Stop Cyber Bullying from posts to comments

Political rhetoric on the national debt crisis is growing increasingly overwhelming as 2012 hopefuls move into the limelight and push aside all other seemingly trivial topics of concern. Falling by the wayside are issues of huge concern to college-aged voters and the Millennial generation overall – when was the last time you heard Michelle Bachmann even bother to denounce global warming? (In case you’re curious, it was Earth Day 2009.) Has my Grandfather’s inability to pay off his debts taken precedent over what matters to Generation Y?

In no way do I mean to denounce the issue of the debt crisis, but that we are endlessly bogged down by the issues caused by a generation other than our own means that little attention is being given to the problems of, by, and for today’s youth. I am hinting at one issue in particular that not only clarifies the flaws of 21st century social media but also highlights what may be the cause of religious hesitance in today’s young progressive population. I am talking about cyber bullying, a problem targeted against many ordinary teens, though most strongly against the LGBT community, that has led to social isolation and, in many cases, extremes as dire as suicide.

In a recent poll conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center in 2010, statistics show that 20.8% of surveyed students had been cyber bullied at some point by one of the majority of their schoolmates who use social media networking sites. Furthermore, according to the i-SAFE Foundation, more than 50% of students who experience some form of cyber bullying do not report the incidents to their parents or guardians. This both perpetuates the cycle and increases the likelihood of fatal decision-making on behalf of cyber bully victims.

As aforementioned, today’s anti-gay rhetoric has led to an apparent divide between the LGBT community and the country’s religious population. As the former begs for an end to the injustices imposed upon its younger members and fights for equal marriage rights, the latter continues to dig in its heels in ordinance with the Biblical guidance to which its followers have rightfully dedicated their lives.

Though it may be a stretch to ask “homophobic” religious citizens to renounce their faith in the Scripture by which they guide their own lives, society ought to recognize the line between harmless resistance to change and suicide-inducing behavior. This is not to say that all perpetrators of cyber bullying are religiously motivated, but there is within the issue a clear stamp of disapproval from the Church that serves as evidence in the search for criminals.

Ultimately, what ought to be most concerning about this issue is not what these religious complications mean for future societal cohesion; rather, what matters most is the age demographic that is creating and bearing the burden of such perceptions of the nation’s homosexual population. Those who disapprove of gay marriage for religious reasons have justifications that even I cannot ignore – to make one publicly admit flaws in his or her own historic beliefs is a tall order – and these people have the right to proceed with their noses buried in the Bible so long as no one is hurt. But that is no longer the case. People – children, no less – are both harming and being harmed.

If the current generation in power hopes to put the future in the hands of the Millennials something must change in this corrupted dynamic that is leading students of a young age to internet-induced suicide. We can spend as much time as we choose arguing over tax hikes and Medicaid funding, and I am confident that this is not all time ill spent. But to assume that Generation Y can sustain itself is incorrect; when it comes to the issue of cyber bullying, we simply cannot be left to our own devices. Those devices are exactly the cause of our demise.