Cyber bullying

[Zechs Merquise]

Under those circumstances by the time you block them, the damage is done.

 

You have to remember also that you're not always able to block these people as the communication doesn't necessarily always take place on the victim's personal online space. It's so easy to say 'just block it out', but often the knowledge that it's going on is the psychological damage itself - not just the actual viewing of it.

 

You guys are presenting some really simplified outlooks on how easy it is to avoid/overcome this. If it was that easy, people would hardly be taking their own lives, would they? I'm sure just about every young person knows how to de-friend people on social media. So that really can't be a silver bullet solution.

 

Don't be so pathetic. By extension of this 'logic' you could say that because Stacy found out that four of the other girls in her class had a sleep over and gossiped about her during that sleep over they were bullying her! But what if Stacy just thinks other girls are talking about? Bullying has can't just be that other people spoke about you behind your back - that's been happening to kids before social networks and even before telephones.

 

Maybe the problem is due to the fact that in years gone by kids had to toughen up and deal with problems. Now they're wrapped in cotton wool and all you need is the slightest thing and they're having emotional breakdowns.

[Rummy]

That's not entirely true, though. What you're saying is that there's a clear line between online and offline. These days, there isn't. Media is everywhere. What if you were in school and your mates were being shown something on a phone about what you did online, where somebody humiliated you?

 

These things can spill over so easily. People talk. They will talk about things that they've seen online, too. Naturally, they'll also bitch, poke fun at and other such things. You can and you can't turn things off because yes, you can physically turn off the computer, but you can't really control what happens on the other end. You can't define what will happen with that person who is writing that sorta stuff in the first place.

 

We had a particularly nasty incident at our school about half a year ago where some older girls got into some sort of fight on facebook. That's how it started off anyway. Then, there were nasty text messages after that, and it did spill over into her school life. Friends started to take sides, people weren't speaking to each other, insults, name calling, a little bit of physical stuff too as a result of it. It wasn't pleasant.

 

This is absolutely spot on, but the original point was a focus on exclusive cyber-bullying(so as trolling), and I think that's where conflicts are coming from in the arguments in the thread. Two sides arguing in two seperate debates.

 

The point is cyber-bullying doesn't exist, because you can log out, block, delete and ultimately turn off your computer.

 

A kid being bullied in school has to sit in the classroom, share the playground and have lunch in the cafeteria with the bullies everyday. There's no escape, there's no turning off, blocking or deleting your account. The kid at school has to face the bullies day in day out.

 

The issue with 'cyber-bullying' is not that it's emotional rather than physical, it's that the person being bullied can just turn off the computer, it's not the real world and they don't have to face it if they don't want to.

 

This is one of the questions I saw asked when I saw a discussion about it on a talk show - Why did she respond? Why didn't she just turn ignore it and turn off? She responded, and kept responding. I'll admit I don't know a lot about the Hannah Smith case(had to just look up her name even) but I've been under the impression it was trolling, and would be more apt to call it trolling(or anonymous trolling at least) than just cyber-bullying. This kind of trolling still IS still mostly a form of bullying, but to distinguise from known persecutors and unknown I think they need to be referred to differently.

 

I have no input to this other than that the media has taken the term 'trolling' to mean 'bullying'.

 

Trolling is completely innocent and hurts no-one. Bullying is obviously very naughty.

 

Aaaaaaand I've just seen you already made my point. Except the latter bit of course :p This is trolling taken to be bullying, but I think its distinct enough to warrant its own definition.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Rummy

[Sheikah]

Don't be so pathetic. By extension of this 'logic' you could say that because Stacy found out that four of the other girls in her class had a sleep over and gossiped about her during that sleep over they were bullying her! But what if Stacy just thinks other girls are talking about? Bullying has can't just be that other people spoke about you behind your back - that's been happening to kids before social networks and even before telephones.

 

Maybe the problem is due to the fact that in years gone by kids had to toughen up and deal with problems. Now they're wrapped in cotton wool and all you need is the slightest thing and they're having emotional breakdowns.

 

Bullying whether directly or behind someone's back is unacceptable. I don't care if you think people of this day and age are getting softer; verbal abuse is still bullying and some people can resort to self harm when bullied. Not everyone is so clearly impervious to this sort of thing as you.

 

The answer is never as simple as to tell them to toughen up. Not only is that ridiculously unhelpful advice, it places no blame with the people doing these things.

