Bullying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Bullying - Essay Example All of this came about because of one simple thing: I was teased. The experience of being bullied, even though it was not very intense, had a profound effect on my life after that point. Indeed, bullying is one of the most devastating social experiences many children, teens, and young adults face across the world today. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, fully half of all children in public school systems will experience some sort of bullying at some point in their lives. This bullying can range from verbal teasing, as I experienced, to much more vicious physical and emotional abuse that can have a serious impact on the victim’s mental and physical well-being. Bullying during a child’s teenage years can take a heavy toll, and lead to depression, drug use, and stunted social development well into that person’s adult life. In severe cases, the victim may even commit suicide. As technology advances and more people become users of social media websites such as Facebook or MySpace, a new type of bullying has emerged. This is cyber-bullying, the use of virtual tools or places to insult and degrade a victim instead of doing it in person. This can be as simple as a text message, or as complicated as creating a fake social network account and making the victim believe you are their friend, before cruelly insulting them and utterly destroying their faith in other human beings. This was the case with Megan Meier, who hanged herself after the mother of one of her friends created a fake account and pretend to be a boy she liked, only to constantly insult her and tell her she was worthless. Clearly, then, bullying of all sorts is a serious problem. It is not only a problem I myself has experienced, but one which affects communities the world over. It is also a problem which communities need to tackle as communities, and not as individuals. There are several ways