ask.

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Haris, Karen, Tania

Introduction
Research Question
How has Ask.fm affect the lives of teenagers in the aspects of usage,
popularity, and cyberbullying?
Thesis Statement
Teenagers are prone to bad-decision making, so when they escape to their
online world, they are going to do things that are not very wise. Ask.fm is
one of the ways they can do that. They can leave anonymous questions
about personal topics and even transfer that to hate (cyberbullying).

Survey Results
26 people

Survey Results:

General Data

Age?
19
years
1
3.8%17

years
5
16
19.2%

years
3 15
11.5%
years
4
15.4%

Have you ever used Ask.fm?

13
years
1
3.8%

14
years
12
46.2%

No 8
30.8%
Yes
18
69.2%

Survey Results:

Usage and Popularity

How often do you use/open Ask.fm?

I use/open Ask.fm at least 2-6 hours everyday.
I use/open Ask.fm at least once everyday.
I use/open Ask.fm several times every week.
I use/open Ask.fm at least once every week.
I use/open Ask.fm at least once every 6 months.
I use/open Ask.fm depending on the amount of activity that my account
receives.
I use/open Ask.fm only when I have newly found intentions of stalking
someone.
I barely use/open Ask.fm.
I used to use/open Ask.fm at least 3 times everyday, but have recently
stopped using/opening it due to the lack of questions that I receive.

Have you ever been told/heard about the negativity of

Ask.fm?
If so, what have you heard?
Yes. I heard that people are getting bullied and hated to the point that
they committed suicide.
Yes. I, myself have been bullied on Ask.fm.
Yes. I heard that people are getting judged for who they are.
Yes. Ask.fm is being used as a tool to bully people and make them feel
bad about themselves.
Yes. Ask.fm is a social media that allows people to ask anonymous
questions, which often are questions
regarding personal/inappropriate topics and/or about hate.
Yes. I heard that people are getting bullied to the extent of getting
bullied face to face.
Yes. I have heard that despite it being useful for several reasons like

Did you continue using Ask.fm even after hearing negative

things about it? Why or why not?
Yes. Because I personally feel like the people who hate on other people using Ask.fm are
just sad people with nothing else better to do. I find it quite
amusing.
Yes. Because I believe that my friends are not going to bully me through Ask.fm.
Yes. My social life depends on it.
Yes. Because I believe that every other social media has its ups and downs, so why should
I stop using it when every other social media is exactly like
it?
Yes. Because I dont care about the stupid judgments people make of me.
Sadly, yes. Because I just dont really care that much.
Yes. Because I believe that the victims of cyberbullying on Ask.fm dont actually care that
much and instead could attain a lesson from the hate they
receive. Also, Ask.fm is not just filled with bad people, there are still some good people
left too.
Yes. Because Ask.fm is one of the only ways I have to stalk and harass people.
Yes, but I do admit that I have not used it very often lately.
No. I stopped using it because I feel like I dont need that negativity in my life.

Do you feel accomplished when you have more

followers/likes?
Why or why not?
Yes, I do feel more accomplished. It makes me feel good about myself.
Yes. Because it makes me feel acknowledged and important.
Yes. I feel somewhat accomplished because then my social image might seem as if I
am an outgoing person who has a lot of friends, and its
nice to be viewed that way by people.
I do feel accomplished because having a lot followers/likes means that I am
somewhat popular, which means I must have a lot of friends.
I feel accomplished because it allows me to know that people enjoy getting to know
more about me.
I dont really care, but I do know that if you have more followers, it means that you
would get more questions to answer and thats fun.
I dont really care because I feel like it is better to have less followers that are made
up of people you know personally than to have more

How important is Ask.fm to you?

Not at all
important

1
2

Moderately
important

3
4
5

Extremely
important

11
42.31%
3
11.54%
1
3.85%
1
3.85%
4
15.38%
2

Survey Results:

Questions

Have you ever submitted an anonymous question

in order to acquire personal information about
someone?

