We all have this picture of cyberbullying in our heads of a teenage girl crying behind a laptop while receiving death threats from strangers via Facebook Messenger. Trust me, I’ve seen the movie Cyberbully, and for the longest time, my idea of cyberbullying included Emily Osmet too.  

What you might not realize is cyberbullying happens in our school daily.

No, this isn’t the type of cyberbullying where everyone gangs up on one person. This cyberbullying happens individually via “anonymous” commenters on apps such as Sarahah, Ask FM, and After School.

Although these apps don’t necessarily support cyberbullying, the people who use these do. For some reason, knowing you’re “anonymous” gives people the idea that they can say whatever they want without consequence.

Guidance counselor Mrs. Allison agreed with me that this idea of anonymity causes more problems than they do good.

“(anonymity) allows kids to be cruel to each other because they are not named and do not fear any consequences,” said Mrs. Allison. “Students tend to think they’re invincible. We often think “it won’t happen to me”. Well I have news for you! If it’s on the internet, someone somewhere can access it!”

Now I’ve never used these apps myself. My mom always prohibited my siblings and I from downloading these because she foreshadowed the cyberbullying that would follow the popularity of these apps.

Even though I was never involved with this specific form of hate I’ve talked to some students who have.

Sophomore Sarah Massa has also always hated these types of apps.

“I think that these apps are revolting. They give a bully a huge break to bully and pick on someone anonymously and not have any consequences,” said Massa.

Yet, with all this negativity that comes from these apps, they are still super popular. Sarahah has over 14 million users. Ask FM is the number one Q&A app in the app store. After School is placed at number 11 for social networking apps.

Not only are these popular on their own, the idea of posting about someone anonymously is spreading to other social media.

Take Snapchat, for example.

Snapchat has always been a petri dish for spreading rumors. Especially for Massa.

“In 8th grade on Snapchat, everyone would spread rumors about me that I was a lesbian due to the short pixie cut I had,” said Massa.

As teens, we all have the bad habit of “vague posting” about our peers on Snapchat. When people have to be accepted by you to see your story, it creates this sense of security. It’s almost like you and your Snapchat friends are in one big group chat.

Hate to break it to you, but even in your tight group of friends, there is at least one person who is going to “snitch” on you. 99% of the time, the person you post about finds out, and that can lead to some pretty serious consequences.

“The majority of the time, I hear about cyberbullying from uninvolved parties – meaning someone else tells me that there are some inappropriate things being said or done that target a specific student or group of students,” said Mrs. Allison “If you bully someone online, there is a chance that you will never escape it.”

You may already know this, but in case you don’t, there’s a Snapchat trend going around involving me. For some reason, the “meninsts” in my grade like to post pictures of my not-so-great parking days and post it on their Snapchat story with the caption “feminist parking.”

This doesn’t really bother me, because I wear my feminist name tag proudly (plus if you’re not a feminist we can’t be friends because I don’t tolerate inequality).

Now, although I have the support to stand up to people who say mean things about me, not everyone does. Sure, I have a brother who’s a sarcastic writer with a mean twitter who will defend me, but not everyone has this luxury.

I can’t speak for everyone and say we all don’t mind being posted about. The people you post about have feelings too, so mind what you say. If you wouldn’t want it said about you, then don’t say it about anyone else.

And on top of that, have you seen the Show Or Cover game? If you haven’t: 1- you’re so lucky and 2- it’s basically this thing where the Snapchatter gives you a category (which range from cutest to scummiest) and you give them a name, along with whether you want to stay anonymous.

Basically, IT’S CYBERBULLYING! And I can’t stand it! How would you feel if one of your peers would to anonymously call you scummy? You would definitely hate it, so why would you hurt someone else by supporting these “games?”

In the end, cyberbullying is a serious issue that is overlooked. Please, don’t support anyone who is a cyberbully, and don’t support the apps that lead to even more cyberbullying.

Sure, I love Snapchat and am an avid user, but only for good.

Snapchat responsibly.