A Union Maverick: A Call to Prevent Cyber Bullying

As a Marketing Intern for Union Colony Insurance, my job involves me working on the computer and social media every day. I am now very aware of what happens on these platforms.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote how technology can be like the wild west of the digital age. And as the wild west has its number of outlaws and ‘bad guys’, the digital wild west can be similar.

The unfortunate matter is cyber bullying is a very real issue and cyber bullies have become some of the worst outlaws for the digital world. It is an issue not to sweep under the rug and pretend it is not there. But ignoring the issue is very easy to do because it can be very easy to separate the digital world from the ‘real world.’

I was interviewed by the local news station in Eugene, OR while I was working at the University of Oregon about cyber bullying. At the time I was aware of cyber bullying but not knowledgeable of the full consequences of it. But now I am a marketer using social media and blogs as a primary platform and I see firsthand that social media can be used to either build people and a community up or to tear them down. It is not separate from the ‘real world’ and if posted on social media, many people will see. I believe this is an issue to be aware of.   

From TeenSafe.com, approximately 34% of teenagers experience cyber bullying; 30% of victims turn to self-harming coping behaviors; and 7% of victims in turn bully others as a result of their hurt from bullying.

The more we bring it to the light and educate our children and ourselves on the issue, the more we can resolve and battle the matter.

Here is a fact sheet from CyberBullying.org on how to prevent Cyber Bullying.

Update (9/1/16): 

I noticed that our previous marketing intern, Heather, also wrote about Cyber Bullying. It is an important topic to be aware of. Read what she had to say about it here:
6 Steps to Preventing Cyber Bullying