So we being the over-aggressive bunch of adolescents that we are were made to sit through a presentation all about bullying. The new twist on this old and much hated tradition was that the 'play' (I use this in the lowest sense of the word, seeing as Shakespeare is turning in his grave right now) mainly focused on cyber-bullying (aka using technology to bully others).
From the get-go it was obvious that it had be written by either an elderly person, a parent, or some one else that screams when ever they see a laptop, and thinks that technology is new and scary and will one day destroy humanity.
References made to Youtube and Facebook were used so many times and so loudly, that the words YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK must have been bolded and capitalized in the script itself.
Despite the use of contrived 'teen-lingo', the 5 dollar set, the bad acting, the many, many out of place references to modern technology, the use of 'popular' music, the cheesy tagline and the excruciatingly drawn out discussion about the show itself afterwards....I'm sure that the skit had a good point to make.
There's only one problem.
The same point ( that you shouldn't bully, its bad, etc etc) has been shoved down our throats since day one. Everyone from parents to teachers to over-zealous class mates preached about how bullying was wrong, and now the fact of the matter is that its become (what ever campaign dreads of becoming) A CLICHE.
This argument has been made against bullying so many times that it has lost its impact, its meaning. It no longer speaks to us and makes us want to help. Basic Phsycology: Tell someone not to do something, and they will do it. Force feed hundreds of messages against bullying others to people, and suddenly no one gives a sh*t anymore.
So in case you're an administrator that's wandered across this blog by accident, I pray you: Book another act for periods 3 - 4 and save yourself the suicides that will follow if you perform yet another Anti-Bullying Campaign on your school stage.
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