didn’t want to go in the first place. About a month later, a girl in my grade somehow came upon this post and shared it with other kids and people started to say terrible things about me while I was within earshot. Hearing this, I decided to go up to 4 or 5 of the girls, apologised immediately for the post, and tried my best to make things right. They all said that they.
6 months later, I posted a photo of myself on Instagram with the caption “Life is good”. A bunch of attacked this post with really mean and rude comments about me. I was so upset that I privately texted the girl who seemed to be leading these comments asking her why she was writing these things and she replied by saying “It’s a joke and we are just having fun.” She then continued to write more mean things about me and even made a post about me on her spam account, purposefully so I could see it. She threatened me to say, “I deserved this” and that she would hurt me and live to stream it for other people to watch. I was scared and devastated when students from my grade who I thought were my friends commented about how funny she was and how annoying I was. People from other schools that I didn’t know even chimed in! I felt attacked and all alone. My close friends tried to comfort me privately, but no one could defend me on social media. I had this horrible sinking feeling of everyone hating me and talking about me behind my back. Some of my sympathetic friends even wrote to me that they would “hang themselves” if people were writing these kinds of things about them. I was so confused and sad that I decided the right thing to do was tell my mom and my family. My mom reached out to my school advisor who reminded us that my school has a code of conduct policy that includes a cyberbullying section that all student sign.
We all came to the decision that this was actual cyberbullying and decided to report this incident to ensure my safety and to try and better our school community and educate others about cyberbullying.
I left for a summer camp for 3 weeks without my phone and escaped the toxic social media world. When I returned, I learned that the school had contacted this girl's mother. She defended her actions by sharing with them a screenshot of the mean post that I had written way back in January. Although I didn’t know it, what I had written came back to haunt me and she said it is the reason she decided to write those terrible things about me on social media.
I have thought about this a lot and realise now how important it is to be careful about what you put online. I have learned that even though people forgive and forget, things stay on the internet forever and can come back to haunt you later in life. I was very hurt by this experience, and I know many of the other people involved have also been hurt and upset. To anyone going through this, remember you are not alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help It can and will get better I promise.
Kaho
This post really shows the complexity of cyberbullying. A post that someone makes casually and arising from their own hurt feelings can be hurtful to others, who then retaliate. The retaliation can be far worse than the original offense. It was good that Lucie reflected upon her own actions and saw her responsibility in the whole incident. Regrettably, we can't easily take things back after they've been posted and shared. Even on Snapchat, screen recordings can be taken and a lasting record can remain. It's easy to say "think before posting" but when you're young and impulsive it's easier said than done.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it would be better to give more context to this post at the beginning. Someone outside of our class who just stumbled onto it wouldn't know that this was a fictional account that was done as a sort of exercise to help us show empathy for those who have different perspectives on the issue of cyberbullying.