Bullying Kills

            2 out of 3 teens are bullied across the world each year. There are various ways people can be bullied. Whether it is cyber bullying, verbally, or physical, bullying has serious effects on children, especially teenagers. Bullying has become more severe due to the development of social media, and it is slowly spiraling out of control. Whether it is due to some people over sharing, or the easy access to personal pages and information, social media has made it easier for bullies to strike.

            Bullying can have everlasting effects on people. It leads to moderate to severe depression, anxiety, loneliness, changes in eating patterns, and can lead to self-harm issues. The effects of bullying can even carry on to adult hood, where they could potentially become more severe. Children who are bullied are even more likely to stop attending school and even drop out. Some children are so severely bulled that they commit suicide, whether anyone realizes it is going to happen or not. Bullying can even lead to extreme retaliation. For example, “In 12 of 15 school shooting cases in the 1990s, the shooters had a history of being bullied” (stopbullying.gov). You never know what is going on at someone’s home, and by bullying them you can push them right over the edge. A teenager’s mentality is highly unstable as they creep towards adolescents, and emotions are raging with the hormonal changes. Bullying is often detrimental to the confidence that teenagers need to gain.

            People who bully tend to be insecure and take their issues out on their peers. They do not have an outlet for their anger out, and often feel relieved to take it out on other people. These kinds of bullies need to be stopped, but teenagers often find it difficult to tell someone about what is happening. From personal experience, it would be awkward to tell a teacher or trusted adults about what is going on, therefore the bullying will continue to happen. Bullies damage their peer’s self esteem, confidence, motivation, and even their reputation. Bullies can even anonymously harass their victims on forums such as www.ask.fm and www.formspring.me. In order to stop the trend, teenagers would have to fight back against the bullies and stick up for each other, which teenagers these days do not often do. It is easier to sit back and watch someone be bullied then to get involved and cause drama. Schools and law enforcement always tell children and teenagers to tell a teacher, or a trusted adult, but in all reality how much can that do?  For the most part, bullies just get meaner when someone tells on them, and the bullying usually intensifies. The only way teenagers can really put an end to bullying is to agree not to bully, and stick up for themselves if they are bullied.

            Whether it is via social networking sites or verbal, bullying happens worldwide, often among teenagers. As children are turning into adolescents, the changes that happen to them create an outlet for bullies to strike. While already feeling insecure, bullies can physically and emotionally destroy one’s self esteem, confidence, and reputation. People being bullied often suffer from depression and anxiety, and often have a lack of motivation to go to school. Even though school is supposed to be their safe haven, teenagers often do not feel comfortable with telling their teacher if they are being picked on, and if they do sometimes action is not even taken. The only way for teenagers to stop bullying is to vow to never bully, and stick up for those who are rather than running and telling on the bully. Unless things get physical, it is possible to shut down a bully without retaliation, and they can be killed with kindness. The relentless torture can easily be stopped, if everyone was to try and be kind to one another.

Government seizes AP's phone records (The Page article)

To be honest, I don't think that the government acted appropriately and crossed the line by seizing AP's records. It is a huge invasion of privacy, and it happened for two months. It is rumored that they seized the records over a fake terror plot story, but if the government won't admit why they did it then I don't think that it is fair. I feel like the only reason that it would be acceptable is if the AP was posing a threat, which they weren't at all.

Helicopter Moms: When is it Too Much?

Everyone has that friend with either a super controlling father or a helicopter mom. From stalking their Facebook, to having access to text messages, parents are taking stalking their children to the next level. A helicopter mom is a hovering and controlling mother who is way too involved in their child’s life. Whether the mother is just trying to live vicariously through their child, or trying to keep them out of harm’s way, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

            My cousin finally put her daughter in public school, and since then it has been nonstop drama. She calls my mom at least five times a day to talk about the drama occurring at the middle school like it’s her own business, when in reality it’s not. She reads her daughters texts messages, follows her around wherever she goes to check up on her, and even has the password to her Facebook. I may be wrong, but I think that is a little extreme. In my opinion, children that are shown no freedom are more likely to rebel and be sneaky because they have no other way of having fun. I’ve learned by my mom not being a helicopter mom, and my dad not being over controlling, I actually learn from my mistakes instead of having them prevented by not being able to make them at all.

            However, with the world we live in today it is understandable why some parents are so protective over their children. My uncle said, “If I had children, I would have to homeschool them. With all the stuff going on lately it would be too scary to let them into the world”. And while that may be true, over protecting will only hurt the kids. I have friends in my church that are homeschooled and not really allowed to do anything, no TV, no internet, no cellphones, and when they go into public they have no idea what to do. I also agree that trust should be earned, but if the child is doing nothing wrong it is no fair to punish the child by invading their privacy and trying to control every aspect in their life. Over controlling, helicopter parents do more harm than good.

