Handling online bullies
Do you remember the school bully – the person who made your life miserable through their taunts, insults and meanness? Sadly, it seems bullies don’t just exist in childhood. There are adult bullies everywhere, and many of them hide behind their computer screen.
There is a bully on Twitter who is rude, mean and just aching for a fight with anyone who will engage him. He has tried a few times to belittle and enrage a friend of mine who refuses to play into his evil. Just the other day, she tweeted a compliment about my presentation she attended with a photo of me speaking to the group and he responded by tweeting very rude and inappropriate things about me and her tweet. The man obviously has some problems.
It would be tempting to engage with someone like that to let him know he is out of line, but unfortunately, it would only fuel his anger and make him more vitriolic. People like that are just hoping for a fight. They like to bait people and then wait for someone to respond in anger so they can let loose their hatred.
The best thing to do with an abusive or rude person online is to not respond and block them. You can also file a report with Twitter or Facebook. If you fear for your safety tell others and call the police. Here is more information about handling Facebook bullying and Twitter bullying.
Lastly, it’s difficult to do, but try to have compassion for the person. When people are that angry and hateful one can assume they must have a difficult life. Be happy you don’t live in their skin.
Have you had to deal with an online bully? How did you handle it?
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