A new twist on the oldest hobby…

In 2013 “Timmy, give me your lunch money or I am going to beat you up” is now at the 3.0 level.  Students today engage in so many different forms of bullying that I wonder how “I” made it through adolescence. Several articles mention the psychological, sociological and other logical reasonings behind bullying but the fact is obvious, like everything else, technology has made more transparent behavior that has always existed. The real problem is not in the transparency but the ease in which technology facilitates bullying and other degrading interpersonal behaviors in our society. To compound this, familiarity and ease have led to not only a dismissal of what was previous quite noticeable bullying, and coupled with the “attention” factor, a tidal wave of intended behavior seeking to bring attention back to the perpetrator.
What really scares me, however,  is not the increase in bullying facilitated onto others, but that in some cultures I have recently become familiar with, the bullied is not a victim, but a person who is perceived to be lacking in social skills and/or life skills who by not fitting in is really the cause of the bullying, thus, a warranted victim. This truly upsets me because the whole notion of technology being a cause or reflection of current society’s increasing apathy towards our fellow citizens really is challenged by deeper underlying cultural tendencies.
Clearly, this problem feels like a tsunami. Maybe we can’t stop it but a better warning system can save some of us.