Cyberbully : More or Less a Movie Review

A word you speak is yours no more. They take wings once they reach some pairs of ears, more so, if they were words that contain bitterness. You might have let it fall from your mouth casually. Yet it may take a bullet’s speed when someone gets hit by it. And there would be repercussions: Those who got hit may hit you back; You might lose friends;You might make enemies. If that makes you cautious about your words, what about when no one would know who hit them? When one is online, he can hide behind a mask. He could say anything about anyone, yet  never know it’s impact.

 It might seem obvious : the theme of The movie Cyberbully is  trolling, or cyber-bullying. What is cyberbullying? That too might be obvious : You put on a fake name and fake profile picture. You let loose snide comments and an array of curse words below someone else's content. Well, you might be 'innocent'.May be it is well within your 'rights' to express your opinions in what ever way that pleases you. Or you might have had your reasons for that. You might not have predicted how others would build on the negativity by adding more abuses. May be, you’d never guessed the wound your words might inflict.  But, when you realize the gravity of your mistakes, when you come to see how cruel a fate your words had caused in someone else’s life, how do you make amends?  Cyberbully  is a chilling story of a teenager breaking under the weight of her guilt and self-doubt, when she comes under an attack of unkind words and unsavory deeds that troll many a naive souls like hers online.

For a story unfolding inside a small room with just one character sitting in front of her computer for 60 minutes, the movie Cyberbully is a gripping, emotional and thought provoking tale. There are elements of surprise, shock, pain, uncertainty, moral dilemma and a sense of nearing climax all through the movie. Maisie Williams, the young petite actress who plays Casey, the protagonist, does a brilliant job in etching out a picture of a willful ordinary teenager finding herself in an impossible situation.  After 60 minutes of ordeal, when she finally manages to call ‘Dad…’ in a breaking voice, you would feel like rushing to her, hug her tight and tell her, ‘It’s okay. Be brave, my girl. I am with you’. 

Why do people bully? Why do they tend to be crueler to their victims online, when they are behind the mask of a fake identity than they would be in real life? Is it because some inborn cruelty? Is it because their cynicism and utter lack of faith in humanity? How could anyone justify denying their fellow beings their dignity by hedging ugly abuses? How could they shrug off the damage they do to community health by advocating that ‘ people ought to grow thick skins instead of blaming us.’?

Even as we contemplate on complexities and moral conundrums, the online space is getting more and more polluted, more and more unforgiving, intolerant and corrupting. The younger generation will be exposed to these earlier than they have the moral strength to survive the inhumanity they might face. No doubt, there is an urgent need to something constructive about the issue of cyber bullying. And there is something we could do about it right now : Let’s be nice, and be respectful. Let’s report abuses we see online to the moderators of the forums where we came upon them. Let’s ask the websites who make millions and billions as revenue, all thanks to their users, to take responsibility to make their online space clean, safe and abuse-free.Let’s hope in a future where people happily choose to be responsible, understanding and kind, both online and offline.

  I started it as a movie review. It does look something short of what it was meant to be. No names of stars and directors. No mention of their nationalities and other little peculiarities... I know.  In case you are interested, you could get all those info here : IMDB 

 Here's the Channel 4's official page on the TV Movie : Cyberbully

And here's the wikipedia page on one of the real-life  terrible incidents on which the story is distantly based on : Amanda Todd

My simple concluding words : A movie that makes me contemplate on an issue I didn't give a second thought before, is a movie worth watching. Cyberbully was one of them.

Disclaimer :  I don't own the video. It belongs to who posted it on Youtube. I'm sharing it because I believe it is a story worth sharing.