by Katie Dunnell
Take a minute and scroll through your tweets. About one in every ten tweets in my home feed is a nasty tweet about someone in particular.
I remember one time in my first block class I made eye contact with a girl I don’t really get along with and seconds after, the situation made it onto twitter. The girl tweeted, “That awkward moment when you make eye contact with someone you hate #getoverit #itsoveranddonewith.”
Twitter allows teenagers to indirectly tweet negative comments about those they dislike. While the ones being targeted changes daily, it seems as though the ones doing the damage are always the same people. They commonly write harsh things regarding a specific person without saying their name, but the comments are so specific that everyone knows who is being referenced.
Out of 150 teenagers in eighth-twelfth grade at Hudson High School, 63 reported that they had been indirectly tweeted about and about 53 were guilty of tweeting rude things about others.
My friend recalls her experience. “My ex-boyfriend wrote a tweet calling someone some pretty brutal names. He tweeted them moments after he and I had just had an argument. I knew right away they were about me, and so did everyone else. People texted me right away saying look what he just tweeted!”
Those not being attacked and those doing the attacking only find it entertaining, funny, and something exciting to watch during school.
No one, except for us students, is aware that this goes on every single day on the internet. Quite frankly, I don’t think any adults or teachers will know what’s going on for a while. Therefore, nothing is being done to stop the bullying.
Twitter has become a huge but hidden “public microphone” for bullying.