By: Alison
Cyber-bullying is peer abuse perpetrated through digital media. This cruelty delivered via signals, routers and machines is not caused by the technology, however, but is the result of our behavior and actions. We are all responsible for carefully and thoughtfully navigating the social and interpersonal aspects of our online interactions, and helping educate our friends and family to do the same.
Have you ever heard of The Butterfly Effect? The Butterfly Effect teaches us that the world will live in is so interdependent, even the tiny change in atmosphere generated by the flap of a butterfly’s wings has the capacity to impact entire weather systems across the planet. As inhabitants of this planet, all of our individual, local actions can have collective, global impact – for better or worse.
This concept is of the utmost importance when we think about the kinds of things we post and share online. Every time you write, post, or send anything digitally, it impacts people’s impression of you, which then affects your group of friends, your school, and the larger digital communities of which you are a part. This “digital footprint” can help or hurt your reputation, friendships, and opportunities. It can also enable authorities to discover where every piece of information on the Internet came from and who wrote/posted it. Once you hit “send,” those messages, thoughts and feelings are out there forever, for everyone to see.
Read more of Alison’s post about managing your digital footprint at http://www.radicalparenting.com/2011/05/29/managing-your-digital-footprint/