Cyber Bulling

Lauren Guest, Brandon Jaworowski, Jessica Kamp

Cyber bullying is when a person uses technology in order to make threats, harass, humiliate or embarrass another person. This is most common from teens, preteens, and young adults. This kind of bullying is created through the use of technology. As our technology grows, so does the rate of cyber bullying. Researchers believe that kids have turned away from the “schoolyard bully” more and more because cyber bullying is much more convenient and safe. When you are hiding behind a computer screen you have all the time in the world to think of something horrible to say to the other person. However, when you are face to face, that is not the case.
Cyber bulling occurs mainly for two different reason. Most researchers believe that teens and young adults have too much time on their hands, so they see something on the internet and interject themselves and become involved. The second reason is that sometimes, people begin to use hateful words and harass each other in order to “defend” someone else. This causes much more cyber bulling because people then take sides and words are continuously exchanged until one of the groups gives up.
There was a poll taken in 2004 revealing shocking statistics about cyber bulling. According to the study, 42% of kids have been bullied while online, 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once, 35% of kids have been threatened online, Nearly 1 in 5 have had it happen more than once, 21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mail or other message, 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online, more than 4 out of 10 say it has happened more than once, 53% of kids admit having said something mean or hurtful to another person online, more than 1 in 3 have done it more than once, 58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.
There is no real solution to this problem due to the fact that it is the internet. The only people who can prevent the cyber bullying are the ones doing it. Teens and young adults need to step back and think before they put something in writing. How would they feel if they were the ones receiving that message? If these rates increase, the internet will become a place solely full of hate. Someone must take a stand and help prevent this.

WHY DO WE NEED FACEBOOK???

By: Joseph, Morgan, and Brian
      The social networking website Facebook has become the guilty pleasure of many. One could say it has become the new cigarette. Why is it so addicting? What age group does facebook affect or does it affect a certain age group at all? Why do we find it so appealing to update our status or comment about other people’s lives? We want to be connected with others and feel like we are part a group. It affects people of different generations differently. Parents want to check up on their children to make sure they are safe but also just to be a part of their lives. Grandparents and the elderly want to try to stay connected with family members. College students and young adults use facebook as a social networking site, while staying in the loop on whats going on around them. It does not help that there is a plethora of games and apps that seem to distract us from reality.

       When you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world without actually having to meet and speak with them  we are able to connect with individuals across the boards. Communications skills have suffered majorly due to cell phones and social networking sites such as facebook. Although facebook is very informative on what party is happening or whose birthday it is, it defeats the purpose of verbal communication.  Verbal communication allows us to relate to one another and connect more on a personal level. It means more to a person for someone you know to tell happy birthday to your face than to receive the standard “happy birthday” wall post that everyone receives.

    We are all guilty of becoming addicted to facebook. As a group we challenge you to spend less time updating your status and commenting of photos, and spend more of your time elsewhere!!

Facebook

Soto, Ivory, Torres

In today’s world many people use Facebook for more than keeping in touch with friends. In most circumstances people follow “Facebook etiquette” which are common unwritten rules that users of Facebook abide by. There are sometimes dangerous and annoying things that happen when these rules are not followed.

The term creeping has been coined from the practice of stalking people on Facebook. The sad thing is most all of us are guilty of the practice. This creeping takes place when someone has an interest in someone let it be romantic, curiosity, or something that they are competing over. The creeper will spend hours on this person’s Facebook. It is the product of this creeping that leads to the other problems with Facebook. The act of creeping alone isn’t that bad except that it might make you uncomfortable when let’s say a guy from your government class, who sits three rows back, says that picture of you in Cozumel is really nice. In some case creeping is the most dangerous thing that could happen. You might accidently post something about where you are and the person that is creeping on you would know and possibly pay you a surprise visit. This unwarranted visit would not be one that the person being visited would enjoy.

