Blog 8: The Net Is The Real World

      Tyler Clementi took his life away because two students, one of them was his roomate, Dharun Ravi, recorded something that should have been kept private. Dharu Ravi and Molly Wei invaded tyler's personal space by activating a Webcam in his dormroom. Cyberbullying is common in our society, and with the technology and access to internet, even from a cellphone, it's easy to record something and later expose it to the world's eyes. The cause for some cases of suicide and mental health problems could be prevented, if we just knew how not to abuse the access to internet.       John Suler wrote in his online book that people are capable of many things using internet, that would never do in real world. Disinhibition ia an online bullying, which a lot of people are exposed to everyday. If people would stay out of other's lives, there would be no boys like Tyler, jumping off the bridge.
      Some websites, like YouTube, have filters to prevent wrong videos from being revealed. But we have cameras, cellphones and bluetooths, which can come in handy for some cyberbullies. I know a story similar to Tyler's, but there was no suicide, yet. It was in high school, when my friend had a crush on a guy from my class. She was a freshman and we were juniors, he was 2 years older thatn her. He didn't really like her, but his guy-friends asked him to keep flirting with her. One day, they had a bet, to ask her for a naked picture of herself, stupid girl, she took that photo. Next thing I know, I get a text message with her face and breasts on my screen. I was the outcast and I still got the picture, that means, the entire school saw it. From everyone's phones, some how the picture ended up on Facebook and the girl had no life.  She dropped out of high school, and from what her Mom sais, she's in North Carolina, in a mental hospital.
      People affected by cyberbullying don't always commit suicide, some of us are mentaly stronger than others. It doesn't change the fact that invading someone's privacy won't hurt them in some way. It ended bad for Tyler and it wasn't that great for my friend, either. Stopping our urge to mess up someone's life by awefull pictures or videos being posted online can really make a change.