[Charlie]

Look, if I don't like what someone is saying on my Facebook, I can block them. I can regulate what people say on my Facebook and choose to accept who I want as 'friends'. The same is true for Twitter (not that I am on Twitter).

 

All of these social networks have ways to control who can and who can't see what you're saying and who can and who can't say things to you.

 

If people want to say things about you on a social network, that's life - deal with it. Back in the day kids would phone around slagging off other kids, they would meet up in the park and slag off the kids they didn't like. Now they do that online. Even if you banned everyone from saying anything mean about anyone online they would do just what they did when I was at school - phone each other up and gossip and be nasty that way.

 

The point here is that people babbling on about cyber-bullying don't seem to understand that online you can simply block out the things you don't like. In the classroom you can't.

 

Also, don't extend bullying into the realms of people not liking you or gossiping behind your back as that has always happened - with or without the internet!

 

Yeah you can block communications on your own page but what if they're doing it on their own pages? Then that gets taken into school with people talking about it. The person is definitely going to know and find out. You can't just block things out as they always have a way of getting back to you.

 

Telling people to toughen up is the worst advice you can give someone other than to just ignore them. The issue needs to be dealt with properly. A lot of the time the bullies, both offline and online, don't even realise what they're doing. They're young and trying to make people laugh or look cool.

[Zechs Merquise]

Bullying whether directly or behind someone's back is unacceptable. I don't care if you think people of this day and age are getting softer; verbal abuse is still bullying and some people can resort to self harm when bullied. Not everyone is so clearly impervious to this sort of thing as you.

 

The answer is never as simple as to tell them to toughen up. Not only is that ridiculously unhelpful advice, it places no blame with the people doing these things.

 

Bullying is a prolonged campaign of direct abuse - be it physical, verbal or otherwise.

 

Holding an opinion on someone or discussing your opinion on someone with another person is not bullying. If I think someone is a tosser and discuss this with my friends it doesn't make me a bully.

 

Groups of kids will always have other kids they do and don't like. Gossiping and discussing other people and issues at school is part of growing up. Don't try to make out that it's bullying.

 

What are we going to have - a rule where no one discusses or talks about anyone else in a negative manner as it might be bullying? Pull yourself together.

 

And toughening up is the best advice. Because guess what - when you leave school there's no teachers to go squealing to, it's the real world. And in the real world people can say what they want about you. You get judged on everything you do by everyone around you and if you haven't learnt to deal with that reality then you're in for a big shock! You're probably one of these people who would ban sports day because it creates winners and losers!

[Pancake]

The issue needs to be dealt with properly. A lot of the time the bullies, both offline and online, don't even realise what they're doing. They're young and trying to make people laugh or look cool.

 

It's impossible to ever stop bullying though. Kids with a nasty streak will bully, right up until they're forced/socialised into stopping it. Cos guess what... the shit you get away with as a schoolchild will get you put in PRISON for assault or harassment as an adult. And your days of indulging in torturing others at school are over.

 

People are bastards (as Dr Cox already told us previously in the thread).

[Charlie]

It's impossible to ever stop bullying though. Kids with a nasty streak will bully, right up until they're forced/socialised into stopping it. Cos guess what... the shit you get away with as a schoolchild will get you put in PRISON for assault or harassment as an adult. And your days of indulging in torturing others at school are over.

 

People are bastards (as Dr Cox already told us previously in the thread).

 

It might be impossible to stop it entirely but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

[Sheikah]

It might be impossible to stop it entirely but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

 

Exactly! People will always bully, thus we must always try to stop it.

[Pancake]

It might be impossible to stop it entirely but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

 

True dat.

 

...

[Sheikah]

Bullying is a prolonged campaign of direct abuse - be it physical, verbal or otherwise.

 

Holding an opinion on someone or discussing your opinion on someone with another person is not bullying. If I think someone is a tosser and discuss this with my friends it doesn't make me a bully.

 

Groups of kids will always have other kids they do and don't like. Gossiping and discussing other people and issues at school is part of growing up. Don't try to make out that it's bullying.

 

What are we going to have - a rule where no one discusses or talks about anyone else in a negative manner as it might be bullying? Pull yourself together.

 

And toughening up is the best advice. Because guess what - when you leave school there's no teachers to go squealing to, it's the real world. And in the real world people can say what they want about you. You get judged on everything you do by everyone around you and if you haven't learnt to deal with that reality then you're in for a big shock! You're probably one of these people who would ban sports day because it creates winners and losers!

