I have talked to my younger cousin about off the wall text messaging that younger teens are spreading through text messages within her school. She says everyone knows who you have a crush on, or if you are mad at a friend, and with everyone knowing those kind of things; uncalled words are being said and the texting is getting out of hand. I read one of her text messages that someone said to her and it said "____ said that you are too skinny and you should eat lol" Now for a young girl in middle school that could harm her self-esteem and feel as thought no one likes her, and the way she is isn't good enough, even though she is a beautiful petite young girl who is only in 7th garde.
When watching T.V. the commercial of teens getting abused by other teens via text messaging comes up a lot, especially on MTV. When is it becoming too of athinline for young teens with their text messaging? The website (athinline.org) helps teens cope with abused text messaging, such as sexting, constant messaging, spying, digital disprespect, and cruelty. This website definitely is taking a step to help out teens who feel as though they can't say anything to anyone, because if they do they will be called a nark or taddle tail.
It's very alarming how many teens are getting abused or are doing the abuse over text messaging. When I was in middle school I was'nt allowed a cell phone, unless I went to a movie and needed to call for my parents to pick me up. Now a days all I see is young kids with cell phones in their hands walking in the mall or down the street. It's no wonder why the text messaging abuse is becoming so popular.
Athinline.org is definitely a big step for helping teens with this abusive problem via text messaging. Pass it along to friends and family who you know that have been abused or are the abuser.
After reading your post, the first thing I thought of was a movie I have seen on Lifetime Movie Network. This movie was called "Odd Girl Out" and the reason I thought of this movie was your title mostly. The digital respect. In the "Odd Girl Out", the main character Vanessa is in high school and is suffering from constant bullying, not only in school, but also on the internet with websites, and instant messenger. This eventually leads Vanessa in a downward spiral of depression, and suicide attempts. Vanessa's mother struggles to help her daughter through this tough time, and battles with the school because the school will not do anything about the situation at hand. "Odd Girl Out" has been one of my favorite movies on bullying and teen violence. This movie is actually based on a book by Rachel Simmons, Odd Girl Out:The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls.
I definitely think that the athinline.com website is a great tool for teens and even preteens to use to learn how to cope with the digital disrespect as you called it. With the amount of technology we have now, bullying and other teen violence has grown to be outside of just school settings.
I found some more helpful links for teens and adults to use to learn more information on teen violence, and how to deal with these at http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/odd-girl-out
Here is a link to the trailer for the lifetime movie "Odd Girl Out" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy0SnBejYgI
Here is a link to Rachel Simmons page to learn more about the book. http://www.rachelsimmons.com/books-and-articles/odd-girl-out
I found this post to be very interesting. I am the youngest in my family, and at age 22 I am well out of the high school and jr. high school loop. I know that kids can be downright cruel. When I was a freshman in college I coached freshman and 8th grade girls in volleyball. I can't even begin to count how many times girls came up to me crying because of the he said, she said game. It's horrible that this is being transferred into text messaging.
When I was little I remember similar situations happening via instant messenger. People would say mean things and with a simple copy and paste a persons self-confidence was destroyed. Its really sad because jr. high school years are so critical for a child's development of personality, with constant blows to the ego it makes it harder to allow a young individual to be just that, and individual.
This post reminded me of an article I read in Glamour magazine. The article was called, "Why Are Nice, Normal Girls Getting Bullied Online?" The article focuses a website, thedirty.com. This website features pictures of mostly women and invites other women to anonymously make snide and rude remarks about other women. The woman this article focused on actually found a picture of herself from her myspace page. Someone took the picture, without consent, and decided to place it on thedirty.com.
This website, thedirty.com, actually invites women and even some men to ridicule and degrade others. It is hard to believe people who comment on this website are supposed to be mature and responsible adults. As a society, we want to instill strong good values and beliefs on our youth. However, some people still feel the need to instigate problems in real life or cyber space. I think athinline.org is a positive website to read and understand how hurtful words on a screen or text messages can be.
This is the link for the article if anyone is interested in reading it!
http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2010/02/why-are-nice-normal-girls-getting-bullied-online