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For A Safer Internet
This CHAPTER has taken me very long to finish, but now I am finally happy to announce the departure from ONLINE. In these articles as well as the complimentary YouTube videos since my transfer to long-form content, we have discussed cyberbullying and online abuse from multiple perspectives and points of view. Most of them have had at least one thing in common: they’ve all been more or less negative, focusing on all the terrible stuff that happens in the online world. Granted, we wouldn’t be talking about cyberbullying if we didn’t address all the horrible ways it has traumatized and even killed its victims, but for the last note of this CHAPTER, I wanted to talk about the positives. Because at the end of the day, if we can’t make things better for everyone who uses the Internet—especially children—that what really is the point in even talking about it? Focusing solely on the negatives is a perfect method of making yourself feel like there is no hope for a better future, and that is something we simply cannot have when it comes to anti-bullying labor.
“Sometimes, Bullying Is Okay”
The Internet is a fascinating place: it’s where nuance goes to die, and black-and-white thinking is celebrated like the second coming of Christ. It is the perfect breeding ground for polarized thinking that is inherently dangerous, no matter what end of the spectrum you happen to be on. One of the ways this pandemic of lack of nuance is affecting us in the online world is how we fight to justify abuse of any kind by coming up with roundabout arguments that very often have something to do with what kind of person the target of the abusive behavior happens to be. There is one very topical example of this phenomenon that I decided to make commentary on around two weeks ago, and it continues to be the point of reference for this article as well.
The normalized usage of generative AI programs.
Anti-Bullying Effort
Over the years, my frustration toward anti-bullying labor as we know it has grown stronger and stronger. After indulging myself in a lot of academic reading on bullying as a form of abuse and the multitude of tactics meant to help resolving abuse situations, I have become very aware of the lackluster state of what we call anti-bullying. Having the knowledge on a theoretical level has helped me understand the way I was neglected to hell and back as a Kid, especially by adults who were supposed to be there to protect me where most of the abuse was happening.
Teachers in schools.
Spread Kindness ♡
I have a complicated relationship with anti-bullying labor. On one hand, I appreciate any effort that is taken to protect kids from being abused and ending up in a situation where I’m in right now; but on the other hand, the vast majority of anti-bullying activism only frustrates me in its insufficiency to actually achieve anything. It relies heavily on campaigns whose sole reason for existing is to offer a counteraction to abuse.