MARQUETTE -- A recent video of a news anchor addressing the issue of bullying continues to go viral. It's raised many questions on how social media affects bullying.
"If you are at home and you are talking about the fat news lady, guess what? Your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat," said Jennifer Livingston.
People across the nation are talking about bullying after a Wisconsin news anchor stands up to it. Bullying is growing in social media outlets. WLUC-TV6's Web Editor, Tyler Czarnopis, says it happens all the time.
"We get from far left to far right, as people. Really nice to really aggressive. Most people are just trying to get a rise out of the other person. When they get that rise, it seems to justify them and they kind of keep doing it," said Czarnopis.
It happens in a comment, a text, an email or YouTube to name a few. It's occurring more because people are using social media to communicate with others in more facets of their lives.
So why are people using social media to bully others? Experts say because it's not face-to-face. If a person is cyberbullying, they aren't seeing how the other person is reacting. You don't get those physical and facial expressions which may stop you from continuing.
Sociology Professor Deanna Trella says it's affecting how people personally interact with each other.
"It's definitely desensitized us some to what's considered bullying behavior. I think it's definitely normalized a lot of bullying behavior, be it in the home, in school between student and student, student and teachers, between coworkers in the workplace," said Trella.
How can this change? Trella also says treat others the way you want to be treated. Before you send that comment, ask yourself, would you say it to their face? If someone else did that to you, how would you feel?
Answering these questions will probably determine how you communicate with others through social media.
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