The generational gap between college-students and their parents is as evident now as ever before. The cyber world and the “real” world have been intertwined because of technology and social media. Now that social media has become widely available to everyone across the world, we begin to see how the decisions made online now have real world consequences. By giving everyone equal access to platforms to express their opinions, we as a society have created one of the most significant double-edged swords (social media) of our generation. Now bullying, taunting, and terrorizing can happen virtually anywhere at anytime. Unfortunately, college campuses are hotbeds for cyber attacks, and the school administrations are antiquated in their techniques and reasoning when it comes to dealing with problems that are sourced from online.
​
Even the country’s finest and most progressive institutions are not immune to such immoral acts. The University of Pennsylvania faced huge issues with racism and online communication recently. African-American students were targeted and forced into an online group (GroupMe) and made to bear witness to several derogatory pictures and videos displaying hateful messages on account of their race and ancestral history. Several students have voiced their concerns and feeling to news outlets looking to them for justice to take place instead of their schools security. The issue has been only mitigated by the university, and is nearly impossible to extinguish because of social medias wide presence (Balakrishnan).
​
I believe that social media is one of the most valuable tools ever created in human history. However, we should not be blaming the platform for the ease of accessibility to opinions and statements online. We should be targeting the people and creating more filters to prevent harmful material from getting leaked to the public and offending others (Green). In my opinion, the University of Pennsylvania is simply an example of our social media culture today. The lack of accountability online for malicious users online creates open ground for hate and destruction.
​
Unfortunately the lack of thorough communication between staff and students exposes the school's inability to efficiently and effectively handle their students' problems when they're on-campus. Referring to the previous example, the school only started to get involved once law enforcement was contacted about the issue. This shows that the care and concern for students isn’t as readily available as the university would like us to believe. This mishandling of harassmnet, and bullying online leads me to believe that the university, and other universities across the world, don’t see social media as a viable threat to someone’s life and sanity.
​
I feel that almost everyone in today’s generation has witnessed or been victimized by hurtful messages, pictures, and threats. Unfortunately the reality is that no one can be safe from this kind of bullying. Because it’s so easy to click a button and covertly send messages today, we as a society don’t have the physical means to track everything and record everyone. Cyber-crime is at an all time high right now more than at any other time in history.
Social Activist Katy Butler calls on teachers and administrators to do their part to ensure the safety of students and their mental health both inside and outside of the classroom. She explains that just because threats, bullying, and misconduct have moved to a platform doesn’t mean it has completely gone away (Butler). Students still suffer very real and physical problems including depression, substance abuse, and anxiety. The antiquated ideology of the “school’s concern is till the end of the school grounds” is not what society needs right now. There is a responsibility on everyone to do their part to make sure their community is safe, communicative, and collaborative when it comes to cyber-bullying and the adverse effects of social media.
​
As someone who uses social media heavily and believes it does more good than evil, I feel that we should try to do our best to minimize the negative effects to accentuate the positive effects to make social media a safe and open environment for everyone to voice their thoughts, opinions, and concerns without having the fear of being judged by peers. The culture of social media is has changed marketing, communication, and technology forever, so instead of taking measures like expelling social media from areas on-campus where it's needed, we should try to understand it and the options that are available to decrease the amount of bullying.
​
​
Works Cited
-
Balakrishnan, Anita. "University of Pennsylvania Investigating 'repugnant' Racist Cyberbullying."https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/11/university-of-pennsylvania-investigating-repugnant-racist-cyberbullying.html CNBC. CNBC, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2018.
-
Green, Lee. NFHS. National Federation of State High School Associations, https://www.nfhs.org/articles/cyberbullying-challenging-legal-issues-for-schools/10 Feb. 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2018
-
Butler, Katy. "MY PERSONAL OPINION ON BULLYING AND CYBER-BULLYING!!"Http://www.thebullyproject.com/my_personal_opinion_on_bullying_and_cyber_bullying. N.p., 12 Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2018.