I constantly hear people talking about how bad bullying is today. I understand that it is bad. I also understand that the added dynamic of social media causing a higher level of public exposure and “shaming” may give the perception that it is worse than in the past. Probably the main reason that people perceive that bullying is worse now than in the past is the reaction of some of those being bullied. We hear of some of the extreme reactions that include, in the extremes, suicides.
I have no scientific proof to support me but I think a great deal of the so-called worsening of bullying is due to modern perceptions and reactions. Parents are not socially preparing the children and the children and not mature enough to deal with bullying. Society, both parents and school systems, do not allow children to realistically deal with bullying either. Admittedly the bullies have the added tool of the social media that makes bullying spreading far and wide as well as allowing for more people to pile on. But I do not see it as any worse than before.
Take a couple of examples in my own world. My father was bullied by another student when he was twelve. It went so far as the other boy pulled a knife an cut him in the belly. My father used a milk bottle and beat the hell out of him. Now roll forward to a more sedate time. I move to a new town and I my clothes were funny to them. Specifically, I was wearing carpenter pants in a time period where carpenter pants were definitely not fashion. One of my new classmates called me ‘Elmo Farnsworth”. Where that came from, I do not know. I do not know if he knew. Before the week was out, I was being teased by everyone. I had a lot of choices. What did I do? I embraced the name and rocked with it. I decided not to give anyone the satisfaction of bullying me. By the end of my years there, most people had forgotten how I got the nickname.
In short: parents should work to make their precious little ones mature enough to live in the real world; children should “suck it up buttercup”. The world does not rotate around your butt. Bullying can be vicious but unless it gets physical, do not let it get to you.
