No computers today – we sat down to introduce and discuss cyber-bullying. Our conversation began with talking about conventional bullying. Students noted that bullies may act out because:

  • they feel bad about themselves
  • they have been bullied in the past
  • they don’t have friends
  • they are unhappy at home
  • it makes them feel powerful
  • they might make friends by being funny and mean

We talked about how humans usually feel that on the whole they are good, and that even when we do bad things we individually feel that we are more good than bad. This is true even for bullies.

The 6th grade defined cyber-bullying as “being mean or hurting someone using technology.” Cyber-bullies can use many types of technology to pick on someone; students noted the following ways:

  • text-messaging
  • instant messaging
  • emailing
  • building a website that makes fun of someone
  • posting mean pictures or videos about someone
  • saying mean things on MySpace

We talked about different ways that messages can be delivered. In a one-to-one format, bullies send a message to their recipient (email, instant message, text-message, etc). In a one-to-many format, bullies send a mean message about a person or people to many, usually in an effort to recruit more people to make fun of the victim (building a webpage, posting a video, etc). In many-to-one instances, a group of people will pick on an individual (incoming messages to a MySpace account, online petitions, etc).

Finally, we pondered why so much bullying goes on at social networking sites (e.g., MySpace, Facebook). The main reasons (according to students) are:

  • there aren’t many adults to monitor things
  • it’s easier to make fun of someone you don’t know or can’t see
  • other people might be doing it so it seems okay

Overall, this was a really interesting class – we’ll be following up on this discussion in another week, before the summer starts.