No 10
38.5%

Have you ever received an anonymous

question regarding personal topics?

No 4
15.4%
Yes
16
61.5%

Yes
22
84.6%

Have you ever received any questions that has offended you?
If yes, were they anonymous?
No I have not 3
11.5%

Yes I have and

they weren't
anonymous 1
3.8%

Yes I have and

they were
anonymous 22
84.6%

What did you feel after receiving such questions?

How did you take the offence?
I felt worthless and ended feeling bad and pitying myself for quite some time because of the cruelty of
the things said by the anonymous user. I didnt know what to do. I just
let it consume me till I got over it.
I felt offended and pressured, but I didnt know what to do.
After receiving the offensive questions, I was certainly not happy.
I felt really bad about myself. I didnt like being offended.
I didnt enjoy being offended, so I used the block and/or report button.
I felt offended and I decided I would do something about it, so I tried finding out who it was that kept
sending me these anonymous and offensive questions/comments.
I felt really bad, but I got over it afterwards because I realized that the fact that these people use Ask.fm
to hate on me means that they dont have the courage to say it to my
face.
At first, I felt offended, but then I realized that these offensive questions were asked by an anonymous
user. The user asked these questions anonymously because he/she doesnt
want people to know who he/she really is because he/she doesnt have the courage to ask me these
questions in person. The hate got me feeling bad about myself, but then I
started feeling bad for the user. I knew that this user would love to see me get sad about what he/she
had said, so I chose to stay strong. The best way to deal with the hate is to
stay strong, so that youre not giving the user what he/she wants. I have learnt that it is important to
avoid letting your emotions cloud your judgments. I have also learnt that in

Did you continue using Ask.fm even after such an event?

If so, why?
Yes. Because I know that in every social media, you are bound to find hate. Im
not going to stop using Ask.fm because of the hate,
just like Im not going to stop using my other social medias.
Yes. Because I shouldnt care so much about the hate.
Yes. Because after such an event, I can attain more experience and use my
extended knowledge to protect myself whilst still
having fun on Ask.fm.
Yes. Because I dont care about the sad haters. I have enough respect for
myself to not let the haters get to me.
Yes. Because the hateful questions that I received were less in numbers
compared to the other types of questions I receive.
Yes. Because I enjoy using Ask.fm. I can use it to stalk other people and find
out more about them. I can also ask the questions I

Survey Results:

Cyberbullying

What is your current opinion on the topic of

cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is bad, but if you have popularity and a lot of friends, chances are
youre only getting bullied because people are jealous of
you and you should just ignore that.
Cyberbullying is just a way for people to feel more dominant about themselves. I
feel like giving too much thought about cyberbullying isnt
worth it because people should look at themselves first before they go on to judge
other people.
Cyberbullying is just way for people who are too scared to say something to
someone in person, but I feel like bullying online compared to
bullying in person can result in a whole lot more negativity because the things that
are said remain on the Internet forever.
I absolutely hate the fact that cyberbullying exists.
I feel like cyberbullying should be terminated because it makes people feel bad
about themselves.
I think that cyberbullying should be stopped because it is offensive to the point that
its dangerous.

Have you ever been/witnessed someone being bullied on

social media (e.g. Ask.fm)?
No 2
7.7%

Yes 24
92.3%

Did you do anything to (help) stop the bullying?

