Is (school) bullying worse today than it was when you were a kid?

Kids being bullied has become a national focal point following those handful of high profile suicides. Do you think bullying is better or worse today than when you were a kid, or about the same?

I'm going to say worse only because of cyber-bullying. Otherwise, I don't think there's a greater percentage now. Just that it's being talked about more.

I do think it's worse. Mainly because people are losing their common decency. There's a higher level of apathy & a growing number of people who believe "freedom of speech" means you can say whatever you want without consequence. Put all that together & it's one big social clusterfuck. There was a time when it wasn't this bad. Technology has certainly increased it as well.

CeCe wrote:I do think it's worse. Mainly because people are losing their common decency. There's a higher level of apathy & a growing number of people who believe "freedom of speech" means you can say whatever you want without consequence. Put all that together & it's one big social clusterfuck. There was a time when it wasn't this bad. Technology has certainly increased it as well.

I honestly don't recall bullying in high school. We did verbally mock one kid that was nerdier than us but it wasn't open taunting, and never anything physical.

Could be that I was a bit bigger than most in my class because of being a year older (no, I didn't fail - my B'day is late in the year) so didn't get picked on, but I don't recall it being done to others either.

Of course we weren't plugged into another reality - any bullying had to be done IRL.

So yeah, it is a current problem brot on by teen angst mixed with apathy and less decency.

I don't think its worse I think that when I was a kid we handled the bullying on our own. If there was a bully bothering someone we made it our business to kick his ass and that would teach him a lesson. I think kids were tougher years ago than today.

Tony Marino wrote:I don't think its worse I think that when I was a kid we handled the bullying on our own. If there was a bully bothering someone we made it our business to kick his ass and that would teach him a lesson. I think kids were tougher years ago than today.

These kids today are such wusses. Add the fact that Facebook is the devil and cyber bullying is more prevalent. How you gonna be scared of a so called bully over the computer?

Tony Marino wrote:I don't think its worse I think that when I was a kid we handled the bullying on our own. If there was a bully bothering someone we made it our business to kick his ass and that would teach him a lesson. I think kids were tougher years ago than today.

That's why it's worse today because that's called assault and battery now; it's okay for the bullies to beat the shit out of anybody they want but if the victims fight back THEY must be arrested because they're doing something wrong.

I think technology makes it worse today. Someone picked on during the day runs the risk of it snowballing overnight with kids texting each other and using FB to chat about the victim.

In my day, kids were picked on something fierce, but the kids could go home at night and not have all that same bull shit away from them while at home. Now, the technology extends the bullying into the home at night.

CeCe wrote:I do think it's worse. Mainly because people are losing their common decency. There's a higher level of apathy & a growing number of people who believe "freedom of speech" means you can say whatever you want without consequence. Put all that together & it's one big social clusterfuck. There was a time when it wasn't this bad. Technology has certainly increased it as well.

Good post!

I remember a fair amount of nasty bullying while growing up several decades ago, but it's gotten much worse. Kids have no conscience or fear of consequences, and yes ~ cyberbullying has added a whole new dimension.

Indeeeeed, I think we need to get a bit lenient on these assault and battery laws and let the victims beat the shit out of the people harassing them. Because the adults aren't going to do anything about it, we all know that, they can't take a chance having to reprimand the popular kids because they want the kids to like them. So, let the parties involved settle the matter themselves.

Supernova wrote:Indeeeeed, I think we need to get a bit lenient on these assault and battery laws and let the victims beat the shit out of the people harassing them. Because the adults aren't going to do anything about it, we all know that, they can't take a chance having to reprimand the popular kids because they want the kids to like them. So, let the parties involved settle the matter themselves.

Yup. I used to tell my daughter to never start anything, but finish when she can.

Bluesmama wrote:

Yup. I used to tell my daughter to never start anything, but finish when she can.

And as I've pointed out, I don't know that there's a connection, but when it was NOT illegal for bullied kids to fight back and punch out their attackers, you did not see kids bringing guns to school to blow everyone else away before blowing their own brains out. But, in today's world where you can't do anything to retaliate or YOU'RE punished for defending yourself, we have quite a few students bringing in guns and making bombs and all that. IS it just coincidence? For some reason I don't think so.

Tony Marino wrote:I don't think its worse I think that when I was a kid we handled the bullying on our own. If there was a bully bothering someone we made it our business to kick his ass and that would teach him a lesson. I think kids were tougher years ago than today.

I agree. This is a generation of coddling kids when it comes to bullying. Instead of encouraging kids to stand up for themselves and to have honor and pride, kids today are wilting little flowers who need a coalition to protect them from even the most ridiculous of concepts like "cyber bullying".