Unlike Jimmy Kimmel, What Happens When Teens Read ‘Real’ Mean Tweets?

By now most of us have seen countless celebrities, and politicians, go on ?Jimmy Kimmel Live!? and participate in a segment aptly titled ?Mean Tweets?. As the name suggests, these adult public figures go on air and read some of the mean tweets that people post about them.

Kids Read Mean Tweets   YouTube
Screenshot: canadiansafeschools

 

The segment is so popular that even President Obama went on the program last week, March 13, and read some of his own mean tweets. While most of these segments can be downright hilarious, a not-for-profit organization out of Ontario called the Canadian Safe School Network, has released a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that sheds a more serious light on the dangers of cyberbullying.

In the PSA titled ?Kids Read Mean Tweets?, we see teens reading some very nasty and mean tweets. Far from the laughter of a studio audience, you can feel the mean tweets sting more and more as they are read. Especially when we see a teen girl read perhaps one of the most heartless tweets of all, reading:

?No one likes you. Do everyone a favour. Just kill yourself.?

While the PSA comes from our neighbors up north, there is no denying that cyberbullying is a worldwide problem. Even as adults we all have to deal with our own ?trolls? from time to time. Unfortunately, many of our children have to deal with even worse at times.


While I would love to send a ?special? message to the author’s of such hateful and pathetic messages, that would make me just as despicable as they are. So I encourage the recipients of such nonsense to just delete and move on. You are better than that. Responding to or taking such mean tweets to heart only gives them power that they do not deserve.

 

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.