Weekly Review Blog #7

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This week (and last week) we have been talking about cyberbullying. Also, things involved with cyberbullying. Such as the target, the offender, the bystander, the up-stander, escalate, and de-escalate.

• Target- The target is the victim of the situation. The one being bullied or harassed.
• Offender- The offender is the bully. They have malicious intent, and want to cause harm.
• Bystander- The bystander is a witness, but they don't do anything about it.
• Up-stander- The up-stander is a witness who does something; normally to help the target, not the offender.
• Escalate- When something escalates, it intensifies or increases.
• De-escalate- When something de-escalates, it decreases or goes down.

I am sure that almost everyone that has come in contact with the online world has seen or experienced cyberbullying. Whether you were a bystander, target or offender, (you better not be the offender!) you have probably seen it. Its almost everywhere, especially on Facebook and through text messages.

At any given moment in the United States, over 100 million people are online. The United States entered 2012 with a population of roughly 312 million. The question is, what are they doing online? They could be shopping, chatting, or just surfing the web. Then there are other people who aren't so innocent.

Some of them could be talking with their best friend about the school dance that weekend. Then one of them says something that makes the other mad. They begin throwing hateful words at each other until finally one gets off. 

To some people that doesn't seem too bad. It might be seen as a fight between friends that will never get any worse. Of course, there are other things said that are serious. Like bluntly harassing someone over nothing;  if no one says anything, it could get worse.

Close to 300 teenagers commit suicide over cyberbullying a year. Things that could easily have been stopped, but never where. So I am challenging you to be an up-stander instead of a bystander. Stand up for them, don't let something escalate to violence!

Along the same matter, we used an amazing program called WeVideo. We used it to make videos encouraging people to be up-standers, and to de-escalate situations. Mine is below:

I hope you enjoyed the video!

*Photo from here.