To Protect Our Future Leaders from Bullying

According to a research conducted by UNESCO in 2018, it turned out that almost

a third of worldwide teenagers have suffered from bullying. Bullying is a problem

for individuals because it has long-term negative effects such as depression, drug

abuse, and even suicide. It’s also a problem for the whole society, too, in that it

can hinder teenagers, who are supposed to be leading our future society, from

displaying their potential. In the following paragraphs, some types of bullying and

their underlying causes will be examined by categorizing bullying into two types:

face-to-face bullying and non-face-to-face bullying. On top of that, two relevant

solutions will be suggested, one from individuals’ perspective and the other from

the societal point of view.

The first type of bullying is face-to-face bullying, which is represented by physical

violence. This type of bullying is characterized by the physical contact among the

people involved. Moreover, in most cases of face-to-face bullying, it’s likely that

there are some witnesses. What can be suggested as the underlying reason of

face-to-face bullying is the lack of sense of community. It’s absolutely normal that

people pursue the sense of superiority, however, some teenagers who have

insufficient sense of community tend to display their superiority over others in a

wrong way, especially by harming them. This way of pursuing one’s superiority can be a 

serious problem in that it ends up making some victims.

The second type of bullying is non-face-to-face bullying. This type is differentiated

from face-to-face one by its absence of physical contact or any witnesses. In short,

non-face-to-face bullying can be said to happen behind the scene. This type is

represented by cyber bullying, which is growing worse and worse with teenagers’

abuse of digital devices and social networking service. In this context, the

seriousness of non-face-to-face bullying can be attributed to teenagers’ low digital

citizenship. Of course it is a nonsense to expect one to be fully equipped with

digital citizenship from the moment of his or her birth. If so, it is the society that is

to be blamed in that it failed to provide teenagers with proper education along

the societal transformation.

What can be done to prevent bullying? First, from the individuals’ perspective,

we have to develop our sensitivity to bullying. Considering that what’s considered

a petty mischief to someone can be the cause for others to regard themselves as

the victims of bullying, the sensitivity carries more weight. The sensitivity to

bullying is also directly related to the sense of community because it equals the a

bility to take others’ perspectives and to sympathize their emotional states, which

helps teenagers to have closer relationships with one another. In this sense,

individuals’ effort to develop their sensitivity to bullying can propose a solution to

the problem in that it’s conducive to the cultivation of the sense of community

among teenagers.

In addition, the society can make the issue of bullying publicized to raise the

public awareness on the problem and to incorporate anti-bullying education into

the regular school curriculum. When the public realizes the seriousness of bullying

and the necessity of anti-bullying education, it’s possible for individuals,

educational institutions, and other societal organizations to work together to

prevent bullying. Teenagers can benefit from the regular anti-bullying education

by learning how to behave themselves on both face-to-face and non-face-to-face

channels.

In this text, bullying is categorized into two types, namely face-to-face bullying and

non-face-to-face bullying. On the one hand, face-to-face bullying, which is

characterized by the presence of physical contact and witnesses, is attributed to

insufficient sense of community among teenagers. On the other hand,

non-face-to-face bullying is distinguished by its absence of physical contact or

witnesses, and teenagers’ low digital citizenship is suggested as its main cause.

To prevent bullying, individuals should develop their sensitivity to bullying, which is

likely to evolve into the sense of community. From the perspective of the whole 

society, the issue of bullying should be publicized for the settlement of regular

anti-bullying school curriculum. At all times, it must not be overlooked that the

cooperation between individuals and the whole society is the key to preventing

bullying.