There are things that people can find on Facebook that can ruin chances for jobs. If the job or someone you are applying against finds some pictures of you doing something that can be construed as negative or detrimental to the company or its image, you probably wont be getting the job. This is unfortunate because you might not have posted the dumb picture from spring break in college but its still there and can be found. There is no privacy on the Internet. Once the image is on cyber space it can be very hard to remove. You may be the most qualified person for a job and very responsible but if the company finds an inappropriate image your entire resume no matter how good it is goes straight ot the trash.

Another problematic thing is that you don’t have control of what people do or say about you on your wall. There are those who don’t follow Facebook etiquette and send multiple annoying requests. These might not harm your image but it can take a long time to sift through these things to find something you might actually care about. But these minor annoyances can quickly take over your inbox and wall. This isn’t dangerous as much as it is annoying. 

Facebook Abuse....WAY easier and requires less energy.

Tangie  Two  Names Lambert and Christana Horn!

SOOO you get on Facebook and the moment you pull up your page and the moment you do BAM!.He's gotcha. EVERYONE has a Facebook stalker. You know? That one person that comments or like's all of your posts, pictures, and status's? That one person that everytime you log on you know has messaged, commented, or like's you or somethhing you have said or said something pertaining to how much they miss you. By this time your kinda annoyed and you ask nicely to stop. For a few days they stop and you can focus on "Gearing up for Friday to go hang wit ur BFF Gillian." Fun right? you say your going to the Skating ring and then when you and Gillian get there BAM! he's there. "I didnt message you on facebook so i thought you would appreciate meeting in person hi...Im your own personal fan club president!"   After this little stunt your fuming and you delete him from your friends list.....days later.....you have another request...you delete...and nother shows.....you delete and the next time a message comes..."Please dont be angry! Your mom thought it would be a great idea! Why are you angry...OH and by the way she thinks we are dating and that would be totaly awesome if we were." Is this wrong on so many levels? YES .....yes it is. Because why would you damn near....wait...no damn near about it....it IS stalking....well stalk someone just because your their friend? I  (Tangie) have one of those and i gotta say its quite annoying since he puts the most random things on ur page. Is it harrassment? Kinda since he wont leave you the freak alone!!! GOD its like child support!!! It keeps comming back to get you and wont stop til you are sitting on the floor with your head on his lap n his hand rubbing your head saying .."Precious...Precious...."

Preacher Bob

Soto, Torres, Ivory

               

Preacher Bob is a man who goes to different college campuses to “preach” for a living. His method of preaching however is slightly different from average. His goal when he goes to these college campuses is not to change anyone’s mind or get anyone on his side, it is to try to make someone mad enough to punch them so he can sue them and make money. Yes, this is his full time job. But does his argument style actually work? Yes and no, the reason behind it is to make money and he has done that but he doesn’t exactly make people agree with his argument.

On Wednesday September 29^th someone like Preacher Bob came to Oklahoma State’s campus and had the attention of the entire student body. Even though his arguments and ideas were ridiculous people still argued and listened to him preach the whole time. So this argument style obviously works to some extent because he is getting the attention of a lot of people. This style of argument is called counter-hetoric. Counter-hetoric is a style of argument that is obnoxious and offensive and usually is trying to emphasize their original point. Using this style of argument Preacher Bob and others like him are trying to pick at areas that people really care about by going to college campuses in the Bible Belt and preaching and offending people. Once they know they are offending the students and becoming "popular" and widespread with their outrageous and offensive ideas and manor of "preaching" them, they then know they are doing what they set out to do. Their manor of arguing seemed to change people’s views, but not in a way to make them believe or not believe him but to make them not really listen to his words. In a sense he psyches people out of believing him even if they actually do believe him.

                In conclusion I think that this counter-hetoric, Preacher Bob’s style of argument, is effective because it gets the attention of people he wants attention from. To prove the point that it works, this could not be his full time job if it didn’t work. If Preacher Matt was to come back to Oklahoma State’s campus I’m sure he would again get the attention he came for.

Ethical Teachings?

