Who Am I Online? Gerber

In class, we watched a video about bullying. The video had a main character who was having a very bad day. He was being bullied and we had to choose to either watch or stop him from being bullied. We saw how people have the choice to stand up or watch, and what good can come out of being kind and stopping a bully. In the video, there were opportunities to stop a bully. You could click a button and the bully would do something nice. We used this as a way to see what can happen when you do a good thing. We also took this as an opportunity to learn about the anti bullying emoji. The emoji is used to stop online bullies. This video was showing us that with this emoji, it is our job to protect people online from bullies. 

My online presence is not who I really am. Most of it isn't even me at all! I barely come up, and the things that do come up are pretty obscure. There are a few pictures of me but most of it is someone else. When you look up Bea Gerber Friends Select School, lots of good things come up. All of my good school achievements appear, and that's what I want people to see. When you look up my name, all that you see is Facebook and Twitter pages. 

From my online appearance, I think that people will think I'm an average person. Nothing is very alarming or odd, but none of it is very good either. I wish that I could change what comes up to be more positive and academic, but for now I can't. Hopefully, by the end of high school it will reflect me in a better light. 

Internet trolls use the web as a place to bully without the repercussions. They think that because no one knows who they really are, that they can do whatever they want and not get in trouble for it. The truth is that yes, they are anonymous, but that doesn't make their words any less hurtful. People are bullied online all the time, and it can be worse than in real life. Anonymity online has it's ups and downs. It can be a good thing when you want to get unbiased results. People aren't judged for how they look or talk, only by what they think. This can be good for somethings, but it can also be bad. When people think they are anonymous, it makes them think that they have the power to be mean to others without getting caught. It often ends badly, and people are always getting hurt. Overall, online anonymity can be a good thing and a bad thing, but it usually does more harm than good.