Cyber Bullying

picture  courtesy of google.com

Last night we watched a movie on cyber-bullying. This movie really shows how true your friends are and who will be there for you in the end. This movie taught me that when people are jealous of you, they'll make up things about you and not just outside people but sometimes even your own friends. Watching cyber bully also taught me to be mindful about the people you talk to because sometimes people make fake pages and you begin to think you all are developing a friendship just like Taylor thought that James was real and that he was really her friend so she began to confided in him not knowing that all along it was one of her "best friends" who made up a fake page. To find out that one of Taylor's friends made up a fake page and then started nasty rumors about her really disgusted me because friends just don't do that especially "REAL" friends. That situation should show the true value of friendship and it seems to me that Taylor really valued her friendship with her friends but in some way they didn't feel the same. Over all I learned that cyber-bullying is something that destroys lives and it can be very addictive to the victim.

Antwone Fisher

picture courtesy of google.com

Last night we watched a movie called Antwone Fisher. It was about an African-American male who had been abandoned as a child by his parents. His father was shot and killed and his mother was in prison; where he was born. Ever since Fisher was a child, he was bullied. The bullying started when he was a child in his foster home. 

In that home Fisher had 2 foster brothers, his foster parents Mr. and Mrs. Tate and a foster cousin. Fisher was mainly bullied by Mrs. Tate and his foster cousin, they tortured him by beating him, calling him the "N" word and his cousin made him please her in sexual ways. One day Fisher got tired of all of this and ran away to Jessy's house, Jessy was Fisher's best friend and the only one he could count on. When Fisher got older he decided to go into the United States Navy and even there, he was bullied. Because Fisher was bullied so much in the Navy he was always in trouble for fighting. In result of him fighting so much he had to start seeing a psychologist. 

Denzel Washington played the psychologist in this movie. During the first few sessions, Fisher refused to talk but eventually he opened up and began to express all of the anger and hurt he was feeling inside. After talking with the doctor for a couple of weeks, Fisher began to develop a relationship with him and that made him want to open up to the doctor even more. The doctor encouraged Fisher to go find his real family, even though his father was dead. When he went back home, he had the wonderful opportunity of finding his aunts, uncles, and a host of cousins. They all welcomed Fisher with open arms and warm smiles. Even though Fisher's father was dead he still found people who wanted him and who loved him which is what he had been missing all of his life. 

In the end Fisher never developed a relationship with his mother but he did go see her and expressed his feelings to her, even though she didn't have words to say to him you could see the hurt and pain in her face. I think Fisher meeting his family brought closure to his life. It seems as if he was missing that piece all along but all he really wanted to know was that someone cared that he existed and I think he found that after meeting his father's side of the family.

How Does Bullying Promote Suicide?

People often use the phrase “sticks and stones may brake my bones but words will never hurt me” this phrase is not true, in fact words not only destroy people mentally but it destroys lives and sometimes ends them. Bullying leads to suicide. Suicide is a death by a self-inflicted injury under circumstances in which the individual intended or should have reasonably expected that this injury would result in his or her death. Bullying is the ongoing physical or emotional victimization of a person by another person or a group of people. A new type of bullying is emerging which is known as cyber bullying. According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center cyber bullying is a new way of communication through social media and texting to harass and cause emotional harm to their victims.
A major problem among youth in the US  is suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth ages 12– 18 reported being bullied (Dinkes, Kemp, & Baum, 2009). Of these students 21 percent said to be bullied once or twice a month, 10 percent said to be once or twice a week, 7 percent said to be bullied daily and nearly 9 percent said to be physically injured as a result of bullying. Both victims and perpetrators of bullying are at a high risk of suicide, children who are both victims and perpetrators are at the highest risk according to (Kim & Leventhal, 2008; Hay & Meldrum, 2010; Kaminski & Fang, 2009). As you can see bullying does more than what the eye can see. It’s time to stand up and stop bullying  because not only does it destroy lives but it causes more to be lost rather than saved.