It even got so pervasive on Facebook that Phoebe Prince found no peace. 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 not replace the real life. Not only did the mean girls ruin her physical life, they also ruined her online life. Even after death, the Phoebe Prince Facebook page still had comments from the Mean Girls of South Hadley all over it, reports Fox News. The Mean girls could have garnered quite a bit of information that they would 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
As Dr. Ablow suggests, people who fit the typical profile of a bully can quickly detect a weakness in their prey, as they did with the Phoebe Prince Facebook. Such bullies are fueled by a need to tear down others, so they quickly develop the ability to find their openings with bitter 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. While millions would give anything to be good looking, the reality as Dr. Ablow has observed is that if a teens lack confidence, being attractive can make them targets, rather than popular. Bullies will watch for people who they think have no defenses to mount resistance.
Dr. Ablow suggests the Mean Girls’ drug was hate
He told Fox, “Dehumanizing her had to have been intoxicating”. What would the point be otherwise? Ablow suggests that getting information off of Phoebe Prince Facebook was a means to an end, or a high in this case. Considering how widespread social media like Facebook are today, it’s not hard to see how dangerous sensitive personal information could be in the wrong hands. Identity theft issues can arise and destroy credit when in the case of Phoebe Prince Facebook, it can also harm the psyche.
It a bully control possible?
Dr. Ablow suggests 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, rather than brazen; gripped by emotional disorder, rather than in control.” The requisite cultural shift can occur once bullies aren’t lauded as James Dean-esque rebels anymore. More effective methods than Detention and suspension should be used in schools because they’re ineffective Dr. Ablow feels. Scorn isn’t needed, concern is. Total removal and home schooling until a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist can assure a school the bully is no longer a threat to themselves or others. Caregivers or parents have to step up.
