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Top 5 Ways To Protect Yourself From Cyberbullying

by Innov8tiv.com

With so much people on the internet nowadays, the records of cyberbullying increases by the day. Some may even argue that the toll has now increased to bullied cases by the hour. What ways are there to protect your state of mind from these attacks? Should you wait patiently for their response before sending yours? How about what the public would think of you? Here are five practical steps to which you can shield yourself from internet bullies. Let’s get started!

Know Your Enemy

When internet bullies attack us, it sometimes feels as though the entire world is against us. At these times, the faintest comment from a friend regarding the attack makes us defensive. While everyone likes to air their opinion these days, ensure you’re not provocative to the wrong set of people. Once the majority notice a trending topic or discussion, they are eager to jump in. Most times, without a grasp of what went wrong and when.

Before things get out of hand and you realize you’ve engaged in more people than you should have, pick out your enemy. The earlier you figure out who dragged you out in the first place, the whole situation becomes under your control. The bully would definitely expect a response from third parties that they want you to respond to. However, if you’re going to hit the nail at all, do so on the head. If you want to find out more about cyberbullying, read here.

Do Not Engage The Conversation

Another way to protect yourself from internet bullying is by ignoring the conversation. This might be one of the toughest things to do when being cyberbullied. However, since you understand that it is the nature of these individuals to start turmoil for no reason, they’ll always get a new victim. You do not want to be the reason a cyberbully gains more followers, subscribers, or likes. In as much as you keep up with the conversation, it becomes a trending topic that would interest the public.

Not engaging in these common cyberbullying tricks proves that you choose not to be used as a tool for publicity. In the real sense, one of the reasons cyberbullies call their victim out is to get the attention of the public. Their tricks aren’t truly designed to attack you; they are tools in their long-term strategy to create awareness. By avoiding this trap, you’ve simply removed yourself from their radar of potential victims.

Avoid Taking The Words Of A Bully Seriously

Once you’ve decided to keep mute to their messages, tweets, Instagram post, and images, that doesn’t guarantee that the bullying online stops. Most times, since these bullies derive pleasure in putting their prey on their toes, they never know when to quit. How then do you shield yourself from the continuous attacks? For how long should you keep avoiding the conversations? Simply, when you decide not to take the word of a bully seriously.

The words from cyber bullying are mere threats in the disguise of a conversation. To guarantee the safety of your mental health, just take a smile at the comments and swipe away. As you treat each conversation, comment, or image this way, you begin to see various reasons not to engage. Many of which would only come to your consciousness when you’re not tense, agitated, or in a rage about the cyberbully’s attacks.

Be Friendly, Not Provocative

With the unrestricted access of the internet to our generation today, creating a profile online can be done in minutes. This means any individual could possess and impersonate multiple pseudo characters on various online platforms. When you realize that not everyone with an internet connection is your friend, you are a step ahead in protecting yourself from cyberbullying. A better way to approach these bullies is to be friendly and not provocative.

Truth be told, bullying experts expect you to lash out your anger back in writing after reading their attacks. Now that you know what they expect of you, wouldn’t it be more fun to deprive these internet bullying freaks of the opportunity? Most times, acting friendly and not provocative saves you the stress of engaging everyone on social media. Not every Tom, Dick, and Harry deserves a response. If at all you must, make it a friendly one, not playing to their wishes.

Stay Safe

Protecting your mental health should be a top priority when dealing with cyberbullying. The persons on the other end of the cyber attacks would do everything to ensure you engage. However, if you choose your sanity over your ego, you’d end up walking away from a fight that wasn’t worth fighting. Except you designed the platform and have to be on it every hour of the day, learn to ignore cyberbullies. You only fall victim when you’re naive about cyberbullying.

Even when you find yourself already engaging in the conversation, make a conscious decision to withdraw immediately. Aside from the fact that you might want to justify being right, comments from other parties might lure you into the trap. Take a moment to stop and stay off completely to ensure you don’t get updates of the thread is the best way to stay safety conscious. There are other things you could surely do with your time. Get them done!

Conclusion

We should learn always to have these countermeasures at our disposal when dealing with Internet bullying. Truth be told, these attacks sometimes aren’t as friendly or accommodating. However, the decision on how you react lies solely in your palms. Choose to place your mental health above all today! Utilize these practical tips when dealing with such scenarios.

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