Tag Archives: texting

The Causes and Effects of Bullying

I know you’ve heard this before, but bullying is a huge problem for many people all around the globe. Bullying is when one person or a group of people make rude comments towards another or harasses them repeatedly. Cyberbullying is when someone is harassing someone via text messaging, tweeting, IMing, or even video chatting.

Why Does the Bully bully?

There could be many causes for people to feel the need to bully someone. It could be that they were feeling annoyed or angry that day and needed to take their feelings out on someone else, or because there are things going on in the bully’s personal life that they think no one can understand, so they push people who are trying to help them away, and a last cause could be because they think that making fun of someone will get them into the “popular crowd” or make them look cool. Trust me, bullying someone will get you nothing.

So What Happens to the Victim?

When someone is thinking about harassing someone, they don’t think about how their words would impact the person they’re bullying. If the bullies’ words have a negative impact on the victim, it will be harder and take longer to brush off. Most bullying leads to stress, depression, low self-esteem, and, sadly, suicide. And what hurts me the most is that once the bully has seen how bad their words and actions have impacted him/her, they then start reaching out. Doesn’t make sense, right? If in the end you’re going to start feeling bad about what you did, why do it in the first place?

Bye-standers

Bystanders. Yes, I know I spelled it wrong up there, but you’ll see why in a second. Bystanders are people who witness the conviction happening, but do nothing about it. If you see something happening, tell an adult, teacher, guidance counselor, or the principal. Doing this won’t make you a tattletale, it will help stop the interrogation from continuing on. Please don’t stand there and watch without doing anything after. You could be the key to ending the problem, so why don’t you do just that?

~Emily

Texting While Driving-the Silent Killer

Did you know that one of the most common, tempting and deadly distractions for teens behind the wheel is texting while driving? Well many people (teens especially) do not realize that cell phone use, handheld-or hands-free, is still dangerous while driving. Many reports and studies have been conducted, regarding this very issue. Some people have stated that a driver that is texting is more lily to get into a crash than a driver who is not texting. Other studies strongly support the idea of it being banned altogether. One thing’s for sure though, none of these studies prove (or even support) that texting while driving.

I feel that texting while driving is just plain dumb. There is nothing more important than our lives and the lives of others. But when people are texting while driving they are putting lives on the line, and that’s NOT okay. Now I would like to ask you: are you really that popular? So popular that you can’t put your phone down for a little while to drive? I mean of all things it’s DRIVING were talking about here. Yeah I really didn’t think so. I’m just obsessed with my phone as the next person, probably more obsessed. That doesn’t matter though, because if I had it my way (which would be nice) no one would be texting while driving, but I don’t. Now it simply comes down to this: people don’t think, and our stupidity can kill us. Literally.

~Isabel Cuddy

Caught Text-Handed!

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Are you one of the many people who often text and walk? Well, I would avoid trips to Fort Lee, New Jersey, where texting while walking has just been banned. Well, to be precise, texting while jaywalking has been banned. (Though the news had first broadcast the idea that merely texting while walking would land you a ticket, Police Chief Thomas Ripoli recently cleared up the confusion. Texting while jaywalking is what will earn you a ticket!) Any pedestrian caught texting and jaywalking will be issued an $85 ticket. Police say that texting while walking is a huge distraction and can be life-threatening. Think they’re exaggerating? Just last year, 74 pedestrian-involved crashes took place and three pedestrians were killed. That’s pretty outrageous for a town of 35,000. Blame it on whoever you’d like, but it’s true that a texter is 60% more likely to veer off course than a non-texter. That’s a big difference now, huh? Though you may consider yourself a talented walker and texter, so did many others who had some pretty unfortunate accidents. One man ran into a bear on the loose and one woman walked right into a fountain!

So now it is time to look at the debate! Who is right in this situation? Well, it’s a matter of opinion. Many believe it is a threat to the public’s safety. “It’s a big distraction,” Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli said. “Pedestrians aren’t watching where they’re going and aren’t aware.” But, many “experienced texters” would disagree. Many believe that they text and walk so often that it’s become extremely easy- they don’t even need to look down at their screens! They think they don’t deserve the ticket because they stay aware.  Their argument is that they are receiving a ticket for a distracting habit. But, many habits are distracting such as digging through a purse while walking or listening to an iPod. Will these be banned next? Before you make a judgement though, ponder this question for a moment: How would YOU feel if you received a ticket for texting and walking? Would you think you deserved it?

~Marisa Nazzaro

The Brutal Honesty of Texting

“Don’t just text them, call them!” is a typical demand given by parents of children bearing cell phones. Adults can’t stand to watch their kids text, text, text and don’t talk. They don’t think those kinds of relationships are real. Studies prove differently however. A test shows that people communicate much more effectively and truthfully through texting. This came as a shock to many. You would think talking face to face would reveal much more honesty, but in reality, teenagers feel much more comfortable behind a screen, where no one can see them.

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Personally, I didn’t find this surprising. I find myself to be much more truthful over the phone because it gives me more time to think before I send a message, when in person, people expect an immediate response. This could be both bad and good. When kids are honest over text, they’re brutally honest. No sugar coating. They think that when they have the chance to say whatever they want to someone without them seeing it, that they can literally say whatever they want. However, shy kids may take advantage of being honest over texting. They have more confidence when no one can see them. Overall, you need to be responsible for what you say over texting. Just because the person can’t see you, doesn’t mean you won’t hurt their feelings.

~Emily Peck

Cyberbullying is a Colossal Problem

Wait! What’s up with cyberbullying? The use of technology to hurt someone, target someone, and/or embarrass someone and it really needs to stop! Cyberbullying has become an enormous, growing problem with teens during the last few years. Examples of cyberbullying are threats online, mean/rude texts, mean posts on Facebook or Twitter, and posting someones personal information on the Internet. Basically it is anything that is posted online intended to hurt someone in some way. This is an extremely bad problem because whatever goes on the Internet stays on the Internet. It is like ink on paper. Ink on paper will never disappear.

OK. I think that cyberbullying is  worse than regular bullying for one reason. It stays on the Internet forever. If you encounter cyberbullying, tell an adult you trust or close whatever or wherever you found it and go do something else that will help keep your mind off of it. If it doesn’t stop, try to block that person sending threats from your Facebook page or so they cannot text you. One question I have is why would somebody want to do this? It could only make everything worse than it is. I think this is a horrible problem that needs to end now. But as I was researching cyberbullying, I saw that some of these encounters with cyberbullying are not meant to be mean and are sometimes meant to be little jokes not intended to hurt. But the majority of the time it is not. Cyberbullying “needs” to stop.

~Evan Perlroth

Taking Away The Simple Hello

Think about it, how often do you say hello to someone in person or over the phone. It seems these days that there is little to no variety of communication throughout both the average teen and adult, daily life . Now the “New Thing” for the past couple of years is texting, which I must say is addicting! Which is why so many of us do it. Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to text but there is a limit. I know some people that right after school they have to text like there life depends on it. If you have something so important to say why don’t you just say it over a phone call or in person.

Now this is a question for you. How often do you text? Is it daily? Every hour? Or every minute? Now studies have shown that more and more teens text every day and in higher quantities.

Some peoples grades  dropped to C’s then dropped to D’s because the distraction of texting. Another distraction of texting is texting while driving. Now a days this is a serious situation. On the news you here more and more about texting and driving accidents. Why risk your life on a text? Can’t it wait?

~Andrew Fiocco