People who aim to reach their full potential often deem the goal to be unreachable due to the negative effects of social media. From the fear of posting a video on YouTube to taking a theatre class in high school, they all stem from one common denominator – bullying.

Bullying looks different than how movies make it out to be. Nobody’s asking for lunch money or slamming a person against a locker, it’s more subtle than that nowadays. It’s more like big rumors, snarky comments, being posted about on secret accounts, etc. This is why parents and teachers fail to recognize the antagonizing terrors students face – it’s not easy to spot.

Over the past decade, with the rise of technology and social media, there has been no better outlook for bullying to evolve. From a mean joke to a ruthless prank video, what once was a series of incidents has become part of societal culture. The lack of repercussions taken towards bullies online has led them to think that it is okay to take the bullying in person.

The normalization of bullying has consequences for any social media user, however. People start to become desensitized towards mean comments because of how often they consume it in the comment sections of videos they watch. This leads to people bringing those behaviors into classrooms and public spaces expecting no backlash when getting caught because it’s just a trend or their “honest opinion.”

There are multiple stories of teenagers ending up unfortunately killing themselves due to the immense amount of bullying they have dealt with throughout their high school experience. 14-year-old, Adriana Kuch fell victim to in person bullying and cyberbullying where a video was spread around of her that caused her stress, and embarrassment, later causing her to commit suicide. This shows how far bullying can lead to someone being mentally affected enough to cause suicidal thoughts.

Theater and students immersed within the arts have increasingly become targets of bullying due to online stereotypes that have emerged within the past decade. The stereotypes being that these students are annoying, weird, socially awkward and unaware, which has led kids to stop involving themselves within these groups.

Vaughn Schweitzer (’27), a theatre student at Patriot High School, spoke on some of the bullying he has seen around the theater community. Schweitzer stated, “I’ve seen some of my friends get bullied for doing theatre because it’s not considered like a cool elective.”

Ironically, most successful actors, influencers and celebrities were theatre kids in high school and credit to finding their passion for what they do in that class. Most of these actors have similarities in their stories of also being bullied during their involvement in these classes, for example, Taylor Swift. Swift opened up about how she appreciated being bullied because it made her fit in with her acquaintances and made her who she was today.

So, society tends to celebrate when people become successful in the arts but then ridicules the process of students following the tracks that lead to success.

Even though Swift looked back positively, students still avoid art electives and rather than follow their personal interests. Students take classes that are deemed to be “useful” to avoid being judged. This puts a stunt into students’ creative growth because of busy schedules they aren’t able to pursue their passions outside of school.

“I’ve felt pressure to take some other electives other than theatre because my dad told me I wouldn’t get into college if I just did theatre electives” Schweitzer recalled.

The pressure to prioritize academic extracurriculars over creative ones challenges the question of educational values. As colleges state the value of creativity and individuality during the admission process, students may feel discouraged to demonstrate they have those traits because of potential backlash from society.

Schweitzer provided his thoughts on if he feels like colleges prioritize art electives as much as traditional ones. “[I feel like] no, because you don’t see as many people succeed in creative electives like art and theatre (musical theatre) as much as you see people succeed in biology… more career-based ones.” When the fear of being judged dictates choices of students, schools risk losing creativity and social environments that lead to a united community, all qualities the performing arts have provided. As bullying continues to shape societal norms, its influence on student behavior is difficult to ignore.

Bullies need to be held accountable for their actions, and students should support one another in order for creativity to continue to evolve and thrive in the modern world.