[zeidrich]

Communicating with your friends online via insult isn't bullying. Bullying is about the power dynamic and about making another person feel weak or appear weak to their peers.

Forcing someone to withdraw from using social media when the rest of their peers are using it is on its own a form of bullying, especially when the person who withdraws is then categorically left out of normal social engagements because of that non-participation.

You can get away from it a little bit because being 30 something, you can maintain relationships without social media. I'm in the same boat at the same age.

My brother who is 10 years younger ends up doing a large majority of his communication with his social group through social media. He couldn't stop using it and maintain relationships, not because he's unable to, but because his peers wouldn't be able to easily communicate with him.

[fein]

Maybe it was because I didn't value any relationship I made during highschool then. I assumed that I would likely lose contact with nearly all of those people, and I was correct.

I can count on one hand the people I still talk to from those days, and they are the only ones that went on to accomplish anything. They decided to keep in touch.

None of the others matter to me. The only thing I was focused on was getting the hell out of highschool and college and being left alone to do my own thing.

I find it hard to believe I'm the only one that was capable of taking this approach.

I'm 28 if this matters at all.

[bsder]

> Forcing someone to withdraw from using social media when the rest of their peers are using it is on its own a form of bullying, especially when the person who withdraws is then categorically left out of normal social engagements because of that non-participation.

Why would a single bully, whom I can block, force my withdrawal from social media?

And, if an entire group is doing the bullying, why in the world would you want to communicate with them? The Internet makes it damn easy to find people who don't suck.

Yeah, maybe you won't get laid at Podunkville High School homecoming--that sucks. However, if you spend that time making sure you get out of Podunkville instead, you'll be WAY better off. After you leave, most of the people you thought were sooooo hot look a whole lot more pedestrian. Yeah, one or two really are hot, but they likely weren't in your league anyway (or you wouldn't be being bullied). The rest were just big fish in a small pond.