Who are we? The team behind "Be a friendly netizen" campaign.
We are ordinary students whose lives revolve around school, work, and play.
We are FLEX!
We are Media and Communications students in Singapore Polytechnic.
Why did we set up this blog?
We are youthful. We are FLEX, a Fun-Loving and Enthusiastic group of youths who aim to X out cyberbullying!
We want to make a difference in the cyberworld, no matter how small the difference may be.
Because we want to encourage youths to become friendly netizens.
We'll be focusing on 2 areas of cyberbullying - the blog and video streaming sites, which explains the existence of this blog.
And for this campaign, this blog is set up by youths, specially for youths!
Objectives
• To create awareness about the seriousness of cyberbullying
• To spread the information on the ways to respond to cyberbullying, consequences and the causes and effects of cyberbullying.
• To encourage the practice of netiquette.
What is this campaign all about?
This is a campaign tailor-made against cyberbullying, especially in blogs and streaming video websites (click ‘About Cyberbullying’ for more information on where cyberbullying can occur).
It is entitled ‘Be a Friendly Netizen’.
And we define a friendly netizen as someone who:
• Is sensitive towards others’ feelings
• Acts responsibly
• Is conscious of his/her online activities, and
• Avoids hostility.
As technology empowers us, and with ‘great power comes great responsibility’ (quote from our favourite hero: Spiderman), let us pay tribute to hi-tech by playing our part to contribute to a more conducive cyberworld, and this can be achieved by just being a friendly netizen, which is not difficult at all!
How can you support this campaign?
Simple! Just paste the e-badge code below into your blog or any website!
Drop us an
email to notify us when you've included the e-badge into your blog or website!
Are you a victim or bully of cyberbullying? The answer is: it does not matter here.
No matter who you are, what you do or what you have done, everyone is equal in the eyes of FLEX!, for we are citizens of the Internet.
Netizens is what we shall call ourselves.
Just as we remain loyal to our respective countries and respecting individuals’ cultures offline, we should also do the same online – show respect for other netizens’ pride and feelings, show that we can be responsible users of the Internet.
This is everyone’s home on second life. And ‘home’ is what we defined as a place of warmth, harmony, belonging and love.
Let's make the cyberworld a better place. Be a friendly netizen, keep cyberbullying out!
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying occurs when someone puts down victim through the use of info-communication technologies (ICT), thereby causing emotional distress to the victim.
ICT includes mobile phones and the Internet.
Cyberbullying covers a wide spectrum. Actions that constitute cyberbullying ranges from as minute as name-calling and playful teasing to more serious ones like sending threatening messages and uploading offensive videos e.g. physical bullying in schools online. All of which must have caused the victim emotional distress.
Cyberbullying is also a very relative issue. “What may hurt me may not hurt you,” explained it all.
How do you know if you’re cyberbullying someone?
• What you publish (content)
• Who you publish it to
• How you express it
Where can cyberbullying appear?
• Mobile phone - in SMSes
• Internet – Blog comments, social networking sites e.g. Facebook and Friendster, instant messaging (IM) e.g. MSN messenger, in online games, streaming video sites e.g. YouTube.
Effects of cyberbullying
Victims may experience the following:
• Relationship problems
• Loss of self-esteem
• Crying themselves to sleep
• Anxiety
• Loss of sleep or appetite
• Loneliness
• Depression
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Suicide
How to deal with cyberbullying?
Ever gotten upset over a nasty comment someone made about you online?
We understand. We’ve been there, experienced that, and overcame them.
It sure takes guts to stand firm and not be affected by others’ opinions about you especially when you know that what they have published are not true.
Sometimes, you don’t even know who your perpetrators are.
It’s frustrating, isn’t it?
You feel a sense of anguish, don’t you?
Always has the urge to take revenge by bullying them back the same way they did it to you? Forget it!
Being cool and calm is the best way to deal with cyberbullying.
Simply, choose to ignore it. Not responding to it makes you less of an easy target!
If it’s someone whom you thought was a friend but wrote those nasty comments about you online, either talk things out with him/her or find out why he/she did that.
If she intended to hurt you, then its time you make new and positive friends who can help you build up your self-esteem.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Question Mark #4
HELLO everyone, FLEX! is here to present the latest topic for this week. This week's bonus: A pair of 77th Street voucher to be given away to the lucky person with the best comment posted on this week's Question Mark column. Impress us now! :DDDDDDDD
Note: Do leave your email address when you post a comment. This is for notifying purposes.
