Half of high school students admit they have bullied someone in the last year, and nearly half say they have been bullied. Has bullying become an epidemic? Is bullying out of control? A national study released Tuesday seems to suggest we are headed that way, if we aren't there already.
A survey that was conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles, asked 43,321 high school students about a number of things. Among those questions they asked the teens if they had ever been teased, taunted, or physically abused to the point of being upset by it. A whopping 43% said they had been the target of bullies. More shocking was the 50% that admitted that they were the bully!
"Previous to this, the evidence was bullying really peaks in middle school," Michael Josephson, president of the institute said. Now it seems that the bullying actually gets worse into high school. This may be because of the advent of the internet, which gives teens another avenue to bully someone.
There have recently been a string of high-profile bullying episodes, several of which led the person bullied to commit suicide.
This is a problem that is spiraling out of control. How can we stop it? How did we get to a place where our teens and pre-teens feel powerful enough to push the envelope as bullies to the point where those who are bullied feel hopeless?
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Comments: 9
i'm not so sure about this, nor am i so sure about the group that sponsored the study...
i do believe the entertainment media has a lot to do with, including talk radio and the like...intelligent discourse has been replaced by shock, whether it's in the news, in entertainment, in our popular culture...and i can't help but think that young people see what is accepted in our popular culture and think it's perfectly fine to speak without a filter...
i know i'm being vague...but bryce, it was even your use of the word epidemic that caught my eye...you were reaching for sensationalism--i'm not sure why and i guess it's suited for the blogosphere, but i don't think it really adds anything...
your humble reader...
As for your other assertions about pop culture... I believe you are spot on! Snooki gets in a fight.... show it to the world. "Real Housewives of wherever" get in a cat fight, show it everywhere. It is even acceptable for Miley Cyrus to backtalk to her father on Hannah Montana.
This idea that people are allowed to speak "without a filter" being acceptable has spilled into the political arena. People believe that they can insult anyone and everyone because they are protected by "free speech."
The issues here are huge!
but we're def on the same page when it comes to the pop culture thing...and i'm not sure what to do about it...personally, i haven't owned a television for about six years now...as the advice goes: i just shut it off...but one person turning his back on things isn't the answer...i did it for my sanity...
Kids have bullied forever, but that it has gotten to the point where half of the kids feel bullied and then they use things like YouTube and Facebook to blast it all over cyberspace, things have become pretty sad.
interesting point about digital world: youtube, facebook, et al...the digital world has radically changed the level that something can be promoted or spread...simply look at you and me chatting about this right now...you're in oklahoma and i'm sitting in the library at boston university...i write something, hit submit...then i hear a ping and there's your reply....incredible the good--and the bad--that it can do...