What are we really seeing in the social media fishbowl?

By Anne Collier Apologies in advance for a slightly parasitic blog post, but this thoughtful piece by Prof. Justin Patchin of the Cyberbullying Research Center – “Bullies or Best Friends? The Challenge of Interpreting Interpersonal Relationships” – raises...

Dealing with the nasties online

By Anne Collier Pondering positive ways to deal with online negativity seems to be a trend – maybe even a blooming social norm! Because, in response to social cruelty like the recent tragic trolling of Robin Williams’s daughter Zelda Williams, other people...

Kindness really could be going viral! Just look…

By Anne Collier The use of kindness as a conscious, very effective grassroots solution to bullying is picking up steam. Where youth are concerned, sometimes the kindness is purely their idea, such as the kind intervention of two high school upperclassmen that sparked...

Don’t let stalkers or abusers and creeps track your phone’s location

Modern cell phones know where you are. This can be a very good thing, but — in the wrong hands — it can also lead to potential abuse. As Kaofeng Lee and Erica Olsen point out in the article, Cell Phone Location, Privacy and Intimate Partner Violence from the website...

Popularity: The other kind of vulnerability

By Anne Collier A study cited in “When Popularity Backfires” at Time.com found that socially ambitious kids can be just as likely to experience bullying and harassment as “social outcasts” at school. Interested in the “hotspots” of...