Mystic Mairi on cyber-bullying
We had a question for Mystic Mairi this month and it was:
How would you deal with bullying on social media, on Facebook for example?
You need to be a bigger person – don’t reply, don’t send images and don’t send emoji’s. Especially don’t swear, that would just encourage people, it would just fuel the fire.
Mystic Mairi answered: “Now this is a very good question!
Bullying on social media is still bullying. Don’t give the power back to the bully – it’s so important that you control your life. Bullying it is like a destruction, it is nasty and it’s not right – here is a list of things you can do:
- Don’t type anything back that is nasty or horrible – it is just continuing the horrible cycle!
- You can block that person. That person will not know you have blocked them, but the block will not allow them to message you anymore.
- Don’t tell everything to the social media platforms (like Facebook) about yourself.
People are able to see any personal information, even date of birth, on your profile – they don’t need to know all that information. - Delete your phone number and address from your social media account if you do decided to remove yourself.
You can just go to the settings and make sure that you don’t tell more about yourself that you want the whole wide world to know. - Be careful with links. People might send you a link to something you don’t agree with, so for example they might send you to a dodgy sites, and again that is just another way to upset you.
- The best thing to do is to report it to someone you trust, don’t keep quiet.
- Beware of the temptation to spread rumours. Don’t tell everyone what this person is saying. You don’t want to be the one spreading rumours.”
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Mystic Mairi added: “Last year I was in a similar situation and it nearly destroyed me. This is one of the reasons I decided to go off Facebook and I am nowadays a bit more old fashioned. I prefer to keep in touch with people over the phone or meet them face to face.
For me any type of bullying it’s absolutely wrong doing, I don’t like it. It’s not right.
It’s a hard one because I have been there myself, and I know it can be hurtful, especially if it is in a public forum. The comments were personal, extremely hurtful and again on a public forum! We all have feelings, obviously.
I would ask the person, next time that I see them, why are they doing this.
The problem is, especially when you have a lifelong condition, I think people don’t understand what you are going through, but I can speak for myself, and situations such as bullying can affect your mental health and it makes it a lot worst. This is something we don’t talk enough about, but it is disgraceful that people do this to other people. It should not be tolerated!”
Editor’s note: you can also find useful information about combating bullying and harassment online at https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/