Gasp! Twitter Bullies?
There was a question posted over at TwiTip regarding Twitter Bullies which is how this particular post started.
I have to admit that I’ve been privy to a few episodes of bullying on twitter since I joined in early February of this year. I am sure that there are always plenty of other bully shenanigans going on around me, but I do not allow this to become part of my personal twitter experience.
The above paragraph may sound a bit callous, or it could make me appear to be indifferent to the suffering that surrounds emotional and mental abuse issues online. For the record: I have a BS in Sociology, three years experience working with online organizations that deal specifically in cyber-abuse issues, three years of experience in high acuity units at a psychiatric hospital, and virtual experience of ten years plus dealing with varying degrees of online abuse. I believe I am qualified to give intermediate advice regarding how to deal with online bullies!
Do you remember the schoolyard bully from yesteryear? The guy or gal who could raise an eyebrow at you, shake a fist, and make your knees turn to jello? Perhaps even make you pee your pants? Those dreaded schoolyard bullies often grew up and took on abusive-style roles in adulthood too.
Emotional, mental, or physical abuse are areas that often invite a typical schoolyard bully to continue to embrace abusive-type behaviors as an ongoing ‘lifestyle of choice’ throughout the human lifespan. Yes, bullies can make choices too!
Wikipedia: The National Crime Prevention Council‘s definition of cyber-bullying is “when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. Other researchers use similar language to describe the phenomenon.
The number ONE rule in order to stop bullying in its tracks, is to turn on the IGNORE rule. The bully no longer exists once you have turned on this rule. There should never be any contact in any form ever, remember that the bully now ceases to exist.
The number TWO rule is to not give out any personal information online that you do not want everyone to know about! There are people in the virtual-sphere that do not have your best interests at heart, and they could possibly ignite a stalking nightmare that could take years to extinguish. You don’t want to go there!
The number THREE rule is to never engage in a battle of damaging tweets on twitter! I have seen it in the raw and it is abrasive, derogatory, and often constitutes defamation of character. I was shocked to observe a very popular twitter guy with almost 100K followers, stalked by an irate follower who ruthlessly displayed prior criminal record dirt in order to engage the masses. The guy who was attacked by his prior criminal record had to literally create a video to explain his naughty record. After many direct messages from his attacker to me, I basically told the attacker that I was not interested in digging old dirt and that he needed to move on.
The number FOUR rule is that if the online twitter-bully refuses to stop bullying you, you need to seek help! Please do contact me regarding your particular situation and I will be happy to direct you to the appropriate available resources in order to assist you.
You can read all about the different types of bullies over at Bully Online, the world’s leading web site on bullying. Though the bulk of information available at this particular site is work-related, there is plenty of useful advice that you can arm yourself with in order to deal with abusive online personalities.
Until next time – stay safe online!
bully, online, social networking, stalking, twitter
2 Comments
I am in the midst of being bullied online. But I’m adopting your 1st rule to ignore so most of the bullying is taken off. However, I noticed a recent chop down on followers despite contributing a lot of useful tweets and earning more noteworthy and powerful tweepies as my followers. I know how the bully starts. Its not from Twitter itself but its from other forums that I am on. Its sounds sinister but I suspect someone actually used hate and jealousy behind my back; and got somebody else they know ( while I don’t) to get even with me on Twitter by playing around my tweets and DM rude messages. Sometimes they use indirect sources to punch in a couple of sacarstic lines. All of these were ignored until they start to openly group themselves up on twitter. I am thinking of blocking them out. But then again it may be a stupid move because they might just do this free fall thing to just get others to do the same; and thus endless trouble. They seem to leave 2 tweepies to land me soft attack: 1 is focusing on DM and sending me insults on my age and how I am feeling about it etc. The other does the open tweeting to stir up political views that will definitely get me into trouble.
I would really appreciate if you could kindly advise me what to do next. I spent a lot of time online to learn and to share;and am not interested in wasting my time on bullies. Please kindly help..
Save DM rude messages and block/unfollow them. Please follow me and email teksquisite either at live.com or at gmail.com to let me know who you are – I’ll be able to DM you back and check out that line of bullies and let you know who you might be dealing with