Online or Physical, Bullying Should Not Be Tolerated

In recent times, I've tried to make a comparative analysis of things with regard to physical and online, trying to ascertain or understand the level of impacts, challenges, benefits and more that come from both ends while exploring several matters and subjects of concern. Since the advent of the online world, where virtually everything has leaned towards, unlike the era when all was done physically and online wasn't even a thing. Talk of financial transactions, business, health care, entertainment, meetings, communication, work, learning and so on.

However, if there's one thing I've come to realise about the wonderful and advantageous online space is that it brings a great amount of negative effects as much as the positive. It's like, there's a corresponding negative effect to every good thing the online world offers. We see scams, crimes, lies, deceits, infidelity and several other negative effects. These are all human actions by the way. For the sake of this prompt, one of such is the advent of online bullying, born from the online world which has affected many as much as the physical actions.

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Online bullying against physical bullying, which is worse? I won't mince words while saying both shouldn't be tolerated in any way. But let's look at some of the reasons why both are unwelcome and should be treated likewise.

Physical bullying, of course involves physical actions like slapping, poking, or even beating an individual. The point of concern about this is the abuse and its effect on the body, physically. Not far from the name. It could leave a person with bruises, wounds, injuries or even a permanent body disorder or deformity. It's a very disturbing act that should never have a place in society. It tends to take away one's self-esteem, confidence and focus in life. Not to forget the physical pain one would have to endure.

On the other hand, online bullying as the name implies happens in the online world, where keyboards and words do the bullying. This is more of a psychological and mental effect. The physical body doesn't suffer in this case, but the mental aspect of a person suffers. Such kind of bullying could lead to depression, trauma, psychological illness and so on. I feel like this is actually not talked about much enough. The victims of such mostly suffer “behind the scenes” with little support to get over it.

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Looking at it and understanding the effects involved when a thing becomes psychological and mental, I feel moved to say that it's worse when bullying emanates from online. Yet, I also consider that victims of physical bullying aren't really free from mental effects, especially when it's a continuous action. Such can even lead to a person's demise. Well, both forms of bullying can lead to that, which is why I say let none be tolerated and both should be treated with grave consequences on the perpetrators－the bullies.

Thank you for reading!