According to the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Sciences and the Department of Justice, cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. These electronic devices include cell phones, computers and tablets but can also include social media sites, text messages, chat and websites. 

Cyberbullying can be very discouraging. As a person who was bullied in my first year of high school, I am proof that this can affect a person. My friend started texting me. She was calling me inappropriate names, telling me that I was annoying and a horrible person among other unmentionable things. These messages continued for a couple days. What I then found out was that another girl in my class took my friend’s phone. It was not my friend who was texting me. It was the new girl in school that she had befriended who happened to text me from my friend’s phone. It came to a point where I was crying myself to sleep. When I got to school, she would call me names if she passed me in the hallway and no one seemed to notice. She would use profanity to hurt me, and at the age of 13, it worked. Being this young, I thought no one would listen to me or believe me if I were to tell anyone. I thought, “Who would believe me?” 

I was the person who was friends with everyone. I didn’t like being in a clique. I hated cliques because of the way people thought you were basically unworthy of hanging out with them. In my junior year of high school, I started hanging out with more and more people. Well, my “good” friends apparently didn’t like that. 

In my junior year, I was bullied again. Not by the same girl but by people with whom I was friends. I went to these girls’ houses. We hung out on the weekends. I invited them over to my house or brought them places, and they treated me like I was nothing. It started out on Twitter. They were tagging me in posts and calling me a liar, stupid and again using profanity. When I went to school the next day, I was sitting at my usual spot in the lunchroom. I asked my friend politely to watch my schoolbag and purse while I went to the restroom. When I came back, all of my stuff was gone and my friend was still sitting there. I asked her where my stuff was, and she told me she didn’t know. The girl that cyberbullied me the night before on Twitter grabbed my stuff and hid it from me. She then sat there and laughed at me as I tried to look for it. 

I don’t understand why people think that it is okay to use Twitter or any social media as a mask to hide behind. I know that sometimes bullying can be much worse than my experience. People have harmed themselves in ways unimaginable as a result of bullying. I want to be that person that says it is okay to tell someone. We need to report cyberbullying. I want to help anyone who is being bullied. According to stopbullying.gov, there are steps we can take to help anyone being bullied. A person can start with not responding to messages. That is where I went wrong when I was 13. I continued to respond to this girl trying to defend myself. If I would not have continued to respond to her, it may have stopped. Another step someone can take is keeping the evidence. I did keep the evidence of all of my messages and tweets on Twitter. The next step the stop bullying website gives is to block the person. I may have been able to block her on my phone, but I couldn’t block her in the hallways. She was in my classes. I would like to let schools know that we need to open our eyes to bullying. Let students know that it is okay to say something to an adult. Let your parents know, your principle and even a teacher. Let’s help students and even teenagers or young adults that are being bullied that it is okay to speak up. We can be the generation that stops cyberbullying.

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Editor's note: All views expressed in The Lion’s Roar are those of the author or, if unsigned, those of the staff of The Lion’s Roar. These views should not be interpreted as the views of the administration, faculty or students of Southeastern Louisiana University.