Cyber bullying can come from anyone. Most people have a misconception that the victim and the bully have a long relationship fueled with teenage hormones; however, the crime can by perpetrated by a complete stranger. Whether it is a short comment on an Instagram picture, a long post on Tumblr, and everything in between, they change how you see yourself.

Most people also view cyber bullying as only causing feelings of sadness and depression. Through my personal experiences and friends I can inform the masses that you just don’t feel sad or depressed. That notion is completely wrong. It causes you to become angry, sad or as simple as feeling empty. Now, I cannot speak for everyone but I know that even trivial words dig deep, especially when it is something you are passionate about.

One of my friends used to post pictures on Instagram and would label them as hers. She would caption them as gifts from her parents. Still to this day I do not know if they are truly hers but, they criticism she got was unnecessary. For a trivial action of maybe or maybe not posting pictures about her personal life she received no stop comments about her lying and being a fake person. People made it their purpose in life for that week to make her confess. They would search the internet for those exact pictures and stare at them to see if they could see anything wrong with them. One of the pictures of her yacht there was the statue of liberty in the background. They confronted her and I made her feel even worse. If she were posting Tumblr pictures about a life she wanted people to believe she had then obviously she was in pain. But to make it worse those kids relished in the fact that she deleted her account.

The first time I posted a memo on my Tumblr, I was babbling about a book release the next day. I specifically informed them that I wanted to read the book for myself. I wanted to be able to have the experience the author intended. I did not want to cheat by skipping to the end or find out by other means. However, we live in a world filled with cruel people. An anonymous person sent me a message consisting of two words. They told me that the main character died. “____ dies.”

I was furious. I wrote him/her an 11 paragraph response addressing them, calling out their unkind nature and cowardliness. Of course this was a miniscule problem that I addressed on my own and got over as soon as I finished the book. But I came upon a revelation that my mom has always warned me.

My mom always warned me as a child to be wary of what I disclose to others. Now that I have social media, she is consistently reminding me of this. She now lists facts and true stories about people who reveal too much information and how it would hurt them. One that sticks out to me was when a young college girl posted her victory during a beer Olympics at a party. She won against many guys and was extremely proud. She boasted on all her social media. She gained advertising offers with beer companies and refused all of them. This is because she ruined her reputation and no companies would hire her and the college she attended put her on probation.

Even though teenagers view social media as a fun place to post every aspect of their lives, it will come with a price. Now I see that even though the bullies should be reprimanded, the victim in some cases should also be held accountable as well. Both my friend and I could have avoided our conflicts if she didn’t post her life and I didn’t post my emotions. I feel that even though social media sites do not promote bullying, they do make it far easier. Since most people use it as a place to purge our emotions and struggles, we need to take action and not just be aware. If young adults are displaying heart aches and struggles, then are they not asking for attention, whether it is positive or negative. I feel that we should act in a way that displays our knowledge on what you post can hurt others and most importantly you.