Gen X Musings: Cyberbullying
By Patricia Racine
September 2026
For Generation X talking about bullying and cyberbullying is a complicated conversation; we get it, but we also don’t GET IT. We are the last generation to have a totally analog childhood, and we remember what good old-fashioned bullying looked like; but now we are parenting and managing young people who are living in a cyberworld that is rife with bullies of all ages.
I can understand, not accept, but understand when kids bully; they are completely led by their emotions and impulses, and honestly just want to be seen by the cool kids du jour. Honestly, these new-age bullies are a whole different animal than the ones we grew up with; they are relentless and vicious. But the thing is, they had to learn this stuff somewhere. Children learn from the adults around them and there are more adult bullies than we think. Dealing with adult bullies is kind of tricky because they have evolved from pushing kids around the playground to attacking people psychologically as gaslighters, gatekeepers, passive aggressors and critical reviewers who hide behind their keyboards.
Recently I’ve had a few strange online interactions with an individual that fits into the adult bullying category. I honestly have no idea who the person is, but apparently, they “know” me, and have their panties in a bunch because I don’t know who they are. Well, they have made some cruel, fictional and random accusations to me that were in a hostile-leaning tone, which brought me to the realization that the individual was not only a bully but possibly unhinged; normal people do not imagine relationships with strangers. So, I did what any self-respecting Gen Xer would do; I blocked the dude.
Not all bullies are what you expect. Created with AI by Patricia Racine
That’s how we dealt with bullies back in the day; we went home, shut the door and the problem went away for the rest of the day. The block button is our cyber version of slamming the door, or better yet, slamming the phone down. Kids these days don’t even have the slightest inkling of how satisfactory it felt to aggressively slam down the receiver; no matter how hard you push that end call button, it just isn’t the same. As adults in our 40s and 50s we have also perfected the “whatever” attitude which tends to take the wind out of a bully’s sails, in addition to having some pretty thick skin and a firm understanding of who we are and what we represent no matter what is said about us.
But–and this is a very big but–the young kids out there don’t handle bullies the way we did or do. They can’t put their phones down; for a lot of them it is the infrastructure of their social lives. And if you suggest that they block a tormentor, they answer with “but how will I know what is being said about me?” It is quite sad that kids have to deal with seeing their name and face plastered all over the internet, reaching hundreds of peers in minutes and knowing that someone always has their phone to record potentially embarrassing things that can be loaded to social media in seconds. It is sad that these young bullies have no regard for how far they take things and then get protected when their words and posts have terrible results. And it’s sad that, most likely, these kids are learning how to do these things from their parents, in addition to what they see on screens.
Every day I am grateful that I grew up in the time I did and didn’t have to deal with the crap that these kids go through. Sure, there were bullies, but they didn’t follow me home and they certainly weren’t suggesting the things that kids do these days. I am also grateful that the young people who mean the most to me have not had to deal with bullies. These kids are carbon copies of their Gen X parents, and so are pretty thick skinned. And for my own adult sized bully; I will pray for God to grant you forgiveness, because Karma is a …
