Printers.

If you're thinking "what tools did they have to create photoshopped images of you with?", why would you attribute that to social media?

Is it possible you are being thick here? Mentally rehearse the process of photoshopping your victims image and then printing it out and circulating it to everyone in the class before or at bedtime.

No, they were printed out, hung up around school, posted into lockers…

I suppose it was all just as bad before printers too?

You just did a lot of oil paintings. And prior to that you did some cave drawings?

Y'all are literally bullying here.

The irony would be hilarious, if it wasn't just straight up mean.

If it comes across that way apologies. I was honestly suspecting that the post I was replying to was being deliberately obtuse, but I guess it’s possible that this happened to them and it’s unduly salient as a consequence.

Y'all never stopped to consider their point.

Let me give you an analogy:

An apple takes 1 year to fall from a tree.

An apple takes 1 seconds to fall from a tree.

An apple falls from a tree.

No difference.

Are you really trying to suggest that printing out 500-1000 copies of a photo and handing it out physically to all the kids in the school is the same as effortlessly spamming the same image out through online groups/chats? Come on, man.

While technically true in describing the possibility, there is a big difference in ease between printing a photo and sending a message to a user via a digital platform e.g. WhatsApp.

To physically bully you before with a compromising (but fake) photo, the bully would need to physically distribute said images to the presence of your friends and family, which requires time, knowledge of their location, etc. Not so now; if you used a social network and they could see connections to other users (such as family members) then they can just follow those connections by messaging those people directly.

That difference in scale and ease for the bully is real vis-a-vis physically vs social media.

When I was at school, printers were expensive and bad, cameras weren't digital and film was non-trivial price to buy and also to develop, and the one single scanner we had was one-bit black and white.

And normal people on the internet was told to never ever reveal their name or address to others online for fear bad people would misuse that info.

I dont mean to be nasty, but what sort of turbo nerds are bullying you if they decide to Photoshop images. Back in my day, bullying was about repeatedly keeping people out of the ingroup until they internalized their otherness. It was opportunistic. We didn't plan elaborate scenarios, we called him gay when he spoke about something he cared about. That was enough.

If anything, social media would give that kid more opportunities to find a group that will accept them.

Now imagine you're calling that kid gay constantly and you can look at all the worst stuff whenever you feel like to go mock it extra as a bully. And they only have to know it's you if you feel like it. (Anxiety's a big thing to remember there too, anxiety and obsessions and any historical traumas)

It's not a world of difference, but it might explain why it's not as stark as you might expect at worst.