Purpose: To persuade the audience to stand up against cyberbullying.
Thesis statement: Nobody should suffer the indignity of cyberbullying
- Introduction
- Attention Getter: Did you know that nine out ten middle school kids get hurt over the internet? Out of those, one out of four has their feelings hurt in more than one instance. Did you know that there has been an increased inclination towards suicide due to cyberbullying? All this is happening, yet it is not limited to children of a particular age; they are all susceptible (Schwartz 13).
- Tie to the audience: Information Technology has, needless to say, taken over every phase of our lives. There are very many positive effects that can be accrued therein. For instance, economies have been greatly improved with the world being reduced to a global village. This improved performance is just one of the many good things we have reaped from Information Technology and essentially, the internet. On the other hand, a lot happens over the internet that is not morally right. One of this being cyberbullying (Byers 20). This refers to the art of using Information Technology to intentionally cause harm to others.
- Thesis and Preview
Transition: My speech today is on cyberbullying and I am against it. This vice should be put to a stop as it only works to make others feel like lesser beings.
- Body
- What it involves: Being a human being comes with the natural need of dignity. One desires to be respected by others. Lack of this has been shown to cause individuals to live in a manner that suggests they would rather be dead.
- A quality life involves input from various parties in society. As such, if negative energy is input into the system, the natural result is reduced desire to live; subtly referred to as increased suicidal feelings (Freidman 21).
- Cyberbullying involves posting gossips and rumours about an individual with the sole purpose of causing others to hate them, defaming them or just plain humiliation.
- Comparison with traditional bullying: This is quite different from traditional bullying whose effects are minimized by the “space” within which the bullying takes place.
- Cyberbullying takes advantage of the superfast information highway. It is common knowledge that with modernity, a single clip could go viral in a matter of seconds. This depravity is especially cemented by the availability of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that almost everyone now owns.
- Another difference of this “cancerous” behaviour with traditional bullying is that those perpetuating it may remain completely anonymous (Gerdes 22).
- This evil act may be done through the use of cell phone text messaging, temporary email accounts, instant messaging programs, pseudonyms in chat rooms and other venues through which they can mask their identity.
- This single fact makes it all scary for the victims as they are not even sure how far or close their attackers are. It also makes it easier for the bullies to get away with their actions than a traditional bully would. Given most of them are sadists, they will enjoy causing continuous harm to the victim, regardless of their age.
- The flipside: Possibly, one may avoid certain sites once they realise they are being attacked from there. Nonetheless, where posting of content is involved, there is no way one can control who downloads it and essentially how many people access it.
- The most popular content among cyberbullies is nude photos where they paste victim’s faces on nude bodies (Jacobs 20). They also specialise in creating defaming captions on their victims pictures and once such an image is out there; there is no way to stop it.
- Given the increase in the number of cyberbullying cases, a cry has been raised to have the issue made known to the public. It is interesting to note that there are individuals who do not even realise such a vice exists (Kowalski and Limber 22).
- With such ignorance, it becomes a daunting task to bring it to an end. I mean, where do you start bringing something you do not even know about to an end? Parents, teachers and the general public have, therefore, been continually informed about the reality on the ground with the hope that change will be achieved. The suicide case of Tyler Clementi made more people aware of the demon within and what it continually causes among teenagers.
- The case study: Tyler Clementi was your regular teenager: playing the violin, using Facebook and Twitter, and everything else teenagers involve themselves in including their studies. However, he was gay.
- His roommate found him to be weird and was clearly not impressed by having a gay roommate. It made him curious and recorded Tyler’s involvement with his male friend. Most of the times, together with his friends, the roommate watched them in action through iTunes. Tyler later discovered the actions and expressed his concern via email and text messaging to various parties.
- He finally threw himself down the George Washington Bridge. He may have been gay (different) but this does not justify the act in any way (Byers 3). This is one of the cases on how extreme cyberbullying can get and, therefore, the need to treat the matter with the urgency it so deserves.
- Legislation: Various legislation have been put into place by governments the world over. This is in a bid to control the situation and hopefully, eliminate it. Nonetheless, it is not as easy as one may hope. This is especially because most of the teenagers who are bullied rarely share it with others. This is especially true for a generation that believes that all their solutions are found behind the screen. They continue suffering in silence, and this eventually causes them to fall apart; even literary (Parks 32). This makes it everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to achieve a common vision. Around 45 states in the US have passed regulations against digital bullying. This is in line with the increased number of cases of victims of the same, at least according to various researches done.
- Conclusion
- Transition/Brakelight: In conclusion, cyberbullying is real, and the truth of the matter is that it is more rampant than we can imagine given most victims barely speak out. As such, there is a need to do everything possible to fight this vice that is slowly, but steadily crippling our society.
- Summary: There are many dynamics involved in this art, and it would only be just to ensure one takes it upon themselves to be the change we so much desire. Even with increased legislation, there is still much more that needs to be done (Raatma 38).
- Tie to the audience: It may not be easy especially with the ever improving technology, but it is possible once everyone plays their role. Parents should reserve more time for their children, as opposed to relying on teachers to develop their children for them.
- Concluding Remarks: This will give children (teenagers) an opportunity to open up about their online experiences. This will go a long way in preventing cases such as suicide due to cyberbullying.
Works Cited
Byers, David S.. "“Do They See Nothing Wrong With This?”: Bullying, Bystander Complicity, and the Role of Homophobic Bias in the Tyler Clementi Case." Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services 94.4 (2013): 251-258. Print.
Freidman, Lauri S.. Cyberbullying. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Print.
Gerdes, Louise I.. Cyberbullying. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Print.
Jacobs, Thomas A.. Teen cyberbullying investigated: where do your rights end and
consequences begin?. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub., 2010. Print.
Kowalski, Robin M., and Sue Limber. Cyberbullying: bullying in the digital age. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.
Parks, Peggy J.. Cyberbullying. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint Press, 2013. Print.
Raatma, Lucia. Cyberbullying. Danbury, Conn.: Children's Press, 2013. Print.
Schwartz, Heather E.. Cyberbullying. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2013. Print.
