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Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by caditinpiscinam on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:45AM (#34077122)
You think school bullying is human nature? It might transcend culture, but I think it's a direct consequence of school as an institution. I mean, a school's proposition to students is basically this:

"You as a student have to spend most of your time with these strangers that we chose arbitrarily. If a conflict arises, you gotta figure it out on your own. Your parents won't be there to help you. Your friends may or may not be there to help you depending on how we choose (arbitrarily) to split you all up. If someone attacks you and you defend yourself, you'll be punished the same as them. If you refuse to participate in this arrangement, you're a criminal"

If I had to design an environment that was optimized to encourage and allow bullying to happen, it would look a lot like a school. Writing the phenomenon off as human nature seems super naive to me.

Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by tayo42 on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:50AM (#34077150)
Bullying isn't exclusive to schools though.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by caditinpiscinam on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @01:09AM (#34077270)
That's true. I think the other places where it happens often have similar dynamics to schools. For example, in a workplace you might not get to choose who you work with, or be able to leave easily. That's less true of other cases like bullying in teams or clubs though.

I just know that, personally, most of the times I experienced bullying in school happened when I was separated from my friends. I think that the natural tendency people have to look out for each other is stronger than any tendency towards bullying, but that schools disrupt the balance.

Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by Jensson on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @01:22AM (#34077343)
People seem to pile in once someone starts, that is how bullying works. If nobody starts then nobody piles in, but at scale with social media lots of people will start, so then the masses pile in a lot.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by brabel on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @02:41AM (#34077781)
Did you ever have "friends" as a child? Bullying was brutal in and outside school, and I was part of both ends (trying to show strength by bullying others to try to stop being bullied).
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by ZeroGravitas on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @04:51AM (#34078618)
Of relevance to the topic, the people who study bullying see it as a group dynamic. Apparently this is true across cultures but some cultures prefer to think of it as an individual "bully", rather than a social process that everyone participates in by allowing it to happen.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by dazc on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @05:20AM (#34078832)
My only experience of school bullying is purely anecdotal, from parents of kids suffering from it. The problem seems to be that a kid gets bullied, tells parent/teachers and the school then does everything it can to pretend it isn't happening.

The reputation of a school trumps anything else, it would seem?

Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by berniedurfee on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @07:32AM (#34079834)
Part of the purpose is to prepare you for the real world, which is far more brutal. Though bullying tends to be more subtle. Grownups have their lunch money taken all the time.
Re:Mozilla to Explore Healthy Social Media Alternative by Llamamoe on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @08:36AM (#34080520)
Your comment makes me wonder if bullying isn't like the alpha wolf thing in nature- seen only in captivity and a consequence of the need for a sense of control in an environment you can't otherwise control.