Recent political events have been shared globally, and human interest stories have moved through social media rapidly where even 10 years ago it was unheard.
Then there is another side of social media that few people have seen little but those that experience it are well aware. That side is where people gather and separate into groups and one group dominates - another cycle of power and control. Those that capitulate will become minions to this group. And those who fight back will have what called a cyber-war. These days we call that "cyberbullying" and the reason for concern is our children are on the "frontlines" of this war and we are unsure of how to protect them.
Cyberbullying is not just a bully hurting a "nerdy" or "odd" child on the online "school yard" for their online "lunch money". Rather, cyberbully is like "Electronic Mind Rape", always about "Power and Control" and a pliable mind, like that of an underdeveloped pre-teen without life experience is the target. Moreover, it is not once or twice that a cyberbully posts something mean, it is an onslaught, and the bully often coerces his or her minions to follow suit. So the target receives inappropriate behavior from all different directions. Lastly, the bully is never someone who behaves in that manner in real life. There are two lives: 1) that is mild-manners, somewhat socially anxious and shy; and 2) an online live where one's wildest fantasies can be fulfilled.
What is sad is bullies become adults who commit the same behavior that often leads to chronic health conditions like heart and stroke risk, cancer and premature death. But for those who are online, the health risks are unclear. How can cyberbullying be so pervasive in this other side of Social Media?
I posit that the reasons for behaviors seen on social media reflects the neurological development of communication disorders and the inability to evolve to the novel technology.
What that means is, many humans evolutionarily have not mentally evolved for an effective means of communication and online behavior. Those who are adapting to it are those who effectively communicate or can sway an audience to understand it. And the people who do have the knowledge base and wherewithal in real life have not yet caught up to those who can "short sell" an idea quickly on social media. A person who can influence people with a few quips on social media could be cyberbullies. More often than not, it is the cyberbullies who are popular; whereas, those who may have well developed knowledge base in their real lives are the outcasts.
I am of the opinion that neurological and mental health issues play a huge role in the propensity of one being bullied and I will show pieces of my evidence.
Recently, I wrote a blog that high functioning Autistic people probably seem and do fine on social media because the level of communication only requires two dimensions, a computer and basic reading skills. In Autism spectrum disorders, it is well known that some people have an inability to make inferences.
Inference is is the act of drawing a conclusion by deductive reasoning from given facts. The conclusion drawn is also called an inference.
I have witnessed an avowed high functioning autistic person unable to draw inference. When bringing several concepts together, it is difficult for a young high functioning Autistic teen to understand all of them together. As one gets older and has more life experiences, they are able to ask for explanation although they may not completely understand as a coping skill. It is hard to do.
Generally, when a young person dealing with autism, their brain development does not allow their left and right hemispheres to appropriately communicate. What is observed online is while they may have what looks like a vibrant social media life, in fact shows how easily mislead they are by nefarious people. If they become the targets of bullies, you see anger in their words and a disconnect. If they are doing the bullying, there is often repetition in believing something that is not true and spreading rumors and gossip about the target.
The next communication disorder is bipolar which I discuss in my previous blog. What happens in the brain of a bipolar is the emotion centers from the amygdala, parietal lobe and the hippocampus form a rapid depolarizations and action potentials along these nerves. In fact in untreated bipolars, if one closes his or her eyes, one can "see" these "lightening" in his or her brain. Often the behavior associated witht his neuronal misfiring is mania. Then the rapid cycling episode or fall becomes the depression.
What this looks like online from what I have seen and experienced is that depending on what phase the bipolar is, mania or depression, their livelihood is expressed in that manner. If in a manic episode, the person creates many accounts on the same social media platform, attempts to force a process to happen and gets too involved with the personalities on line equivocating it to "real life" friendships. Inevitably, doing all these activities shows degeneration which can lead to depression and the comments heard are "no one cares", lots of profanity, and suicide threats. When bipolars use social media as an expression, usually, one can review their blogs and the comments are long, disjointed, misspellings, grammatical errors and gross logic fallacies. It is tough to understand what it is that they are saying.
What that mean for someone dealing with bipolar and acting out online is the other person engaging him or her often feels the exhilaration then overwhelmed. The two dimensions of social media have not evolved far enough alone to fully express one who is dealing with bipolar.
