HOW SOCIAL MEDIA BORDERS ON BULLYING by Linda Lauren

I like Jimmy Kimmel, but I don’t care for his segment called Mean Tweets. I thought the delivery by the celebrities of the  tweets from insulting fans was humorous in delivery,  but really sad that people think its ok to insult others via social media. People like Christina Applegate and Dr. Phil were able to poke fun at themselves with these tweets. But what kind of message are we sending when we make light of words that are meant to be mean and hateful? Last time I checked that was called BULLYING. Seems no one is exempt even when they think they are.

What ever happened to that friendly “front porch” of kind people and helpful information? Slowly, I have seen Facebook and Twitter take a subtle turn and become places for people to bully while safely hiding behind the keyboard. It doesn’t matter whether or not they are doing so to celebrities or anyone else, it’s still bullying. And all these social media platforms have done is to encourage that behavior and I’m not a fan, even if it’s frivolous. Do you honestly think that all those mean posts and tweets that are typed, LIKED or Commented on all over social media don’t enrage people,  with and without guns?

You don’t have to have a gun to kill a person, whether that is their spirit, their mind or their body. Words can kill people, too, and it’s the kind of death that is slow, deliberate, and painful. We are responsible for our actions when we use words as a weapon and it makes us no different than the person with the gun. But, we are all contributing to what happens that is negative in our world. That contribution appears in our status as rage on the pages of social media and it helps to  perpetuate angry energy that lead people to hurting others or to kill in cold blood.

Let’s go one step further, and see how you might be responsible for what I’m talking about in my blog today. If you have ever posted a picture of an animal that needs help, a sick child, a  situation or words that dared someone to share, click, like in order to say they are actually in favor, that would be a form of bullying. A person proves they care by the action they actually take, not the pictures and links they click on. Intention is nothing without action.

And I  wake up to this every single morning on Facebook and Twitter. I am totally sick of it and I find it depressing to visit.  I can’t hide much of my stream any longer or I won’t have a stream. And I know a lot of you are doing the same thing because you can’t take it either, so please stop buying into the rage and threatening people to agree with you.   I really wish that the people in this world set a better example for each other.

Good behavior is still very funny believe it or not. And it also does encourages more of the same.