Bullying and Trolling: Not Cool

Picture this:


Identify the bully

A group of children play together on a schoolyard at recess.  One child, the "bully" teases another little boy because the child is much smaller than him.  The little boy stutters so he tries to not speak much so that he won't be teased.  The other kids laugh, which reinforces the bully's behavior, and he goes on to tease the child daily to the amusement of others.  The little boy begins to cry and the bully yells "Wh-wh-what's wrong buh-buh-buh-baby?!" The other kids laugh harder and the boy cries more.  It's hard to picture this, but this happens every day.  Children are teased because they are too tall, too skinny, too fat, too poor, too different.

Now, picture this instead:


Cat bullying dog

The same group of children play together at recess.  The bully approaches the small child and begins to taunt him for his speech impediment.  A little girl comes over and puts her arm around the small boy's shoulder and says, "it's okay how you talk.  Let's go play over here."  They walk away and play with the other children.  The bully is left all alone.  The next day the bully approaches the small boy again. "Duh-duh-duh-don't you lu-lu-look stupid today?" Another boy walks over and asks the little boy if he wants to go play on the swings.  The bully is left all alone again.

That's a much happier image, right?!

Which behavior encourages the bully to keep bullying, and what makes him stop?  If the other children ignore the bully, or stand up for the children being bullied, I believe that the bully may begin to stop being mean so that he can play with the other children.  Obviously, sometimes there's more to it than that.  Perhaps verbal abuse at home teaching the child that bullying is okay? Or there's a deeper psychological issue? But sometimes it's just a cry for attention - and they want attention so badly they'll be mean to others to get it. Which is why it's important for parents to teach their children to be proactive.  Encouraging a bully isn't as bad as being a bully, but you can help put a stop to bullying by standing up for others.

Trolling on the Internet

I think a lot of children don't "grow out of" this behavior.  I'd like to believe a person potentially


Kittens bullying dog

could, but then I open up ANY article (on any subject) on the Internet, and likely find someone posting mean comments at the bottom.  Followed by a dozen replies.  Finally the comments turn into this hateful, racist, back and forth slew of replies. The subject of the article is no longer even the topic of comments.  Often they go to attacks on religious or political beliefs.
There are just too many of these Internet bullies "trolling" the Internet to believe that ignoring them will make it stop.  It will never stop, there will always be someone looking to start a fight for no reason. But responding is what they want and every person has control over their response (or lack of response).  They want to get your attention.  Your reply is like the laughter of the other children, egging on the bully, except that s/he is laughing at you.  If you ignore these comments, you'll likely forget about them all together, and go about enjoying your day. Find someone you agree with instead, and compliment them for sharing their thoughts.  Reward the kind-hearted people, not the evil ones. I promise it'll make you feel better inside than fighting with someone else.

Love one another

Cat bullying hamster

Animals bullying people