Steemit Engagement Challenge S4-W1 | My view on Cyber Bullying - by @goodybest

^{students using their phones in the classroom}

Hello friends! It pleases me to take part in this interesting Steemit engagement challenge contest in this noble community. Bullying has always been in existence, but the internet makes it easy. Even the good kids can be mean because of the faceless power that the screen build-in.

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MY UNDERSTANDING OF CYBERBULLYING:

Cyberbullying: is the use of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram WhatsApp and tiktok, even messaging etc to intentionally send intimidating and threatening messages for someone. Cyberbullying is specifically rampant among teenagers because of advancements in technology.

Introverted people are more likely to be targeted, as well as people who suffer from low self-esteem and those who appeared to be different too.

Being cyber-bullied has a negative effect it can lead to depression, it fosters loneliness, and the worst part of it is that it can lead the victim to commit suicide.

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HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A VICTIM OR A PERPETRATOR OF CYBERBULLYING?

Yes, I've been a victim of cyberbullying before. I was in my late teen Then, when a boy cyberbullied me on Facebook. The boy slide into my DM on the messenger app and asked me out, he started harassing and calling me names when turning down his proposal.
He told me that I'm acting like a semi-god if I were the Virgin Mary. Imagine the insult, he also said that I am being deceived by my ignorant religion. I immediately blocked him At this point.

I felt so bad about the whole scenario, I mean being bullied is not a good experience.

Well I just beat the bully without using my fist, I know he intentionally harassed me to get on my nerves so I didn't respond in kind, you know response can either make things get worse or better so I first of all restrained myself and remain calm I didn't lose my cool because I knew it that by losing cool I'll be handing over my power to the bully, I didn't show my anger that will encourage more bullying so I did not add more fuel on the fire.

What I did in my case was blocking the person who sent me the messages yes this is because I can't be hurt by what I don't read. Another thing which helps me is that I built my self-confidence, before now I focus on my strength instead of my weaknesses this is because like every other bully, cyberbully target on the vulnerable persons.

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HOW SAFE I FEEL ON STEEMIT, AND MY ENCOUNTERED WITH A BULLY ON STEEMIT:

I feel safe on steemit because Steemians are guided by etiquette. But Just like any other social media platform bullying is very possible because bullies are ubiquitous, the good thing is that bullying is rare on steemit.

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I felt bullied on steemit before, this happened some months ago, while I was reviewing posts in one of the communities I'm moderating on, I came across a user whose posts contains 100% plagiarism, so I politely warned the user to desist from the act that if not he will be muted from our community. At a point all his posts in our community contains plagiarism so this time I strictly warned him. below is the screenshot of his response.

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^{Screenshot of our conversation}

Goodness I was boiling inside, I mean he was intentional! but I didn't show my anger, I also did not reply him. I simply muted him in our community and my personal account. This is the only instance I felt bullied on steemit.

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LESSONS I GAINED FROM SUCH A SCENARIO AND ADVICE I CAN GIVE TO AUDIENCE:

One needs to be very selective in his or her choice of friendship on social media because some bad kids or people are widespread in this space.

To always be ready for bullying because it can happen anytime, anywhere.

My advice for anyone who might face cyberbullying is:

• Ignore the bully, this is because sometimes the best response is no response
• resist the urge to retaliate
• don't let yourself be conquered by the bully
• block the person
• tell the Cyberbully to stop.
• send a firm but nonemotional message like stop sending any more messages. if this doesn't stop I'll take it up.
• speak to an adult.

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CONCLUSIONS:

Thank you so much for bringing up an interesting topic like this. I hope someone will learn from my experience, also I will like to advice parents out there to teach their young ones how to be social networking smart, so that they don't fall a prey to this wolves.