How would YOU react to cyber bullying?

To be honest, I never thought about what would happen to me if I was ever cyber bullied. Maybe it's because I never gave anyone the chance to do so. I always read different and sometimes horrifying stories of countless victims of cyber bullying. The stories are heart breaking. When you read that young kids actually commit suicide because of something like that, when you see that a 15 year old girl threw herself in front of a fucking bus just to escape the horror of it all, it just makes you wonder: what have people become?

Are people so desperate to feel empowered and superior that they have to make someone's life a living hell? Are they insecure? Were they bully victims themselves? You might find yourself asking even more questions such as those but the saddening truth is that sometimes you may never know the answer. To my utter astonishment and disgust, it occurred to me that some people actually enjoy torturing someone on the internet. Maybe it's the fact that they think they're never going to get caught. However, I still fail at seeing the whole point of this. So I make a cruel joke or be mean to someone online, what have I gained? I'm not even there to "enjoy" their suffering. 

To me, cyber bullying is even more serious than the regular big bad school bully. Because yes, that person may never get caught and the fact that the internet is a totally free entity that cannot be controlled, so basically there's nothing you can do.  I mean there is but it's not like you can completely stop it. People always tell bully victims to ignore bullies or go talk to someone about it, which they don't since they feel like they're ratting someone out. At this point, I personally wouldn't give two shits if I rat someone out; you give me hell, I'll give you hell times a hundred regardless of how I do so!

So recently, a very famous blogger, Xiaxue, got trashed on Facebook (along with 2 of her friends) for being PAP supporters (a political party in Singapore). They were called the most horrid names and it just sickened me as I read her post. Men were calling them sluts, whores, prostitutes among other things, even though one of her friends isn't even a PAP supporter. Now being a well known blogger on the internet for years breeds haters (doesn't everything?) and Xiaxue  has a lot of them and she rarely even gives it thought. However, she decided she had enough and decided to stand up and defend herself and her friends. 

Xiaxue made a post listing the men with the most, you might say, provocative comments along with their photos which some included family members and/or their children. Let me just point out that the photos she listed were not acquired in any sly manner such as hacking or anything of the sort but the photos' privacy settings were simply set to public so anyone could seem them. She even censored some the faces appearing with the men in the photos. After each photo she would respond to what was commented. (You can see both posts here and here.)

You may not agree with the way she responded to those bullies but let's be honest, it should be expected that some of the bully victims would retaliate, it's like a ticking time bomb. If bullies think that their victims are just helpless fish in a barrel, one of these fish tends be a shark and will snap back. And that's what happened with Xiaxue, not only was she insulted but her own family and husband as well. As she put it, it's one thing if bullies mess with her but it's another if someone insults her family and I think all of us would agree at this point. 

Imagine this little scenario, even if bullies don't affect you and you just don't care but what if your girlfriend/wife/sister/daughter was getting bullied, you wouldn't just sit there now, would you? No one likes having one of his loved ones being trampled on. I don't know if I would do what Xiaxue did but I do know that I would've taken action and not just sit there idly.