 

Like Charlie said, telling people to toughen up is terrible advice. I really hope you never go into a position of trust. =/

 

It's not dealing with the issue (the people purposely going out of their way to belittle/degrade people) and is in many ways condoning it and putting it down to it being a part of life. No good teacher would ever respond to that by saying 'toughen up', be it offline/online.

[Beast]

Um... is it just me or is the recent furore over this a bit.... pathetic??!

 

I grew up in the 90s, and back then us bully victims didn't get "sent a mean tweet". We just got the shit kicked out of us! I got my hair grabbed and my head shoved down onto the pavement everyday after school for about 6 months. And other similar fun stuff.

I wish i'd been "cyber bullied" instead! That'd have been lovely!

 

I just don't understand the whole thing. Yes i'm aware young people are stupid and impulsive and sensitive, but just block or delete the fuckers sending you the messages?? You know... instead of killing yourself over it.

 

It's also being used as another excuse for government control the internet, so yah.... fuck you world.

 

Pancake, I really love you so please take no offence when I say this and I apologise if you do but this has to be one of the most ignorant things I've read in ages but it's most likely due to the fact you may have not been through it or, as you've said, you don't properly understand the problem.

 

I've been through cyber-bullying and real-life bullying and the both merge. Not only that but what you're not thinking of is when the physical is filmed and then sent around the school or workplace or whatever through phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc. EVERYBODY has seen you been humiliated and it's embarrassing and you feel like everyone is against you, laughing at you because of it. It's not a nice feeling whatsoever.

 

I was filmed being bullied in school and it was so embarrassing for me because I couldn't do a thing about it, really. Because, at the time, I was REALLY fat and I had bad asthma, the kids saw me as an easy target. They threw crisps and pop and sweets as me and chanted 'Fatty-Bum-Bum' whilst a gawky-looking streak of piss filmed the lot. I tried to run away but, damn you asthma, I started running out of breath. So I had no choice but to try and fight them. I had a fight on the kid who was filming and tried to take his phone but there were about three or four other guys who pushed me over and the kid ran away. For all I know, that footage of me being bullied by those gang of lads is still on the Internet to this day. It got to the point that even the teachers saw it and all they did was ban phones from entering the school but that's not to say they couldn't share the footage outside. That was one of the main reasons why I've tried to lose weight.

 

Another one was this kid who was in the same class as me. He used to bully me and call me names but we ended up scrapping and then we'd leave each other the hell alone. Anyway, he also started getting bullied by these group of kids who was in the year above. Anyway, they made a site about him on Bebo and it was full of horrible stuff, some even racist. It affected him quite badly. Everybody saw, everybody laughed and even took pictures of him to upload on there and put mean captions on it. Also, they took the piss out of the fact he was adopted on there and other things like that.

 

I've had racist abuse in real-life and on MySpace (when MySpace was cool at the time) and most recently on YouTube (but that one I don't care about so much but it does hurt a little that people can be cruel like that but YouTube decided to remove the problem by removing me, which is stupid but eh, I ain't bothered. Blog > Vlog)

 

I don't think you understand what it's like to be both cyber and real-life bullied at the same time. I'd pick real-life over cyber any day of the week because at least in real-life, you know what they did and what you did and who was there and stuff. With cyber, you've no idea who's watched, who's cheered for the bullies, who has the footage, whether they've deleted it or not...there's just loads of factors that play on your mind.

 

Any type of bullying is horrible. There's no bullying that's easier to cope with than another and if people do think this then they really need a reality check.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Animal
Forgot to bold the part in the quote

[Sheikah]

That sounds horrible, Animal. I should hope that insight would help people here understand it a bit better now.

[Pancake]

Pancake, I really love you so please take no offence when I say this and I apologise if you do but this has to be one of the most ignorant things I've read in ages but it's most likely due to the fact you may have not been through it or, as you've said, you don't properly understand the problem.

 

I've been through cyber-bullying and real-life bullying and the both merge. Not only that but what you're not thinking of is when the physical is filmed and then sent around the school or workplace or whatever through phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc. EVERYBODY has seen you been humiliated and it's embarrassing and you feel like everyone is against you, laughing at you because of it. It's not a nice feeling whatsoever.

