Bullying in Second Life Part 2- Nomad Aries Reporting…

This is the second part of my article on bullying. In part one I discussed the types of bullying you may encounter on Second Life as well as real life. 

There are many misconceptions about why some people turn into bullies. It is often said these are people with low self esteem and are loners. In studies done on bullying and bullies , this does not prove to be true. So what makes a bully a bully? 

Who is a Bully?
Bullies do not suffer from low self esteem as popularly believed. In a 2001 study (Baumeister) , it was discovered that bullies have extremely high self esteem. Although their esteem is high , it is pathologically high and unstable. If a bully feels slighted or insulted, the ego causes extreme negative feelings which the bully cannot tolerate. According to a later study from the University of South Dakota,( 2012 ), bullies lack function in an area of the brain that deals with moderating mood and emotions. For some reason yet to be discovered, bullies have low to no function of this area of the brain, it is thought that not being properly socialized at an early age prevents this part of the brain from functioning. This causes the bully to lash out at people in defense to preserve their feeling of superiority and control . Bullies have thought processes that differ from most people. 

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BULLYING IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF SECOND LIFE Part 1- Nomad Aries Reporting…

It is an unfortunate side of human nature that we are exposed to bullying. 

While most of us grow out of this phase as children, some people remain aggressive in real life and in the virtual world. It is also a known fact that bullying is a learned trait. Although bullying is not permitted here a lot of it does go unreported. The reasons for not reporting bullying may be because there is confusion, fear, shame, doubt and ignorance regarding what happened. Some people may be unaware they are being bullied or feel there is no recourse or assistance available to remedy their situation. In some cases people may simply not know what to do when they run into a bully. 

Have you been bullied by someone on SL? This may be difficult to discern if we are not sure exactly what bullying entails, especially when it applies to the virtual world. In real life, I have run anti-bullying workshops for school children. I found that children were not always aware of exactly what bullying consists of. When it was explained to them they quickly identified situations where they had indeed encountered a bully. I am going to take a similar approach in this article and explain the types of bullying one may experience on Second Life. The examples I present will be taken from actual experiences from some avies on Second Life, including my own personal run-ins with bullies. You may have had similar experiences or you may not have run into bullying yet. I hope you can gain some knowledge on when someone is bullying you and what to do to save yourself from this down side to human nature. I will present a further article on what you can do specifically to stop being bullied on Second Life. In this article I wish to outline the types of bullying and how to identify they type of bullying you may have experienced. 

What is Bullying?

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