Cyber bullying is a big problem all across America and it is doing nothing but increasing. I’m almost scared of cyber bullying and it actually really upsets me. In my mind I couldn’t even imagine being bullied through the internet and having some dumb kid do this to you through the internet!!! I read a couple of articles and found that cyber bullying obviously mostly comes from social networking websites. Facebook is a common place where cyber bullying occurs. But pretty much any website where kids can interact there is some sort of cyber bullying going on. Cyber bullying worries me not only because it can happen to me but that it can happen to friends of mine which can be just as bad. And the worst part about cyber bullying in my opinion is the seriousness of it. People might think of cyber bulling as one kid getting his feelings hurt through the internet. But that’s not true. Lately bullying has affected a number of kids so much that some of them have hung themselves. Cyber bullying is doing the same thing to some kids. Some kids are going through so much pain because of cyber bullying that they have not only thought of killing themselves but actually done it!!! In fact one of my mom’s co-workers nephew killed himself because of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying isn’t a matter of feelings hurt. It can come down to such awful situations where a kid is thinking to him/her self life or death? Obviously things are trying to be done to stop cyber bullying. But I think there needs to be more.

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S44-4241-0-5002&artno=0000317665&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=cyberbullying&title=More%20Youth%20Seeing%20Their%20Facebook%2C%20Email%20Hacked&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S44-4241-0-5002&artno=0000317048&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=cyberbullying&title=More%20Cases%20of%20Bullying%20Ending%20Up%20in%20Courts&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N

This week and I kept reading That Was Then, This is Now. My prediction was right. I thought that Mark and Bryon were just going to become closer and closer which was just a set up for the moment when they start to separate. When Bryon gets a new girlfriend him and Mark start spending less and less time together. And just at the time when the two couldn’t be closer. Mark was just out of the hospital, and one of their best friends had just been shot saving their butts. But when Cathy (Bryon’s new girlfriend and M&M’s sister) and Bryon started dating they spent most of their time devoted to each other. And it wasn’t just teenage boyfriend girlfriend Bryon had latterly fallen in love with Cathy. At one point in the book Bryon proved me right by saying “me and Mark hadn’t been spending much time together recently” (pg 86). Bryon and Mark have been as close as brothers and been through so much together so hopefully their valuable and meaningful friendship will not crumble.

Over the past couple of weeks I have continued to read the book That Was Then This is Now by S.E. Hinton. I really like the book and I keep seeing a continuing process of what I thought was going to happen in the book. Byron and Mark have been friends since they were practically born. There like brothers and even live with each other after Mark’s parents disappeared. I predicted that Byron and Mark would just keep growing closer and closer (if that’s possible anymore) and then with them both getting older I think that one of them will move out of their neighborhood and start their life. Right now I think the book is still at the point where they are both getting as close of friends as possible. And I feel like they just took another step and I think maybe even the last step before they might start to separate. In the last chapter I read Mark got into a fight at a party and was smashed across the side of his face with a glass beer bottle. That brought Byron and Mark together in a lot of moments where they thought back on how much they really cared about each other. Not only the fact of how much Byron was worrying as he rode next to Mark in the ambulance to the hospital. But also after that during the time Mark was recovering from the gash he had on the side of his head. They talked a lot because Mark wasn’t really able to do anything physical (including walking). That forced the two to lie in their beds a lot and talk. Mark thanked Byron for being there for him through the whole thing. This led them to remembering many moments from when they were younger. Not in high school and they used to always be there for each other. This really brought them closer because it reminded them of why they are best friends or why they are often mistaken for brothers.