 

I was filmed being bullied in school and it was so embarrassing for me because I couldn't do a thing about it, really. Because, at the time, I was REALLY fat and I had bad asthma, the kids saw me as an easy target. They threw crisps and pop and sweets as me and chanted 'Fatty-Bum-Bum' whilst a gawky-looking streak of piss filmed the lot. I tried to run away but, damn you asthma, I started running out of breath. So I had no choice but to try and fight them. I had a fight on the kid who was filming and tried to take his phone but there were about three or four other guys who pushed me over and the kid ran away. For all I know, that footage of me being bullied by those gang of lads is still on the Internet to this day. It got to the point that even the teachers saw it and all they did was ban phones from entering the school but that's not to say they couldn't share the footage outside. That was one of the main reasons why I've tried to lose weight.

 

Another one was this kid who was in the same class as me. He used to bully me and call me names but we ended up scrapping and then we'd leave each other the hell alone. Anyway, he also started getting bullied by these group of kids who was in the year above. Anyway, they made a site about him on Bebo and it was full of horrible stuff, some even racist. It affected him quite badly. Everybody saw, everybody laughed and even took pictures of him to upload on there and put mean captions on it. Also, they took the piss out of the fact he was adopted on there and other things like that.

 

I've had racist abuse in real-life and on MySpace (when MySpace was cool at the time) and most recently on YouTube (but that one I don't care about so much but it does hurt a little that people can be cruel like that but YouTube decided to remove the problem by removing me, which is stupid but eh, I ain't bothered. Blog > Vlog)

 

I don't think you understand what it's like to be both cyber and real-life bullied at the same time. I'd pick real-life over cyber any day of the week because at least in real-life, you know what they did and what you did and who was there and stuff. With cyber, you've no idea who's watched, who's cheered for the bullies, who has the footage, whether they've deleted it or not...there's just loads of factors that play on your mind.

 

Any type of bullying is horrible. There's no bullying that's easier to cope with than another and if people do think this then they really need a reality check.

 

Sorry dude. I didn't mean to be insensitive. It's just that i grew up in the 90s and school, and the world, was different back then. So i guess i'm seeing it from a different perspective. But yes i definitely have sympathy for the experience that you've described. Sorry to hear they were such scumbags towards you.

 

I was being scornful towards the cases like askfm girl and slane girl. But yeah... that's the distinction that's already been discussed at length already in here, and what's caused most of the arguments in the first place...

[Beast]

Sorry dude. I didn't mean to be insensitive. It's just that i grew up in the 90s and school, and the world, was different back then. So i guess i'm seeing it from a different perspective. But yes i definitely have sympathy for the experience that you've described. Sorry to hear they were such scumbags towards you.

 

I was being scornful towards the cases like askfm girl and slane girl. But yeah... that's the distinction that's already been discussed at length already in here, and what's caused most of the arguments in the first place...

 

Nah, I hear you! Don't worry!

 

But even with askfm girl and stuff, we may not know the full details of why she did what she did. The dude who sent a picture of himself to someone and got blackmailed, I could relate (not that I've took naked pictures of myself but I can relate to the fact you feel powerless and you have no control over what people upload and stuff). You feel powerless emotionally and physically. You feel like there's something bad out there and there's nothing at all you can do about it. You feel ashamed, embarrassed and degraded.

 

I had another case of the two merging together when I was around 18 years old. I was in college and, as I said in my previous post, I was trying to lose weight. In my college, there was a gym that was on the ground floor with a load of abandoned rooms that were never used. So the gym was always open but hardly anybody went in so I was happy about that. Then a new kid joined my class and we got on fine. So I finished my work early and I was going down to the gym, the guy asked if he could tag along and I said yeah. At the time, I thought it would be cool and would probably keep me motivated and stuff. Anyway, I was exercising on the treadmill and I was jogging, listening to my music and I was on there for about 10 minutes. I turned the treadmill off and I was about to go on the sit-up bench thingy they had that was attached on the wall when I saw him giggling and looking at his phone. I asked him what was funny, I thought he had some funny clip. He tried to put the phone away in his pocket and said that he had a funny text. I said "Yeah, since when do texts have sounds on it?" so I snatched his phone off of him and saw me running on the treadmill. I don't think he did send it to anyone but the length of the video was around 3 minutes so there could have been time because I don't know when he started recording. Anyway, I threw his phone up against the wall and told him to fuck off out of it and he called me a 'stupid fat cunt' so I decked him. The guy in charge of the gym saw me riled and asked what my problem was so I told him. He actually kicked the little shit out of the gym and when he asked about his phone, he just said "Aww mate, shame it fell out of your pocket and you accidentally walked over it, huh?". The guy then went to the head of college and complained but what he didn't expect was that he got a warning for filming me without my permission. Needless to say, he never spoke to me again and he failed the course. I wished I knew what he said to the Head though, makes me wonder what bullshit he told and how he landed himself in the shit...

