Most vulnerable populations most likely to be cyberbullied

By Bekah

Women and young teens are more likely to get attacked and bullied online for several of reasons. First of all, women tend to sexually put themselves on social media. They are also very hungry for drama and are usually on more social media sites than men are. Although, I can’t completely put all the blame on men for being a predator, because women are just as much a threat to one another.  

Being a high school student and being on all the social media accounts I see how brutally mean some girls can be to other girls, even if they don't even post about them. They do this so they can look “petty” or so they seem cool to other people, however from my perspective it isn't cool at all. The constant question we are always asking is after years, and years of protesting for women’s rights, why tear each other down and bully one another? It's so crazy to me how girls forget that we were once so disrespected, why would we even want to put ourselves in this position again, it's starting a new rise of sexism.

Sexism had a huge part in American Society until 1920 when the 19th amendment passed and women had political rights. However this wasn't the end of sexism. Men still did and do feel like they hold a higher power over women. This causes them to think it's okay to say or post whatever they feel because we are somehow beneath them. We are now seeing a new rise of sexism evolving due to the new election and is going to cause so many new problems with cyber bullying and normal bullying.

This also shows that just because a female decided to post a semi revealing picture of themselves, it doesn’t give anyone the right to bully them on that social media account. Many comments or harassment usually come from an anonymous troll. I think that because they don’t show their identity they feel like they they have the right to say whatever they like. Then they also feel like they can get away with more things when nobody knows who they are.

Trolls don’t just cyberbully women, but they can also sexually harass people very easily because nobody knows who they are. Many people think “freedom of speech” gives them the ability to speak and say as they choose. That is not true, they have the right as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others. Women are easily targeted because they also like attention, when it becomes more hurtful, they get more offended. That is when they realize, “posting that picture was probably a bad idea.”

Trust is a huge factor in young adult and teenage cyber bullying. You think you can trust some friends with something you say, or you approach a friend online and have a sexual conversation, trusting that they won’t say anything. This is how drama starts along with 15% of harassment towards females, according to the Pew Research Center. The text message starts with two people and from there the other person shares it, and the message gets passed around from people to people. Mainly in girl cliques does this happen because girls, like to talk to each other and judge how a conversation went, or what people look like in a picture.

In this generation, we are having to become more accepting to the new things that are  happening. Coming out of the closet is almost like a normal thing now, but 10 years ago it would have been crazy and not normal whatsoever. Some people aren't used to that and that's why they start trolling, they want it to go back to how it was before. Trolling may be there way of trying to change people and put them down so they won't want to express themselves. What trollers don't know is that what they say and do causes a lot of hate in this society. If women would not only stand up for themselves but also spread a word when they feel attacked, I think the percentage of women getting cyberbullied would decrease and much more people would be happier.