In this new age of technology, meetings occur over the internet, friendships are formed by people from across the globe, and children and adults are bullied with extreme prejudice. Meaningful is often taken as a positive word, but being scarred for life is also meaningful, and with such harsh bullying occurring online this is an extreme problem with not being face-to-face. Deployed military parents can communicate with their children live. without having to wait weeks for letters. The online experience can also make one feel like they are part of a community. Laws have been passed by congress on cyber bullying, and they are continuing to be passed. Bullying now has a new venue to unleash its toxic wrath upon, the internet.
Cyber bullying is a new term created for any kind of abuse to someone through the use of the internet that can sometimes have positive effects such as these. No physical harm can become of it (besides that caused upon oneself by the victim of the crime). There is a physical trail so that nothing can be hidden, this protects the victim and the bully because nothing can be denied and nothing can be blown out of proportion. Disadvantages are that often the bully doesn’t even realize how he mean or she is being because they cannot see the victim’s facial expression. They go farther than they would in person because they have a screen to hide behind. The biggest disadvantage though is that the victim is singled out, people in general are good, ifl saw someone bullying a kid I would go defend them, because more often than not the bully doesn’t even realize that he is a bully.
One of the largest examples of negative influences of cyber bullying is Amanda Todd, who is a girl that killed herself because of cyber bullying. With cyber bullying the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. With the ongoing war in the Middle East most military parents are deployed there once, sometimes twice. and often times they leave behind a family. The Militant typically requires all members to be deployed at least once, and nowadays the deployment is often to the Middle East. Soldiers are parents too, and oftentimes have loved ones at home. The stress of having a loved one in your family in harm’s way can be detrimental to a person. It is important to be able to be reassured that they are okay by talking to them, even if it’s only through a phone or through Facebook it is still better than nothing. Phones are non-face-to-face communicators and are often a huge part of communication for soldiers.
When you are stationed overseas in Germany orJapan you can communicate with friends and relatives overseas. This is extremely important because without this you would lose connection to your relatives after being gone for 2-4 years. I would consider it meaningful communication to tell your mother happy birthday, or merry Christmas. Online there are very many communities such as match.com that allow you to interact with other people with similar interests. Although cyber bullying can occur, quite the opposite can too, socially connecting with new people and making new friends. Match.c0m has led thousands of people to meet, and marry each other all because of initial non face-to-face communication. Pros to this are that you get to basically choose and pick someone you want to meet and see if they have similar interests as you. Disadvantages are that you can basically hunt for rich people on it by identifying yourself as someone who enjoys doing expensive things hoping to find someone who actually can afford to do them, marry them and then divorce them and leave with a bunch of money.
Communities that don’t involve marriage also occur online, such as communities that involve people with similar interests that get together and talk in chat rooms online. These places allow people to express themselves without much risk of feeling the social shockwaves ripple through their life because they don’t really know these people in real life. Disadvantages of this are that you can be a real jerk because you won’t feel the shockwaves go through your life, and you may not be who you normally are. In conclusion, meaningful social interaction does not have to only occur face-to»face. Face-to-face social interaction may be worth more, but non face-to-face is not meaningful. It is meaningful because of cyber bullying, military parents can talk to their family members, and online experiences can make you feel like a community.