Self Care related to online safety

How do you make choices about walking away from something that you like doing when it is proving to be unsafe. Do you have other options or is that it? How do you cope when the online bullying is present in your only source of friendships or your only source of favourite things to do? Could you walk away? How long do you persist because you have no other options? What happens if they try to track you down? What happens if they post inflammatory messages attempting to get you to interact again. Consider what that looks like for individuals who like creating videos and posting them on YouTube. Small communities exist that love certain topics e.g. point of view transport travel. Where else do you get that feedback about what you’ve made, what you’ve experienced. Software platforms can allow you to block people, but if you’ve used your real name or if the topic of interest is so niche that you are easily identifiable because of your skill, your style or the way that you talk / interact they might still be able to find you. An understanding of how to create avatars that can express your persona as well as protect your identity is important. Yet. The conversations that you have online have a characteristic that enable you to be identified regardless of your attempt to hide yourself. So could you walk away. Think about how distressing that is for students who aren’t coping at school, who find it difficult to have friends yet have a group of people that they like to interact with online. If. They are able to walk away, how do they say goodbye? How do they deal with the repeated attempts to get them back? How do they keep themselves hidden but still make real friendships. Do you as an individual have enough activities on the computer that can be completed offline? Do you have access to someone who can help you do that research or to enable you to extend your interests or depth within what you are doing.  How much depth do you need so that you can feel happy that you are learning and happy that you can engage in something fulfilling? What happens once you’ve learnt or mastered that? Where do you go then? This is Occupational Therapy.