Twitter can be a great way to socialize with friends. Recently social media has sparked interest in bullying. Subtweets and brutal remarks thrown back and forth between teens.

This is a classic modern day case of cyber bullying. Twitter has 645,750,000 active users.  Tweets that everyone can see. They can be deleted but sometimes the damage is already done. 58 percent of kids said that the person they targeted deserved what they got.

“With technology, there’s no face-to-face,” Counselor Tom Hult said. “You can’t read body language or see the tears.”

The amount of adolescents bullied online has risen 25 percent since 2006.  Younger kids and teens have access to a social media through cell phones, ipods, tablets, and computers.

“Technology is more available than it was six years ago,” Hult said. “Parents aren’t as diligent with monitoring what their kids say.”

When people publicize their life through tweets, doors are left open for people to react. Teens need to know where tweeting something can go too far. The Cyberbullying Research Center said that adolescent girls are more likely to experience cyber bullying than boys.

“Girls tend to be drawn to drama,”freshman Grayson Dunst said. “Boys tend to stay away to drama.”

You have the right to express your opinion but when does expressing your opinion go to the extreme? Getting angry over what someone says and retaliating on the internet is common.

“People try to prove a point but sometimes in the wrong way,” Dunst said. “It’s unnecessary  to start something and generally doesn’t prove much.”

According to Internet Safety 101, 95 percent of teenagers have witnessed bullying online.

“A lot of people use it as a place to vent,” sophomore Tori Wilson said. “They spend time worrying about how people will react.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that included that suicide rates are rising among the generation. 75 percent of teen cell phone users spend time on a social media. Continuously being exposed to the hate that can be sent. When someone is bullied it affects how they act, their academics, school participation, etc.

“If it was affecting me that much I would delete my account,” junior Sydney Tenholder said. “You could also put your account on private so not everyone can see it.”

Bullying Statistics stated, When someone is cyberbullied it puts them at a higher risk for depression and are more likely to miss school and stay home. People may not realize their small words can have a bigger, even lifetime impact. According to the Fund of Civility Drug and Alcohol abuse is one of those impacts.

“Sometimes we see things we should be too young to see,” Tenholder said. “Things spread really fast now.”

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