I am growing up in the generation where technology is very normalized. Knowing that can be scary. Cyberbullying is something I’ve been aware of since I was younger. I believe it is important to be conscious of the decisions you make online because of the harm it causes to others 

COVID-19  has really changed my perspective on social media. Before I thought it was all good and there wasn’t that big of an impact because I wasn’t as active on social media. During the beginning of the pandemic, I realized how toxic social media can be, because I was surrounded by it consistently. Due to quarantine it was my only form of communication for a while. 

Setting boundaries with social media is important to my health I’ve learned how to balance social media with my mental health, as cyberbullying is seen as very normal nowadays. Cancel culture has a big role in our everyday life. Someone could write a mean comment and hide behind a screen and nobody would know it was them. This is a haunting fact. 

29 percent of people don’t take action when it comes to cyber bullying, while 34 percent block any possible interaction with the bully. To me, there’s different types of cyberbullying and different levels. For example, if someone who you don’t know leaves a comment on one of your social media platforms, it’s almost harmless, at least to me, because you don’t know them and you aren’t reaching for anybody’s validation. If someone close to you attacks you on something you did, it’s better for them to say it to your face because there shouldn’t be social media being the block between your communication in person with the person close to you. 

The options for Park to do something about cyberbullying is limited because the administration can’t control people’s actions or feelings. I do think there could be a lesson on how cyberbullying affects people and what we as students can do to improve ourselves. Even with that, I think it could be very difficult to change people’s mindsets because people are already set in their ways and too ignorant to realize how much their actions impact others.

Those who are in power for example ceo’s of social media companies I believe aren’t doing enough, or what they are doing isn’t being represented enough. Instagram,TikTok and Twitter could be filtering out negative comments and making sure people feel safe on social media. 

I myself am still growing and trying to improve myself on how active I am on social media. I think it’s important to realize we are still humans and we’re all growing. One comment on social media doesn’t define you.