The Online Bullying Phenomena
In my office more and more I am seeing people in their early 20’s to 30’s who are suffering with a lack of self esteem, low confidence and yes even depression caused by being bullied on line. This is usually done via email, text or social media (Twitter and Facebook particularly).
It would appear that the perception is that people who engage in this are somehow invulnerable because they are doing this from the comfort of their own home or even their favourite coffee shop. However, the damage caused by this is considerable. I would like you to consider the following, text has no tone. What I mean is that as you read this post, you have attributed a voice and tone to is as you process is. As this is a fairly inaquouse post, I am sure that the tone and voice are fairly neutral.
However, imaging what it would be like if the posting was filled with hate language. Clearly the voice and tone in your head would take on a new meaning. This is what makes the online aspect of bullying so awful. What we hear in our head, is often far worse than what you hear in the outside world. Therefore the words have more potency, even if that was not the intended result. My advice is that if you have something to say to a person, good or bad, say it to their face then at least dialogue can begin and no one needs to feel disempowered.
