By Megan Deierling — Cyberbullies come in all shapes and sizes, but how are we to know?
Many times cyberbullies create fake accounts saying that they are really tall and buff to scare other people, but in reality they may be a 400-pound short guy who is 50 years old and still lives in his mother’s basement. A real catch if you ask me. Sometimes these cyberbullies have been bullied themselves when they were younger and turn to bullying others to feel better about themselves. They hide behind the computer screen so nobody can see who they really are and reveal their true identity.
Sometimes people who are bullying others online have never met the person they are bullying. This happens most frequently when someone uses a social networking site such as Facebook or Tumblr which is open to many. On Facebook and Tumblr someone can put anything they want on their timelines or dashboards. Cyberbullies see something they do not agree on and decide to make snide, rude comments about how dumb that person is for posting that. In most cases, people bicker and that is the end of that but in other cases, some things are taken to the extreme.
Occasionally there will be that bully who keeps nagging on that post to the person until that person deletes the post to stop hearing all of the negative feedback. At times, bullies become obsessed with everything this person posts. It gets even worse when the bully starts telling that person to kill themselves or the world would be better off without that person.
Many people have issues with depression and have strong suicidal thoughts. If a bully tells that suicidal person to kill themselves, who is to say that person will not?
Nobody should ever tell someone to kill themselves no matter what because everyone deserves the right to live no matter how badly they have lived their lives. It may be hard to ignore what other people say when being ridiculed online, but ignoring the bully is the first step in getting rid of them.
[Updated Aug. 7, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]
