The Good Ole Days...

I was talking to a friend the other day, about the current societal "hot topic".  The gay kids who have committed suicide due to being bullied.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's awful and spent a good deal of time watching the "It Get's Better" Project videos.  Bullying in any form is horrible.  Young kids and teens being bullied because of their classmates fears and ignorance is even worse.  I remember being bullied and also bullying people in junior high and some of high school. 

My mom said that she doesn't recall much bullying happening in school.  That yes there were cliques, but the nastiness and the viciousness just wasn't there.  All of this was explained when I was relating my own experiences.  But now?  It's out of control.

With everyone connected via text messages and social network like Facebook, bullying has taken on a whole new meaning.  It's not the same type I experienced and definitely not the same that our parents did.  Hiding behind the anonymity of a computer screen, grants these kids a sort of strength to say things they would never say in real life.  Horrible things.  That same anonymity also allows things like fake profiles to be made to amp up the attacks.  I have seen that personally after mindlessly clicking through Facebook and landing on a friend's, daughter's page(! shouldn't have been able too in the first place).  Apparently one of her classmates had made up a fake profile to attack the girl's posts.  There was also the case of the mother who made up a fake Myspace page and bullied her daughter's classmate.  Resulting in the girl's suicide.  That kinda fucked up goes beyond what this topic is about.

Bullying isn't so much of a trend now as it is simply getting worse.  Everyone has a cell phone, those cell phones have cameras.  Never mind the pictures that are taken knowingly, what about the kids who are passed out or drugged.  Naked pictures of some poor 13 year old who was slipped something.  Makes it's way around the school.  Sooner or later something snaps.  For everyone involved.  Be it the schools who deal with the students and their loss.  The true remorse of students involved.  Or the realization of a psychopath in those who enjoy it all.

This instant access, instant gratification and instantly erased, though never gone, society has spawned a breed of mega monsters who thrive on fear.  Fear that comes from insecurity as we all know.  I was happy to see that Perez Hilton has decided to stop ripping celebrities apart.  I never understood his appeal.  He was the ultimate online bully.  Not anonymous, but most of his backers were.  The people who were participating, the posse behind the bully.  Other sites like TheDirty.com (I will not link to it) that are born out of people like you (well not really like or...) and me, submitting photos of people we know and destroying their character.  Hell even all the stuff on Fox News and the like.  Nothing but fear.