The Revealers
In the novel, The Revealers, the students of Parkland Middle felt connected through SchoolStream or as the students called it KidNet where they were able to chat or instant message. Most of you do this nightly through MSN Messenger. With KidNet and MSN nobody could break into or eavesdrop on your conversation without it being known. Not anymore. Today’s technology allows you to assume the identity of another person. Do you really know whom you are talking to in the cyber world?
It is 10:00 pm on a Wednesday night; you have finished your homework and you are chatting on MSN with three other friends. After 10 minutes two more friends ask to join the chat. By 10:30 pm five more people have joined and it is fun; however, there is a joke said about one of the people, rapidly followed by an insult. At first, no one knows how to respond, then seconds later a message pops up stating, “I didn’t say that! It isn’t me saying these things. Someone is using my name. What is going on here?”
What is the issue involved in this scenario? Why is this serious?
What would be a responsible way to handle this situation?
How could a situation like this be resolved? How would one of the three main characters from The Revealers deal with this situation?
My Response: Well, actually it is pretty serious. Someone can fake and lie in MSN. For example, you can say that you caught your brother/sister hacking into your email account instead of taking the blame for yourself.
People can be vicious in the cyber world, and that's why there is also Cyber bullying (sending of offensive emails, text messages, and/or writing something bad about someone in a website or blog).
Back to the topic: If someone did say something bad about someone, and others actually were friends with that other person, I'd be pretty sure that they would defend that person. "You have no right to say that! Blahblah is a great person!" or something. You could leave the conversation, or you could face the bully.
You have to bring this topic up to the person the bully was talking
about, and explain what is happening. If the bully continues, it
should be talked about with a teacher, or some adult.
Another way to solve this is to stop using the chat program and ignore the bully. What do you get by listening to them? Anger and rage.
They could say something bad about you, but you've got friends there for you... Don't you?
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1 comment:
Very interesting outlook. I like the idea that the friends will stand up for the person being insulted. That they will try to help him/her as much as possible. And then the bully will be intimidated and stop hacking the person's MSN account. This is such an interesting outlook that I can't believe I didn't think about it.
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