The way I see it, harassment is harassment no matter where it takes place. Whether it be in a virtual world or in the real world, intimidation or negative unwanted attention is the same. Even though your body isn’t present in an online situation, your mind is still affected.
By this I mean, that an online character or presence is more often than not, an extension of yourself. When someone attacks – either verbally or ‘physically’ – your presence, the harsh words or actions have a psychological affect, or can anyway. Take for instance the YouTube comments on ANY given video. You all know what I am talking about. The comments never really have anything to do with the video and usually revolve around certain four letter words and racial slang. Those comments rarely make sense, but can sometimes go overboard. Which leads me to cyber-bullying – probably the biggest component of virtual harassment.
Having been a victim of cyber-bullying myself, I know that while your body remains intact, your mentality is wounded. No, I take it back. Your body does get hurt too. The nasty words/acts are poison to your body. They seep into your system through your eyes and dwell in your brain. With every tear or wave of anger, the poison grows within. Soon you are depressed and feel an ache in your heart. Whether that be from the words or realizing that person(s) were not who you thought. Or that your deepest fear was proved correct. Listen to your instincts – they are your best friend. Now sometimes the poison will stop at your core. Other times it will continue its way through your body. Attacking your legs, once able to run, skip and sprint, now only able to carry you from one resting place to another. Or your hands – making them tremble like a smoker going through withdraws. See cyber-bullying never really stops once you close the screen. And I know there are people who say, “Just close the computer screen, they are just words”. Bull. Words are the greatest weapon and the greatest defense. They break bones and they heal wounds long suffered. The saying, “Once you see something, you can never un-see it” is true. Once you hear those words and know what that person thinks of you, you will never look at them the same way. So now that I have that out of my system, how do we stop this or police it?
We don’t. That’s right. We don’t police it because how do you regulate what people say? “Freedom of speech” they will cry. But they don’t realize that freedom of speech is – or should – be weighed against common courtesy. Now, that is not to say that there shouldn’t be rules against virtual harassment – there should. It just isn’t plausible to enforce such laws. Ultimately the power of enforcement rests with the users. If people keep the virtual environment up to their social standards, there would be less of a problem. Because, let’s face it. People, even if kicked off and their account is deleted, can create a new account under a different name. It’s not too hard to create a gmail or yahoo email…
We, as virtual environment users, wish and complain about how harassment is viewed, but we are the ones with the power to change the situation. I know it’s a big cliche, but it is true. So, now the ball is in our court. What are we going to do about it? ~V
Sunflowers and Riddles 