QUESTION MARK is a column specially set up for the like-minded, strong opinionated and/or critical 'monster' that lives inside each and every one of us. For we believe that nobody is neutral on everything. It’s time to speak your mind.
Every week, a topic for debate and discussion or a question raised by anyone will be addressed in this column. So, join in the fun!
LOOK OUT for QUESTION MARK every Friday!
Got a burning question? Click on 'Post a comment' below this entry, leave a tag on our tagboard or email us at weareflex@hotmail.com
P.S: FLEX! reserves the right to remove any post that is deemed offensive or undesirable, as well as the right to decide the winner of this contest. The winner will be contacted by email. Labels: Question mark
was a friendly netizen at 11:01 PM
Yes, the internet has indeed benefitted youths. It draws not only youths, but people in general, together. We are at this age where there are lots of turning points in our lives. Friends leave the country for further studies. As such, the internet allows us to keep in touch with friends, no matter where they are. X)
I feel that the internet is a double-edged sword. It has its advantages and disadvantages. more inportantly, the user (netizen) should exercise responsibilty when using the internet.
cheers~! X)
the internet has and always been the debating point in the modern world.
so far it has brought about many changes with regards to the efficiency it brings about in our lives.
one of the few advantages is that it has brought about information being passed around the world. without the internet. we might still have to go to the library to research for our homework and other aspects related to our work. there is nothing in today's world that we do not require the use of the internet. everything that we do is somewhat related to internet in one way or another be it minor or major.
other advantages that the internet has brought about is the way we communicate with the world today. many people communicate with their friends and around the world by using the internet to communicate. this includes the usage of msn, emails, skype and other forms of communication.
these 2 points are the strongest advantages of the internet in our modern society.
however the disadvantages has brought many unwanted effects in our lives too.
with the introduction of the internet, it has brought about the sexual side of human nature; pornography.
why is it that bad? that is because it corrupts youths today who are curious in it. and by doing so, they slowly become addicted to it. there have been cases whereby teenagers are addicted to pornography and has brought about psychological side effects to the youth.
another case would by cyber-bullying whereby people have been victimised over the net and this too has brought about many psychological effects on the victims themselves.
as such, no matter how we view it, the internet is here to stay and we have to evolve from it and learn to handle with the threats and the advantages that the internet has given us thus far.
The internet has proved itself to be both beneficial and harmful to the society. In the case where it's beneficial, it helps us to look up for information which is useful to us, keep in contact with relative and friends especially when they're overseas or living far away from us. In the case where it's harmful, many youths and teenagers are using internet as a tool to abuse their friends verbally especially in blogs and gaming zone where they're ususally the most popular sites that they go to. They may do so due to revenge or just plain boredom which I think is super ridiculous.
Anyway, introducing internet has both advantages and disadvantags which I've already mentioned above. As such, it's very important to educate them in a correct manner so that the disadvantages can be minimised. Some ways are to hold campaigns like this or asking the school teachers to get the ball rolling by starting the topic like, 'Do you know what is cyberbullying' and ask them to discuss and share their opinions of it together as a class. In this way, everyone will most probably benefit it. =)
Hi huifenhebe,
you're right about bringing the Cyberbullying topic into class discussions. Indeed, part of our campaign involved leveraging the roles of educators to influence youths and raise awareness about seriousness of cyberbullying.
For your information, we contacted the module coordinator of a module called Critical Reasoning Skills (CRS) in SP. In this module, students discuss about current affairs with the guide of their respective lecturers and are taught oral presenting skills. At the same time, they learn to write argumentative essays on prevailing issues in the society.
So, given the nature of this module, we pitched our idea of allocating 10 – 15 minutes of CRS class time to facilitate in the discussion of cyberbullying.
We attended one of the class discussions and felt that the discussion was interesting and engaging as students were participating actively by sharing their views. This could be due to the fact that most youths today are tech-savvy and spend a lot of time on the Internet on a daily basis, and this allows them to be able to better relate to the topic on cyberbullying.
We are glad that a total of 7 classes benefitted from this. :)
Thanks for participating in our blog discussions!
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