 

...anyway, that was around the time when I joined this site. Not getting mushy but this site did help me quite a bit with my confidence. It was seeing people from different walks of life: Different races, sexualities, opinions, beliefs...all sorts. It made me feel safe in a sense and made me feel that I could be myself. It did help deal with some of the insecurities I've had but there are some times when they come crawling back and there's nothing I can do to stop it, probably never will be able to for the rest of my life so I have to learn to deal. It's been very recent that I've even started uploading pictures of myself on the Internet, the first time I ever uploaded a photo of myself was on this very site. I've never ever done it before then. I only do on Twitter and here (and a brief time on YouTube this year) but it's not with ease but I did it to work on confidence.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Animal

[Ville]

Well, it's a complex issue really. Of course you have to do what you can to stop bullying, but at the same time I also have to agree with Zechs and Pancake. People are, and will always be douchebags. If you have children, you have to make them realise that and toughen them up a bit. In this world, there are idiots who will pounce on weak people and make them suffer just because they can. It's not all roses and will never be, no amount of censoring will lead to that as people will always find new ways to be arseholes. So in a way yes, I do think our modern western societies have gone a bit soft. Do what you can to stop bullying and harassment, but also teach people how to respond to that. Ignore, block, ridicule them back, get buff and beat their ass. Do what you gotta do.

 

And what comes to sucking dick in a public event and in everyone's sight...well what the fuck do you expect to happen? Yes it's not right or nice, but in this age of camera phones and whatnot, that's just asking for it!

[Kav]

Toughen up is a brilliant piece of advice. All my life growing up I've had people try and bully me, mainly because I'm half Iranian. Bullying was something that my dad knew I may go through, so he made sure I was toughened up. He taught me to fight, sent me to martial arts classes and gave me a piece of advice "If someone tries to bully you, beat them up and beat them up well. Theyll never try bullying you ever again".

 

When people tried to bully me, I beat the shit out of them. Lo and behold, after that there was one less person that tried bullying me. I was never a victim of bullying because I was toughened up! People saying its bad advice don't have a clue. It stops the bullying.

 

That's another funny one, people say violence doesn't solve anything. Well I'll tell you what; it does solve some things. It stopped me from being bullied.

 

 

(By the way, I'm not some thug, I just stand up for myself. I try to talk my ways out of fights if it looks like things might kick off but if anyone tried to bully, I'd defend myself from the bullying and put an immediate end to it.)

[Sheikah]

"If someone tries to bully you, beat them up and beat them up well. Theyll never try bullying you ever again".

 

When people tried to bully me, I beat the shit out of them. Lo and behold, after that there was one less person that tried bullying me. I was never a victim of bullying because I was toughened up! People saying its bad advice don't have a clue. It stops the bullying.

 

All that will do these days is probaby get you and them expelled and/or potential assault charge. Most of the time it isn't just one bully anyway, it's a group. Bad advice...

[Kav]

All that will do these days is probaby get you and them expelled and/or potential assault charge. Most of the time it isn't just one bully anyway, it's a group. Bad advice...

 

Don't think I haven't been in fights against groups. I have, plenty. I just gave a better account of myself in the fight than they gave. Never bullied again. Good advice.

 

Teachers have threatened expulsion, never happened because of a meeting my dad had with the school.

He'd said to the headmaster, deputy head and my form teacher at the time that they cannot blame me. He's told me to beat up people that try bullying me, because if I just tell the teachers the bullying would carry on both inside and outside of school. He then guaranteed them that now, after having beaten them up, that I'd not be bullied again and that there'd not be an ongoing issue for them to deal with. Their reply was "could you please tell him to not do it inside school?". You know what? My dad was right, bullying didn't occur anywhere near as much.

 

I've faced a potential assault charge and it got laughed off because I was the victim so charges never came about. I was jumped by 7 lads after a night out because I was "a foreign cunt". I ended up putting one of them in a coma for 6 days after he suffered a brain haemorrhage.

