On Bullying Part 2: Stop Calling Everything Bullying

This morning I wrote about bullying – specifically the difference between real life bullying and cyberbullying, the overreaction of administrators to some cases of bullying, and the means to prevent terrible outcomes due to “cyberbullying” that is easily stopped with the push of a button. I also mentioned that I felt that the term ‘bully’ was being overused. I explained how I thought that cyber harassment is a better and more accurate term for most cyberbullying cases, and how some people take accidents (accidental bumps), single outbursts or insults, every day arguments, or imposing the rules of games at school as bullying. Several individuals – my son being one of them – think that being forced to play in a certain way is bullying, and I have heard from two different individuals that I am “bullying” them when we get into arguments (most of which I think are friendly and cordial). I explained how yes, there are serious cases of bullying, but there are also milder ones. I explained that no, not everything that a person doesn’t agree with is ‘bullying’. And so, the logical extension of this is that the term “bullying” is being thrown around randomly to the point where it’s becoming meaningless.