3 ms·
it sounds like you just don't know what it's like to be bullied. it's not just about the verbal knowledge that tomorrow at school you'll be hit. it's the viscer
by exe34 2y ago
it sounds like you just don't know what it's like to be bullied. it's not just about the verbal knowledge that tomorrow at school you'll be hit. it's the visceral anxiety that tomorrow at school you will be hit. without social media, you can try to block it out of your mind and pretend it's not happening. with social media, I assume, you are constantly reminded of what's happening, because now the bully can reach out to you and directly remind you.
the reason I said assume there is because I went to school before social media - but my biggest bully was my dad, so it was impossible to completely escape the bullying. in fact I loved going to school, because those bullies I could handle. I gave them as much grief as I took. but the one at home I was stuck with, because he controlled all my movements and time with people outside school hours.
I expect cyberbullying isn't very different, traumatically speaking.
- delusional 2y agoI think you hit the nail on the head with your distinction between knowledge and anxiety, although I think you over specify it a littls when you say _verbal_ knowledge. The same exact thing is true for _textual_ threats. At least for me, the physical aspects of bullying never mattered much. As you say, you can simply punch back. What mattered to me was the excluding otherness I felt never getting to be part of the collective. I still struggle with that. Ironically, social media sort of helped me there. Forums led me to people who would accept me. I played games with people, I could chat with them, they were willing to accept me.
- exe34 2y ago> _verbal_ knowledge. The same exact thing is true for _textual_ threats. I meant it in the sense of "relating to or in the form of words", so we're in agreement!