The Talent of Ridicule

     This week one of the prompts that we discussed was about the "talent of ridicule". This so-called "talent" in my opinion can bring many benefits to society as long as a certain line is not crossed. This talent comes in many forms, namely bullying, be it over technology or just plain in person bullying. 

    Bullying is taught from a young age as a very improper and impolite thing to do, and for good reason of course. But bullying can be, and is in many situations, used as a form of motivating or inspiring people out of their troubles, misery, or any bad habit they might have. The only way for this to help people though, is only when this "constructive" bullying does not cross the line into actual physical and mental abuse. The problem is that many people do not understand this and knowingly or unknowingly cause consequences from causing trauma all the way to even suicide. Statistics have shown that 27% of bullied students have said that it lowered their self-esteem and 19% of students have said that bullying had negative impacts on their relationships with their friends and family. 

This is obviously detrimental to society, but when bullying is in the form of saying harsh truths to the "victim", this can cause a change in the mindset and actions of the said victim in improving his/her own life. There are many people who have changed due to the words and judgmental mindset of people around them. Granted, this ability to accept one's own flaws and change is heavily dependent on the person who is being made fun of or bullied. But the truth is that bullying and the judgmental nature of man will not change anytime soon, as long as this bullying does not cross the line of causing mental trauma (which unfortunately does so sometimes) it might actually benefit people and get them out of their troubles and low points in life.