Bullying in Second Life Part 2- Nomad Aries Reporting…

This is the second part of my article on bullying. In part one I discussed the types of bullying you may encounter on Second Life as well as real life. 

There are many misconceptions about why some people turn into bullies. It is often said these are people with low self esteem and are loners. In studies done on bullying and bullies , this does not prove to be true. So what makes a bully a bully? 

Who is a Bully?
Bullies do not suffer from low self esteem as popularly believed. In a 2001 study (Baumeister) , it was discovered that bullies have extremely high self esteem. Although their esteem is high , it is pathologically high and unstable. If a bully feels slighted or insulted, the ego causes extreme negative feelings which the bully cannot tolerate. According to a later study from the University of South Dakota,( 2012 ), bullies lack function in an area of the brain that deals with moderating mood and emotions. For some reason yet to be discovered, bullies have low to no function of this area of the brain, it is thought that not being properly socialized at an early age prevents this part of the brain from functioning. This causes the bully to lash out at people in defense to preserve their feeling of superiority and control . Bullies have thought processes that differ from most people. 

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BULLYING IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF SECOND LIFE Part 1- Nomad Aries Reporting…

It is an unfortunate side of human nature that we are exposed to bullying. 

While most of us grow out of this phase as children, some people remain aggressive in real life and in the virtual world. It is also a known fact that bullying is a learned trait. Although bullying is not permitted here a lot of it does go unreported. The reasons for not reporting bullying may be because there is confusion, fear, shame, doubt and ignorance regarding what happened. Some people may be unaware they are being bullied or feel there is no recourse or assistance available to remedy their situation. In some cases people may simply not know what to do when they run into a bully. 

Have you been bullied by someone on SL? This may be difficult to discern if we are not sure exactly what bullying entails, especially when it applies to the virtual world. In real life, I have run anti-bullying workshops for school children. I found that children were not always aware of exactly what bullying consists of. When it was explained to them they quickly identified situations where they had indeed encountered a bully. I am going to take a similar approach in this article and explain the types of bullying one may experience on Second Life. The examples I present will be taken from actual experiences from some avies on Second Life, including my own personal run-ins with bullies. You may have had similar experiences or you may not have run into bullying yet. I hope you can gain some knowledge on when someone is bullying you and what to do to save yourself from this down side to human nature. I will present a further article on what you can do specifically to stop being bullied on Second Life. In this article I wish to outline the types of bullying and how to identify they type of bullying you may have experienced. 

What is Bullying?

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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.

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