The Page: Boston Marathon

                The Boston Marathon terrorist attack has outraged me. How could something so terrible happen during such an important event in a city so close to home? Tragedies happen all over the world, and I always hear about them on the news but I didn’t think it would ever happen in our city. Watching the news and seeing hundreds of police officers hunting for this awful person didn’t even make me feel safe, I was scared. However, it has made the community put aside its differences and come together as one to mourn the tragedy.   

Terrorism far too close to home

            On Monday May 15^th during the Boston Marathon, Boston experienced its first act of terrorism which claimed three innocent lives and injured over 100 people. Around 2:45 in the afternoon, four hours into the race when most people finish, two bombs went off within twenty seconds of each other. Tamerlan Tsarnev (26) and his brother Dzhokhar (19) were the ones responsible for all the chaos that broke out in Boston. Besides the two bombs that actually went off, many more were found during the week that followed. Thursday night they engaged in a gun battle after shooting an MIT police officer, and Tamerlan was killed during the whole ordeal. However, Dzhokhar, a student at UMass Dartmouth was able to escape for a short period of time. Friday evening he was caught hiding in a boat somebody’s backyard, where he was sent to the hospital with gunshot wounds but is expected to live.

            Now the question is, will Dzhokhar be sentenced to death? Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, but since terrorism is a federal crime he may face it. Personally, I think since he is only 19 years old and has his whole life ahead of him, he should be sentenced to life in prison. Therefore, he will live out the rest of his life behind bars and miserable. The death penalty is the easy way out; he doesn’t really have to pay for what he did because either way he is going to die. I think the most important factor would be to find out why they did it, and if they had any other accomplices. I don’t think it is possible for two people to carry out such a devious plan without any help what so ever. Tamerlan was said to be the weird brother, but people who knew Dzhokhar said he was normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The government basically funded the whole thing however, since their whole family was on welfare.

            The two men caused extreme chaos in a city which is way too close to home. Not only is it the capital of our state, but it is our home. However, the incident has caused the city and state to come together in an extraordinary way. For once, everyone is putting aside their differences and coming together to mourn the tragedy. It is scary to think that something that we would normally hear about on the news could happen so close to home, and makes the danger of the world way more realistic. However, we are Boston strong and will overcome the tragedy and live on to never forget the lives that were lost, and the sacrifices that people made to keep our city safe.

Interview Assignment

Last week Alicia Mello saved a dog on her way to pick up her father from the train station. She was driving through the center of Mansfield when she saw a helpless dog dodging traffic during rush hour. She was scared that the dog would get hurt so she stopped and picked it up. Alicia brought the dog to it's home which was three city blocks away from where the dog was found.

When Alicia was asked why she stopped and saved the dog she responded with, "If it was my dog, I would hope someone would do the same thing. The poor dog didn't stand a chance." Lukily, the dog had the proper tags so she had no problem bringing the dog home to it's owners.When asked what the owners had to say about the situation, Alicia said, "They were estatic that the dog was home safe and they couldn't thank me enough."

Alicia felt very accomplished that she was able to save the dog. She was also happy because she made other people happy. She was very thankful that the dog had proper tags, because if not she would have had to find something to do with the dog. Alicia is now a hero to the dogs family; she brought their prized possession home safely.

When I Was Your Age....

Technology has shifted the typical norms of social life. Communication is based off of social networking sites and text messaging, instead of picking up the phone and actually calling someone. I constantly hear adults saying "When I was your age..." and then proceeding to state what was so different when they were teenagers. Social skills are definitely being lost due to the social media craze and text messaging addictions. Nobody needs to actually speak to anyone anymore, everything can be done just by typing on a keyboard. Previous generations did not even have cell phones, they couldn't possibly send texts. They actually had to call people's houses and actually talk to people. Now a days, everything can be done way quicker, and sometimes even more efficiently. 

However, there is a down side to the technology craze. Social networking sites can often destroy lives, and aren't always used for the good of things. It creates an outlet for cyber bullying, and there is nothing that can be done to actually stop it. Also, social networking sites can destroy future careers. Although something may be deleted, it is still on the internet forever and it can be found with the right tools. Anything that is posted can never be taken back, no matter how hard you try. 

Also, most job applications are done online now. Call me crazy, but if I was going to hire an employee I would definitely want to see who they are when they turn in an application rather than calling up some random person and having them come in for an interview. The internet can be dangerous, and you may never know what you get yourself caught up in. There are so many scams, fake profiles, and misleading information  that may severely harm a person in some way. 

With the rate that technology is moving, who knows where it might end up. There are now smart phones that are technically smarter than humans. Most smart phones today can do almost anything except for teleport things, literally. With future generations, more children are gonna be harmed and sucked into this crazy world of fast growing technology and addictive social networking sites.