Category: Students Social Life

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Why Do Teenagers Cyberbully Themselves?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Bullying has existed even before the internet, its impact has increased with the emergence of online communities

Over the past few years, where the internet makes distance learning and connectivity possible during catastrophic times like the present pandemic. However, the other side of the coin has a potentially harmful effect especially on teenagers, from the proliferation of fake news to online harassment. We have seen a massive increase in cyber abuse cases in India and Pakistan since the COVID-19 closure. Alone Pakistan has a tremendous 189% increase in cyber-harassment cases since April 2020. But these numbers are related to the victims who are virtually harassed by someone else, who might be known or unknown to them. What if the victim and the abuser would be the same?

Studies show that 13 percent to 18 percent of distressed teens physically injure themselves via cutting, burning or other forms of self-harm to cope with their pain. However, recent researches suggest that teenagers are now engaging in a newer form of self-aggression – Self-Cyberbullying. Digital Self-Harm is not a recent phenomenon, over the years the tendency of sending rude comments to themselves by teenagers over social media sites have increased rapidly. Continue reading “Why Do Teenagers Cyberbully Themselves?” →

Moving Blues: Helping Your Teen to Handle Emotional Challenges of Moving

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Why Especially Teenagers Feel Upset About Moving?

Last week, I moved out to a new apartment after spending almost 11 years in that apartment. While shifting my house-hold accessories, I was recalling many fond and cherished memories that I have made in all these years. Even the move was planned, I still felt on the last day that it was kind of a big step towards a whole new journey. This new experience reminds me of a student who, along with her parents, move to a new city. On her last day of school, she was devastated to meet her friends for the last time. Relocation is tough either from where you are living or studying. However, if you are a teenager, it is quite difficult to leave behind the school, friends, clubs and other commitments, as well as perhaps the only home you, have ever known. This transition from one place to another becomes more difficult for teenagers especially when so many emotional and physical changes already taking place in their lives.

Researchers believe that one of the major stresses in life is leaving behind friends, familiar places, and activities that eventually creates anxiety for everyone involved. One unexpected difference maybe school. It’s easy to assume that one school is pretty much like another, but for your kid, the new school may not use the same textbooks or procedures. Some of the classes may be different, or the teacher may have already covered topics your kid hasn’t learned about yet. It can be particularly hard for your kid if they are moving in the middle of a school year, but their teachers will understand and work with them to be sure they feel comfortable. Continue reading “Moving Blues: Helping Your Teen to Handle Emotional Challenges of Moving” →

How Collective Narcissism is Shaping on Social Media

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Social media is now becoming an inevitable source of meeting and engagement than before. Teens and adults spend hours posting and scrolling on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and a host of other platforms. It is easy to figure out such people who absorbed in a social media frenzy, especially those who post everything about their lives online. One of the integral uses of social media is the ability to display one’s life to the whole world, that makes some people express and post the inordinate amount of information about themselves. Perhaps, for many, posting on social media involves some degree of seeking attention. The question is how this ‘attention-seeking’ behaviour converted into narcissism or, even worse, collective narcissism. Continue reading “How Collective Narcissism is Shaping on Social Media” →

How an Attention-Seeking Behavior Makes You Less Creative?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

If your creativity is driven by a desire to get attention, you’re never going to be creatively fulfilled.
– Joseph Gordon-Levitt

One of the greatest gifts you can give to someone is your time and attention. A line that I read a year ago on a website and guess from which site? One of the most attention-grabbing websites, Facebook. Somehow, we all agree with this statement, I saw many of my students who have connected me over social media, shared this post multiple times on their FB walls. Even some people tag it to their besties. It’s a powerful feeling, to get attention – I agree. But What happened when our cravings to all these attention goodies finally fulfilled? And we get all the attention from our favourite people whom we always fascinate in our lives. If you ask me, my experience was not entirely happy.

I think the first time I can remember using my personality to get attention when I was nine. We all have our first childhood crush in the form of a friend or a relative like cousins, and there was I am. My first crush was my classmate, and as a nine-year-old, I always bragged about how well I can read alphabets in front of her 😀 . One day when I finished reading alphabets, she turned to me and said ‘show-off’ at one instance my urge to seek her attention was fulfilled, but on the other, a new wave of feeling emerged for her – the feeling of Hate 🙂

Maybe the situation might go opposite but again, that shifting of an urge to ambition make things worse. Then there’s another powerful feeling that people have been lucky to experience a lot. Continue reading “How an Attention-Seeking Behavior Makes You Less Creative?” →

Teens Biggest Dilemma – Why My Best Friend is Avoiding Me?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

How to Know If Your Friend Is Avoiding You or Just Busy?

One of the biggest pains in today’s teenager lives is the feeling of being ignored – not by their parents but especially by their friends. Over the years, I have seen several cases where students stop taking interest in any of the lessons or home tasks due to the disruption that happened between their friendship circles. Majority of the times, the teens started to believe that their friend has purposefully deserted them for some nasty reasons. But the question is, how do you know that your friend purposefully trying to get away from you? or they might be temporarily occupied with other responsibilities. In this article, I briefly discuss the reasons and some ways to recognise, without making any judgement, why we sometimes being ignored by our social circle – friends.

Before we are moving any further along, it is essential to know that there are certain situations where being ignored is nothing purposeful or malicious. People get busy and don’t always realise they’re blocking people out. Anna Johnson from Elite Daily believes that in a relationship nothing remains the same forever. There will be times when things will be great and other periods where issues will arise. If you feel like you’re being ignored, then chances are, you’re in one of these valleys. Continue reading “Teens Biggest Dilemma – Why My Best Friend is Avoiding Me?” →