Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Cyber Bullying or Just Cyber Stupid?

If you did not hear by now, obviously you have not turned on an electronic device other than your coffee pot, razor, etc. today, Curt Schilling has received some really nasty comments responding to his tweet to his daughter congratulating her on accepting an offer to attend Salve Regina University.  Another example of social media abuse run amok.  My wife and I do not allow my sons to use social media (beyond my oldest sending text messages) and some people say I am too restrictive.  The major reason I do not allow my sons to use social media is because I want to ensure that they are responsible young men before they start posting stuff all over the cyber universe (I believe it is the parental responsibility to raise responsible children and when they move to adulthood, they will make you proud).  Apparently some parents did not ensure that their sons (or daughters, since cyber identity is somewhat anonymous) were responsible young adults before they began posting in the cyber realm, instead allowing their children to behave poorly, reflecting negatively on the child and the parent.

I tire of reading petitions, etc. requesting that cyber media be shut down because of "cyber bullying".  I find that most of these types of requests are a reflection of a society that thinks saying anything negative or mean or rude or derogatory is bullying--a reflection of crusading against anything we find offensive to ourselves regardless of the actual harm of the action.  We have redefined bullying these days to include everything, thus making the term bullying almost universally applicable and thus almost universally meaningless.  This position laid out, please read on about my thoughts.

The remarks of people regarding Curt Schilling's congratulations to his daughter are highly offensive, they are not bullying.  Mr. Schilling in his own blog talks about the issue and that the lack of responsibility exhibited by these people using the cyber realm does not relieve them of the consequences of their actions (please be aware that Mr. Schilling did not edit out the highly offensive content of tweets responding to his congratulations of his daughter).    

For my two cents, Mr. Schilling if you want to deal with these idiots directly, As a father I understand and agree.  The comments made by these imbiciles are beyond the pale and a lesson needs to be taught that apparently their own parents did not teach them as children, hence they still act like irresponsible brats.  You are right Mr. Schilling, they are behaving as children, not as adults.  Seems to me that back in the day children were spanked or given some other form of capital punishment to teach them the consequences of irresponsible behavior.  Want to dish out some corporal punishment to these brats, I agree with you.  Want to deal harshly/heavily with people saying vile things (not just negative things, but really unacceptable things) about/to your child, where do the like-minded sign up to help.  If my sons, when they are allowed to engage in social media communication ever say something like these idiots said about Mr. Schilling's congratulations to his daughter, my sons will likely receive a dose of corporal punishment from their dad, and I do not care what their age is at that time.  Young men do not say such vile things and children must be taught not to say such things.

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