Final Project

“Cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, cell phones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person. This information can be in the form of text, photos, or videos” (Cyberbullying). For examples: spreading someone’s private information online or insulting others by posting comments are types of cyberbullying. Some people want to attract attention by being cyberbullied, they use it as a tool to sensationalize, but most of them end up with becoming the victims of cyberbullying. People who cyberbully others never realized how much it will hurt. So we have to stop cyberbullying even though some of the victims use it as a tool to attract attention.

  Here is the first example that someone wants to attract attention by being cyberbullied. There is lady called Feng who gained all people’s attention in the year 2009 and she is still a hot topic nowadays. Her name is Yufeng Luo and people called her Sister Feng. “She posted her excessive requirement for a marriageable boyfriend on a social website. She specified that such boyfriend must be elite with a degree in economics who graduates from Peking University (the NO.1 University in China) and must also be 6’0 tall and good looking. But meanwhile, she was working as a cashier in a Walmart in Shanghai even though she claimed that she works for a Fortune 500 company.” (Yufeng Luo) After her arrogant posts, 3 million people followed her on a social network called Weibo (The Chinese version of Twitter). And here is a hilarious post from her “I am absolutely clever than Einstein's, I know that guy, he is the one that invented the light bulb." (Luo Weibo) All of her followers reply evil and harsh comments to her and she has become the most popular "star" on the Internet and has been published in the magazine people. After she became famous she joined a talent show in China. During her performance, there was a guy throwing eggs toward her and insulted her in front of the audiences but she did nothing about that and she said she is happy that she can become famous.  In order to gain more celebrity, she accepted an interview which hosted by a famous talk show star named Chai Jing. In the interview Chai asked her:”Do you know that there’re many people call you stupid and insult you online?” Feng: “Yes, I know. But it brings me a lot of attention. I don’t care what they say.“ Chai: “Now no matter where you go there are a lot of people who want to take a photo with you, do you feel like star? “Feng: “I know I should be modest but the answer is yes.” (Chai)

  A girl like her is too ordinary to be in the spotlight in real life, so when she was cyberbullied, she thought she could use it as a tool to bring people's attention. I think using this method to attract people’s attention is pathetic and not dignified. Because when people talked about her they will only show their disgust.

  Here is another example that some people want to attract attention by being cyberbullied.  There is a guy who is famous for mean and harsh comments on the Weibo and he calls himself Handy Man. Handy Man always gives negative sores and mean comments. But people especially teenagers still tag him and want to be given scores about their self-portraits even though they know they will be insulted. They think it as a fun and popular thing to get score from Handy Man. This guy is a mystery that no one knows his real name, job or background, so he can say whatever he wants anonymously. He got 3 million followers in the past three months. I don't know since when people are obsessed with him and getting a comment from him is becoming an entertainment. Even celebrities are following him and social networks approve of this kind of behavior. This is an American student who went to college in China. She tagged Handy Man and wanted him to give her score. Here is what the guy said about her:” You look too simple and sometimes naive. But deep down you are too slutty and sometimes evil. What a bitch that sleeps with everyone! Negative scores, fuck off!” (Handy Man) This comment is so mean and may hurt that girl. But it seems like nobody cares about that girl. They laughed at her and even reposted it.

  Many of those people who tagged him didn’t realize they may be unable to take the consequence. One of my friends got negative scores and mean comments from Handy Man a week ago. She first thought that was funny but after some people reposted it and called her ugly, she began to feel bad and regretful. So we have to think twice before we write online because there is no eraser on the internet. Maybe we can delete things but it will always leave a track. And because the rapid speed of the internet people can see posts just in a minute and spread insanely fast.

   But is it okay to cyberbully others online because people can be anonymous? Cyber bullying is a common phenomenon that exists on Face book, Twitter, and every social network. People cyberbully others because they feel unrestricted on the Internet and they think they can say whatever they want. Most of them never realized that some people would get badly hurt by cyberbullied. We should be aware that if we do nothing about cyber bullying we are actually helping it.

  To stop cyberbullying, we have to be aware that people will get hurt by being cyberbullied. Most of the teenagers didn’t realize what consequence would come after cyberbullying others because they did that just for fun. We also need to stop reposting the pictures or comments which will embarrass other people.

  Being an audience is not innocent. Watching someone being cyberbullied and laughing at him is also a type of cyberbullying. Some people like to watch others being laughed and gossip with their friends. To be honest, I was one of them. I thought Handy Man is humorous when I first saw him made fun of those people who wanted scores. And then I showed those comments to my friends and took them as jokes. I didn’t mean to hurt those people. I laughed because I thought those comments are so funny. But then after I heard my friend got hurt by being cyberbullied, I began to feel ashamed about myself. Even thought I didn’t reposted or insulted the victims, I still laughed about them and approve people to cyberbullying them without me realizing.

  Doing nothing is actually helping. So we have to stop being an audience. Next time when we see some posts and pictures which are tended to insult people we should click the button “report”. In this way, we can stop cyberbullying with our actual movement instead of just talking about it. Social network is like a global stage and everyone is watching it. Let’s stop cyberbullying and start caring about other people and protecting them.