If the bipolar person is a bully, often it is seen in the manic phase as a passive aggression, in the form of blocking, bragging to others about the injustice with a lot of profanity. If on the otherhand, the bipolar person is being bullied, the risks are huge, as they will become depressed and threaten suicide, especially showing in blogs.
Here is an example of a suicide threat from a person who may have been bullied:
Btw you make me feel like suicide is the best option at the moment. And I feel like I am caught in a cross fire between 2 people. I am seriously thinking about leaving both groups and just doing it with the people that seem to care about me, and myself
What to do in that instance is to contact the following groups and give them the information. At best, that is the end of any conversation until the person seeks help.
This should be standard operating procedure, but there are too many misnomers young people have on recourse. Fact is, an adult needs to be involved, preferable one trained and licensed in this type of occurrence.
The interesting part is while bipolar people can be bullies, more studies are needed to see if they are more apt to being the target of bullies due their inherent disorganized thought process risk.
The next communication disorder I would like to tackle is anxiety. People who are dealing with anxiety often neurologically have the ability to heighten their blood pressure for activities that would not cause blood pressure to rise, such as standing and waiting in a grocery line. In real life, anxiety prone individuals feel they must do everything thing themselves and only they can do them or else it is failure. It looks like mania, but not as grandiose and outlandish as mania. People dealing with anxiety are quite logical in fact. Have well thought out and detailed plans that actually make sense, just too many steps to them and once they realize they have done too much, they have an overwhelming sense of failure that could cause a depression.
Most of the time, people dealing with anxieties can get angry when they feel they steps are foiled and they lash out. It is different than the anger that bipolars display often sensationalizing how others have hurt them; whereas, anxious persons often are combative and in ones face.
What that means for social media is people who are dealing with anxieties, can easily join a group and will defend the group and its coda. But anyone with differing ideas from the lexicon will be ostracized, rapidly. More often than not anxious individuals will not give the offending person a second chance on social media and are often confrontational publicly. Their behavior on the outside appears one of aloofness and "libertarian" but internally, because of the confusing feeling based on missteps that they cannot control in another person, they give up on that person. It would seem that people dealing with anxieties are the bullies, but I have also witnessed them being bullied and then taking on a "I do not care" mentality.
The bullying example of a person dealing with anxiety appears as such:
I have reams of similar behaviors manifested. It would be interested to see if aggression showing in those dealing with mental health issues creates this kind of behavior and treatment toward unknown individuals and how it pairs out into each mental health condition.
Moreover, there is a huge issue of jealousy in the social media world. The person to formulate the idea first online makes it a competition of who does the best job, lightening speed flow of information and the one who gets the money. Because both major social media markets, i.e. Facebook and Twitter were inherently designed for marketing and advertising dollars it is conceivable that immediacy of broadcast in this fast paced environment does not allow introspection and promotes doublespeak and groupthink. Why? Because it is easier to implement actions online than doing it in real life. And unfortunately, teens have little life experience, already testing their boundaries, and their judgment can be at times questionable, one can easily see how those young people suffering from mental health issues can be attacked due to their vulnerability or easily be a part of the cyberbullying.
What is worse is there are predators online who are incapable of compassion and target these same individuals. They often come off a nice persons, easily pliable and readily manipulate young people into amoral actions. And they are good at what they do. Some are excellent writers.
To protect one's child/teen from this actions, a parent must be able to spot transparency and process in the activities of their child/teen.
Which is why on every one of my sites I manage, I can be identified as to who I am and I can be contacted for any questions.
The other thing a parent can do is understand process and choose to agree to it. In my businesses, I have branding and a clear business plan. I can tell you what it is I do. My credentials are former University instructor and these are the repercussions and benefits in falling under my activities.
When it comes to one's child/teen or young adult, while some kind of decisions can be made by themselves as learning experiences, to keep your child safe while online, especially those that deal with neurological communication disorders, my business is dedicated creatively in making a positive-enriching learning experience than just for fun that often looks like a time-waster to outsiders.
The lists of my business are below:
The Ari | af | ya Universe - Where Science Meets Mental Health and Wellness Online
Sistah Mental Health and Wellness - Mental Zeal for Spirit and Well-Being
Isle Sanctuary Artistic Division - We tell stories on social media
GYM Right - Get Your Mind Right Health and Wellness Coaching
Mental Health Angel Investment Group - For professionals to advocate the best mental health care for populations in health disparity
