Phoebe Prince couldn’t even find peace on Facebook. A group of teens from South Hadley High School in South Hadley, MA called the “Mean Girls of South Hadley” bullied Phoebe Prince, a 15 year old, until she hung herself. Although the teens are being charged for it, it will never replace the real life. Not only did the mean girls harm her physical life, they also ruined her online life. Even after death, the Phoebe Prince Facebook page was defiled by the venom of the Mean Girls of South Hadley, reports Fox News. The Mean girls could have garnered quite a bit of information that they were to use to terrorize Phoebe Prince, which includes but isn’t limited to her sensitive nature and malleable sense of self according to Dr. Keith Albow.
Phoebe Prince, Facebook and predators
Dr. Ablow suggests that anyone who is a bully may quickly identify what the weaknesses are in their prey, as they did with Phoebe Prince Facebook. Bullies such as this are fueled by a have to bring others down, so they develop quickly the ability to find their openings with efficiency.
Being a teenager is hard for anyone, but for a girl like Phoebe Prince, who was both pretty and unsure of her place in the world, it is particularly difficult. Although millions would like to be beautiful, if teenagers have no confidence then they will become targets for being attractive rather than being popular, as Dr. Ablow observed. Many bullies will look to tear down anyone who they think won’t have defenses to mount resistance.
The Mean Girls’ drug was hating suggests Dr. Ablow
He told Fox, “Dehumanizing her had to have been intoxicating”. Otherwise, what would be the point of the whole thing? Ablow says that deriving information from the Phoebe Prince Facebook was a means to an end, or in this case a high. Considering how widespread social media like Facebook are today, it’s not hard to see how dangerous sensitive personal information can be in the wrong hands. Identity theft issues can arise and destroy credit while in the case of Phoebe Prince Facebook, it can destroy the psyche.
Is controlling bullying possible?
Dr. Ablow states that “In a controlled population like a school system, it is possible, from early grades, to instill in young people a psychiatrist’s view of those who perpetrate violence toward others—as broken, instead of brazen; gripped by emotional disorder, of in control.” When bullies aren’t romanticized as James Dean-esque rebels anymore, then the cultural shift that is so needed can occur. Detention and suspensions are insufficient tools, Dr. Ablow feels – better methods for dealing with discipline in schools are needed. Concern is needed, not scorn. What is needed is removal or home schooling until a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist can assure the school that the bullying will stop. Parents or caregivers should be stepping up.