A couple days after the fight I had CID knock on my door and take me to the local police station where I went through questioning on video. After the questioning Detective Inspector Andrew Reynolds said this to me "Off the record, in my eyes justice has been done. We've told them that of they try to press charges that we'd press charges upon them of both assault and affray and because you're the victim, you'd get off and they'd get punished. They probably won't be starting fights anytime soon."

 

It's good advice, people should toughen up.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Kav

[Sheikah]

It's something that worked for you. But that is not good advice. Telling people to go assaulting others is not good advice, even if the people deserve it. Too easy to be landed with an assault charge and can end very badly for you.

[Kav]

Yes, it worked which is why I see it being good advice.

[Guy]

I've been bullied before in real life and never really stood up for myself, never had it in me I guess. If it happened now I don't think I would have been so placid about it.

 

Some people need to be hurt before they learn their lesson. Pain is the greatest teacher.

 

Check that video of the local jerk-offs harassing that guy outside his door, pushing his bin around and such. He taught that guy a lesson he'll never forget. Also the fat kid who power bombed that bully. Brutal justice.

 

I've also been a huge jerk to plenty of people online (a few here in the past), perhaps my behaviour was even bordering on bullying at times. It's so easy for something to gently escalate from playful ribbing to full on bullying online and in real life without even realising it.

 

I will say I definitely think it's hard to effectively bully someone online, especially as it's so much easier to make people disappear. I'd imagine, as discussed, when it starts spilling over into a real life problem is when it breaks people. Videos uploaded, fake websites. Bullies using the Internet to extend their reach.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Guy
Formatting, more info. Like a directors cut of the original post.

[Rummy]

I was being scornful towards the cases like askfm girl and slane girl. But yeah... that's the distinction that's already been discussed at length already in here, and what's caused most of the arguments in the first place...

 

Nobody seems to understand the two approaches being taken in this thread(ie your original intention of online-specific(excluding real life) bullying and the discussion it's become about 'wholesome' bullying for want of a better term)

 

Like Charlie said, telling people to toughen up is terrible advice. I really hope you never go into a position of trust. =/

 

It's not dealing with the issue (the people purposely going out of their way to belittle/degrade people) and is in many ways condoning it and putting it down to it being a part of life. No good teacher would ever respond to that by saying 'toughen up', be it offline/online.

 

Buuuuuuuut, as Zechs had clearly already addressed...

 

And toughening up is the best advice. Because guess what - when you leave school there's no teachers to go squealing to, it's the real world. And in the real world people can say what they want about you. You get judged on everything you do by everyone around you and if you haven't learnt to deal with that reality then you're in for a big shock! You're probably one of these people who would ban sports day because it creates winners and losers!

 

In the situation at the time I'm not saying 'toughen up' is the best advice - but it IS something that needs to be done. Because you are going to finish school and after that there is No good teacher to rely on, you've more often that not got no one to run to for support anymore. You're in the real world, and *you* either deal with it or not.

 

All that will do these days is probaby get you and them expelled and/or potential assault charge. Most of the time it isn't just one bully anyway, it's a group. Bad advice...

 

Not really. It's essentially the same thing Shorty said earlier - rather a fight in a class than something else.

 

Be serious, when in your entire school lifetime did you ever find/hear of someone being pulled up on assault charges for having a fight? Explusion maybe, for like a couple of days, but never have I known or heard colloquially of someone being pulled on an assault charge for it. Wouldn't even stick given the age and circumstance!

[Sheikah]

Quite rare that you will be 'bullied' after you leave school though as people tend to grow up and the social hierarchy structure of school life is gone.

 

People trying to beat you up in the real world is a different matter to what we've been discussing above.

 

Also, for the record. I would never attempt to fight anyone unless as a last resort. Getting the hell out of a situation or not putting myself in situations that are more likely to lead to fighting is far preferable. You've no idea if a person willing to assault you has a weapon or friends nearby. I'm guessing if somebody was unhinged enough to start a fight with you, it's good to assume that.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Sheikah

[Rummy]

It's something that worked for you. But that is not good advice. Telling people to go assaulting others is not good advice, even if the people deserve it. Too easy to be landed with an assault charge and can end very badly for you.

 

'Assault' is even in itself weak to argue with, I could poke someone with minimal force and be pulled up on assault.

[Sheikah]

'Assault' is even in itself weak to argue with, I could poke someone with minimal force and be pulled up on assault.

 

Don't poke people?

 

If you cave someone's face in and they report you to the police, there is a pretty good chance you will be done for assault. Criminal record, goodbye prospects.