Proposal paper essay. History of Social Media Bullying

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* Introduction
For quite some time, cyber bullying has been discussed over the media, with most of the sources citing skewed approaches. This is a subtle problem and one that needs to be addressed sustainably. This is relative to the fact that, the social media is one of the most frequented platforms and has become a powerful tool among cyberbullies (Mineo). While the problem used to be associated with the teenagers, this is not the case anymore as even the adults are now culprits of the menace. People sharing sensitive information or disinformation on the platform against others is one of the most familiar ways. Given the high number of victims, this is a vice that not only has financial impacts but also social (Mineo). This is a vice that needs to be addressed at the victim level, social media platforms level, government and at the perpetrator`s level.
* Thesis statement:
For the social media bullying menace to be eradicated, it needs to be addressed in a multifaceted manner, by the victims, social media platforms and government.
* Body
1 History of Social Media Bullying
It is highly overlooked that words do hurt, especially where they are directed at a person in an effort to bring them down. This is a common practice online, where users gang up against victims hulling insults at them or even using the social media platforms to spread slander. Bullying had always been around in the traditional manner that involved, perpetrators harassing their victims physically or even verbally. It was however in the late 1990s that bullying took center stage online (Bark Technologies). With the advent of affordable personal computers. With this came the chatrooms which were either public or private. Relative to the laxity in the regulations and poor online skills among most of the users, this became a platform to perpetrate hate and slander (Donegan). Users could assume usernames that could not easily be tracked back to them. With these, a few basic computer skills, bullies could easily harass their victims without anyone ever uncovering who it is that was the bully. More importantly, even strangers now had the change to buy their victims, for the sheer pleasure of making their lives miserable. With web anonymity, bullies had the upper hand in spreading scandals and creating some, without the victims and other users ever knowing who was targeting them. Back in the year 1999, there was a shooting that took place in the Columbine School. This prompted quite a number of states to pass ant bullying laws to cub the incidences. It would only for downhill from here, relative to the increased number of teen suicides that were tied to bullying. In one of the incidences that marked the highlights of the problem back then, was Tina Meier, a 13 year old, who committed suicide after neighbors created a fake Myspace profile under the name Josh Evans and started bullying her (Bark Technologies). Although the perpetrators were brought charges, they would later on be acquitted beating the entire process.
In the2000s, cyberbullying would then evolve on to the mobile platforms such as smartphones. Users now had the chance to evolve from sending messages to sending images and videos from the devices to th...