The groundswell has changed the balance of power. Anybody can put up a site that connects people with people. (P. 27. Groundswell)
The book Groundswell mainly talks about the impact of the groundswell in the business world and how to appropriately utilize the power of the groundswell to create benefits for business. Well, of course, whether a company's social media outreach is successful or not is largely determined by the groundswell. However, for most teenagers, their happiness or frustration, as well as their mental health also depend on the impact of the groundswell.
Wikipedia defines cyberbullying as ," the use of information technology to repeatedly harm or harass other people in a deliberate manner." To some extent, I have this feeling that the groundswell has a large responsibility for the cyberbullying that occurs among teenagers.
Firstly, social media has brought people in unprecedentedly close relationships with each other, even though for teenagers, there is no privacy online for them at all. Technology has brought everyone together, no matter if they like it or not. Even if you don't post any contents about yourself on social media platforms, you can't stop others talking about you online. Secondly, under the circumstances of peer pressure and the attractiveness of the virtual world, teens become reluctant to feel they are insulated from social media and other "cool" teens.
According to the results of a new survey by Piper Jaffray, more than 9 out of 10 American teenagers are using social media. Can you believe that? But the fact is teens have been exposed to technology since they were born, which has shaped every aspect of their lives. Most of them are even addicted to social media. Because the power of the groundswell brought them great temptations, it makes teens want to use their own words to influence others.
Can you image that this pretty young girl took her own life because of cyberbullying? You may think it is no big deal and this girl just overreacted. However, it turns out that cyberbullying is a big deal. For example, among overweight adolescents, 61% have received mean or embarrassing posts online and 59% have received mean texts, e-mails or instant messages (Anderson, Bresnahan, & Musatics, 2014).
However, this is not the worst thing. The worst thing is very few teenagers are willing to tell their families or friends about their miserable and suffering experiences.
We are now living in a fast-paced world, which makes us overwhelmed by various stresses. In order to relieve stress, people should be encouraged to express their feelings or vent their frustrations in proper ways. But none of these ways should be used as excuses for bullying others online or attacking others verbally out of resentment.
What impressed me most of the book is it makes me realize that the groundswell connected everyone seamlessly. You can't choose to ignore the groundswell. Considering the negative impact of the groundswell, we really should be aware of the huge impact of social media on teenagers' mental health. And we should try to build a harmonious network environment for both teenagers and adults. What are your thoughts on cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is an issue we have to take into consideration. in-spite of the the great things that we can do with social media there is a negative side. I do not feel that some companies deal with cyberbulllying properly, and there should be a system in place to prevent bullying from happening. That being said many company Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets have thousands sometimes millions of comments, and it is near impossible to weed out all the comments that purposely are aimed at bullying someone. People assume with the freedom of speech come the privilege to say whatever they want and that is not the case. There needs to be more our society does to prevent cyberbullying.
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