I think it's fair to say that I got lucky when growing up as a kid. I never really had a case of being bullied other than once or twice that it happened, and I honestly think this was because I always knew how to stay away from trouble or out of the sight of those known bullies. Also, I was always a smart kid, so I was friends with people whose presence kind of shielded me from that stuff.
Although, if I'm being honest, it wasn't like I made friends with those guys specifically because I was avoiding getting bullied, but it just happened, and everything just kind of aligned, I guess.
But then again, we all know that bullying doesn't just affect kids. There are adults out there who still get bullied by other adults, and some of this bullying isn't always physical; it could be online.
Today's contest asks us which is worse, the physical bullying and harassment or the online one, and to be honest, my first instinct had been to say the physical bullying, because this is what always comes to mind whenever we talk about bullying, but after giving it a thought, I now find myself leaning toward the online side, and here's why.
When it comes to physical bullying, I genuinely feel like it is something that easily can be handled without it escalating quickly. Especially as adults, there are a lot of ways you can handle a bully, one of them being by involving the police; it all just depends on how dangerous the bully is.
But when it comes to online bullying, I feel like there are a lot of things attached to it. Because for one, online bullying doesn't necessarily have to come from one person. I mean, at first it will be you against one person, but then other people start to come in with their own opinions, and you suddenly find yourself against thousands of people, if not more.
Unlike physical bullying, it rarely escalates unless the bully decides to involve his friends.
Then again, another thing about online bullying that makes it dangerous is that it can quickly turn into a physical one; it all depends on how good the bully is with whatever it is they're bullying you with. A good story from your bully could make people start hating you in real life, and before you know it, you can't even go to the market without people pointing their fingers at you, saying all sorts of things.
It also could affect you at your place of work; it could affect you mentally and in more worse ways than some of us can even imagine. And this is why I feel that online bullying is a lot more dangerous than that of the physical ones.
But when it comes to punishing these bullies, I sincerely feel that both punishments should be equal, as the goal is to discourage bullying totally and not give them options on what type of bullying the bully should take on.