By: Audrey, Morgan, and Sam
In “Selling Safe Sex in Public Schools”, it talks about Shelby Knox, a student at The University of Texas at Austin, who has pledged abstinence until marriage. Being from Lubbock, she was shocked to find that Lubbock had some of the highest rates of STDs and teen pregnancy in the nation.  Knox decided that she wanted to help out her community not by just sharing her pledge of abstinence but by helping others who didn’t necessarily make that choice that she did. This article is very interesting in the fact that despite multiple people going against her, Knox decided to stick to what she wanted to accomplish. Knox felt like she was responsible to speak out to others, and got no help or attention from others. Knox began to head the youth commission, and overall with the program STD and pregnancy rates in Lubbock started to decrease. However, even with this decrease, she still faced criticism, and the mayor of Lubbock ultimately ended the funding for the program. As the program diminished, the STD and pregnancy rates once again started to increase. Even though she has resigned from the program, Knox still continued her work, and hoped to be able to further reach out to teens, even though what she was doing was still very controversial. 
 Our Group believes that what Knox was trying to do ethical in that even though she had pledged to be abstinent and she was in a subject where most people aren’t necessarily making the same decisions, she’s doing it for the good of others. She still has personal experiences to share with others, and she did in fact obviously make some sort of an impact on teens with the decrease of STDs and pregnancies. It seemed unfair for Knox to be getting criticism from her community, even though she was abstinent, because it was for the greater good. Since she did grow up a Southern Christian, it was brave of her to go against her beliefs and the views and feelings of others towards her work just to help out these teenagers. Overall, even though she faced criticism she did the right thing for the goodwill of her community, and hopefully will be able to continue to reach out to teenagers facing problems. 

Brandon Jaworowski Jessica Kamp Tangie Lambert

This weeks blog time I would like to discuss the highly debatable topic of brother or preacher Matt who was here at OSU on 9/29/10. He was here to "spread the word of the lord". However when you do some research on him and his minitry you find out that he is simply here to make a quick buck. He goes from campus to campus to piss college students off and in other words try to prevoke a fight. Than when that happens he can sue the school, the campus police and the student. He can make a ton of money if it ever happens. Now I know i am not here to talk about him but i just thought you all should get a little background information on him before i began talking about his for lack of a better word argumentive strategy. He would get to a school and began trashing its students. He would just insult the students walking by calling them whorish or an alcoholic or a idiot or just plain stupid. Than when it came to an argument about the lord, he said he was preaching the word by telling us what the lords wants but he would just make fun of us and tell us all the stuff we did wrong and how we are all gonig to hell cause of this stuff. He went out on a limb and didn't stop to think who he was insulting. A member of our gay community at OSU said "he was not nearly as bad as the other types of preachers we have had here at OSU". Which gets me to think how much worse can it get to someone that he is really insulting. Do these people actually talk what he says to heart? Why would someone want to do something like this to someone they do not even know and probably could get along with but does not take the time to and just bashes them every chance he gets. Preacher Matt was able to stirr up quite a crowd on library lawn, he managed to have people dance around him and manage to insult everyone even people that could call themselves die hard christians. At one point a girl went out and told him to shush, she than began to explain how not all christians are like that and everyone began to cheer. Than suddenly the man interrupted her and began yelling out "oh yes, not all of you are like me and that is simply why you are all going to hell, you all think it is all right now, that jesus is your gangster, homeboy but you all do not know what is really going to happen". He never took a chance to listen at the other side of the arguments when he was with someone he would simply forget it and just say you do not know what you are talking about your just simply dumb and a easy fooled teenager. His argument may not be the most effective to get someone to follow him but his goal was not that but to get someone to assualt him. His goal was not accomplished. I am glad that it was not, looking back i would not want saomeone like that to get the satisfaction of gaining money for a college just by arguing and cause a ruckus and insulting people, it is just not right to me. My group agreed, we did not want to see him succeed in anything, we all agreed his tactic of arguing was not successfull but we all do see him coming back to OSU and trying this again in the future. We will all be ready once again.