Randomness!!!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Bullying.
 
Okay, so in light of the recent Amanda Todd story floating out there everywhere, I decided to just talk about bullying in general. I am not going to talk about her situation at all, and I don't want to see it in the comments. I have my own opinion  about it and I don't want any fights to break out. If anything is posted about her specifically, the comment will be deleted as well as any comments that reply to it. Also, I will delete any comments that are hateful, disrespectful, and just plain cruel. You are warned.
  
So bullying has been around since the beginning of time I'm sure, but with all this new technology, it's getting just too easy to bully other people. Especially when they can't hit you through the computer screen.  It's such a huge problem. Even strangers you'll never meet can post hateful comments to you if they think your profile picture is just slightly ostentatious. Yeah, you can set up your privacy settings so that only people of your choosing can see anything about you, but you'll still witness the hate everywhere. Comments on news articles, youtube videos, some stupid meme featuring a celebrity. They are EVERYWHERE. 
  
Specifically when it comes to teens. I know that there are adults who do battle with bullies, however, as adults, we already have some sort of knowledge of how to deal with this kind of situation. At least we should. Teens on the other hand, are still growing. And I don't care if you're 16 and you can do whatever you want. Your brain is still growing as well as your body! You may think you've physically have grown up, but trust me, you haven't. The older you get, the more your body changes. Especially if you become a biological mom (I say biological because any form of adoption or marrying into a single parent family does not change your hips. You may develope dark circles under your eyes, but your hips don't change.). So if you're a teen, sit back, read, and absorb.

I still remember what it was like to be a teenager. There's peer pressure everywhere, everyone is always judging you, and you can't always figure out what the best thing to do is. It's hard trying to grow up when people are always throwing hate at you.

The research done on bullying is pretty impressive. (All my research is taken from this site: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/ ) About 30% of American teenagers have been involved in bullying, from either end of it. That doesn't sound too large, but if you were to take a senior class of 100 students, 30 of them are either bullies, or are being bullied. That's far too high. And lets not forget, physical bullying is pretty easy to detect, but verbal, emotional, and cyberbullying are much harder to discover until it's too late, so that number is most likely inaccurate. 

Bullying is everywhere. And chances are, you, a friend, or a family member is a victim of it. Please visit the site mentioned above to get more information. In the meantime, please, please, please, talk to any teenager you know. It doesn't necessarily have to be specifically about whether or not they're being bullied, just talk about anything. Ask them how they're doing, ask about their friends, what they like most about school. Look for the signs. If they say they have no friends or eat lunch alone, ask why. If they seem withdrawn and quiet, try to light a spark in them. 

You also need to talk about bullying directly. If kids are educated from a young age on how to deal with bullies, then they are on a path to lead a full and happy life, and hopefully, they'll be well equiped for when they become adults. 

And please, don't spread hate. Even to people who are bullies. Dealing hate as a response to hate, doesn't solve the problem at all. Treat eveyone with respect, kindness, and love, even to the people who may not deserve it. And maybe someday, they'll regret the actions they have taken.   
 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Hello!! :)
 
Okay so I know that this blog is, well, new. And that next to no one will be reading this post, but I'm going to post it anyways.

Welcome to my blog site. The primary purpose of this site is to basically promote books. I love to read and write (I actually have a published short story and I'm working on a book), so I thought, why not share my thoughts on the books I've read and enjoyed? So that's why I'm here.

I'll basically post reviews on books that I like. But that's not all! I'll also give new self-published authors a chance to have a review of their book online. And (mostly in this page) I will post random stuff. I kind of have to, I'm pretty random myself. I tend to completely get off track of the subject that I start with. So, sorry in advance because I'm sure you'll see it at some point.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or requests to see certain reviews, go ahead and leave them in the comments and I'll make sure I get to you one way or another.