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Pre-dating cyber bullying

Anyone who has seen a TED Talk can tell you that they truly are ideas worth sharing. World-renowned scientists, writers, musicians and business professionals have graced the stages at TED Talks around the world.

This month, however, one speaker gave a talk about shame and humiliation that resonated in such a way that only years of experience and growth could foster. Monica Lewinsky, who is known for her affair with President Bill Clinton in the late ‘90s, gave thought-provoking insight to the harassment and abuse that can result from one bad choice.

Her story is one that predates all social media and was the first news story to break online rather than in traditional mediums. In her speech, she talks about how deadly humiliation can be for people involved and how much easier it is today than ever before to be cyber bullied—a word that did not exist when her story broke.

One does not have to look very far to find this kind of harassment online; you could probably go to any video on YouTube and find some sort of ill-willed comment. And while this falls under the freedom of speech crutch that so many people rely on for their negativity, Lewinsky argues we have a bigger duty with this freedom.

“We talk a lot about our right to freedom of expression, but we need to talk more about our responsibility to freedom of expression,” Lewinsky said in her TED Talk.

Today, a person doesn’t need to sleep with the president to be immortalized, for lack of a better term, positively or negatively. With the creation and popularity that memes have on the Internet, average people are thrown into this unwanted spotlight because of one photograph that may circulate.

Some may argue that every person has a choice to partake in or refrain from certain behaviors that may put them at risk for this kind of harassment and bullying. Although that is a valid point, it is also important to keep the humanity of the attacked person in mind.

I would be hard pressed to put Monica Lewinsky in the same category as the Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers chanting racial slurs or other people who are conducting themselves in ways that are physically, mentally or emotionally harmful to others. The only person that Lewinsky may have hurt besides herself is Hillary Clinton, who seems to be doing pretty well these days.

The Internet is an invention that has brought so many people together, and yet its ability to drive people apart and attack each other is unbelievable. Although we aren’t all putting forth a kind of negativity that can drive someone to take their own life, all of us are bystanders in the cyber world.

It’s never been easier to use technology as a soapbox for negativity, but we all have the ability to change the messages. Let’s seize the opportunity to spread positivity instead.

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