Think Before You Post: Story of Amanda Todd

Faria Sanida

Be Conscious, Think Before You Speak

North Stream

11/2/2016

    The story of Amanda Michelle Todd started like all the other cyber bully stories begin. She was a happy Canadian fifteen year old girl with friends and family until she met this anonymous person on Facebook who flattered and complimented her so much to the point of persuading her to show her topless body to him. It all started when she was in 7th grade and used to video chat with new people over the Internet and met the anonymous person. That person blackmailed her with threats of sharing her topless pictures to her friends. A year later another anonymous sent her the same picture of her and it went viral, causing bullying and teasing to the point she had to change schools. After that she fell into drugs and alcohol and then attempting suicides a few times before she finally succeeded at last. On October 10, 2012 she took her own life. The month before she died, she posted a video on YouTube with the use of flashcards, telling her stories of being abused, bullied and harassed. She described her silent story of how she used self harm, drugs and alcohol into silence the pain she suffered. All Amanda wanted was someone to understand her, listen to her and a trusted friend. Therefore, because of the choices she made, it affected her later in her short life.

    Immediacy, Lack of Control and Permanence had played a major role in the story. Immediacy refers to how fast something gets spread and or post online. If Amanda didn’t share her private photos with the anonymous person than the teasing from the classmates would’ve never started and she would’ve never had to change school constantly. Lack of Control means that when you post something you lose all control of where that post may end up and who that post might end up with. Amanda shouldn’t have shared her photos with the anonymous person because now she doesn’t have any control of that photo once they were sent to someone. Permanence means that something is being permanently posted online. Even though Amanda didn’t share her photos publicly, it was still sent to someone through online which means once you send someone to something they could do anything to it. However, Amanda shouldn't have talked to anyone she met online and trusted them extremely quickly. There is no way you could ever find out that the person you're talking to could actually be them because in reality it could be someone else behind that profile picture. Be careful who you talk to online because no one ever wants to be in a position where Amanda Todd was once in.

https://nobullying.com/amanda-todd-story/