What did you do?
I stopped using some of my social medias because I wasnt interested in the hate that it carried.
I stopped using the media for a while, but afterwards I continued using it because even though
there is always going to be hate, I enjoy using social media. I wont let any hater stand in my way
of doing what I enjoy.
When I got bullied, all I did was delete the social media application on my phone. Though after
about 3 months, I downloaded it again.
I helped by explaining that cyberbullies shouldnt get inside your head because they are just
people who are bored with their own lives, so they entertain themselves by bringing negativity to
others.
Yes. I helped the victim of the bullying with advices on how to ignore the hate.
Well, in social media, there isnt much you can do to stop bullies. I just told my friend who was
being bullied on a social media to not bother with the hate.
I couldnt do much to stop these people, so I would often just help by advising the victim of the
bully to stay strong.
I didnt know how to stop the bullying, but I just advised my friends to stop using the social media
if it bothered him/her so much.
I helped people that I personally know, but I didnt help people that I didnt know because I felt
like it wasnt any of my business. Though it seemed like people are handling it just fine by

A Guide to Social Media

What are the dangers of social media

that teenagers should be aware of?
Cyberbullying
Teenagers should be more aware of cyberbullying and what effects it
has on people. Most teenagers have access to
social media, so they should be more aware of the negativity social
media can bring to someone. Cyberbullying can be
the cause of insecurities, depressions, suicidal tendencies, and so many
more problems. Once you enter the world of
social media, you will either be a victim of cyberbullying or you will
witness a victim being cyberbullied.

Clarification and Evidence of

Data
The results of our survey show that many teenagers will
continue to use a social media even after
marking it as unessential and even destructive. This is a
product of bad judgement and a lack of
wisdom. Some teenagers have committed suicide due to
the cyberbullying they get on Ask.fm.
So far, nine teenagers connected to Ask.fm have
committed suicide after receiving scores of

When handling social medias,

should we follow what most people do?
Teenagers tend to compare themselves with other teenagers,
and sometimes follow what they do instead. They tend to do
this because they often feel left out and have the urge to fit in.
In our opinion, we should not follow what most people do
because it might not be the right thing to do. Instead, we
should handle our problems in the way that is right according
to God. We should be able to differentiate what we like to do
and what the right thing to do is. The right thing to do might
not be what we like to do, but it is the path that we should

How to Respond to Hate

Without Creating New Problems
When a cut appears on your finger, inflicted by a sharp object, what do
you do? Some people will stop the flow of the
blood by healing it, but some others will have already prevented it from
even happening in the first place. That is
generally what also should be done in situations like these. When a
person gets a cut, one does not make a bigger cut
to drown the smaller cut, but one instead would heal it. What a victim
of hate should do is to prevent the hate from
even happening. Learn your boundaries and safety from the beginning.
Though once it has happened, try to stop it.

Social Media and the Old

Testament
In 2 Samuel 11, David unfortunately impregnated Bathsheba, who at
that time was married. Driven by his own lust, he
created a troublesome situation for both him and Bathsheba. The
solution that David came up with was to kill her
husband, but he didnt want to kill him directly, so he came up with a
daring act of sending Bathshebas husband to the
fight in the frontlines of a battle, which means that he was bound to get
killed anyway. This story can be connected to
the topic of social media. The carelessness of David and his attachment
to the idea of living in the moment clouds his

Other Bible References

Nowadays, social media is something that most of everyone will have
had been a part of, but its not entirely a good
thing. Social media can be used as a breeding ground for bullies to let
their own insecurities cause negative actions
onto others by destroying their self-esteem. Our daily consumption of
time spent in the world of social media could
possibly be greater than our time spent in connecting with people in
the physical world. Most of us know that social
media, although has its positivity, also has its negativity. No matter how
many times people have been warned about
the bad side of social media, they will still continue using it without

Conclusion

Your chances of ever coming across a teenager who has never had any
experience on social media before are slim to
none. Since teenagers are prone to bad-decision making, a lot can go
wrong in their social media world. As we
conducted a survey using Ask.fm as an exmaple of social media, we
can see that most teenagers will continue using
their accounts even when they do not percieve it as an important
activity, and to those that do this, they will often
open their accounts at least once a day or so. Many teenagers will also
continue using their accounts even after hearing
negative things about the site. Some teenagers will also feel some sort
of accomplishment when they get more
followers and/or likes. And with a site like this, your identity can be
hidden when you ask a question. Most teengaers

Works Cited
Edwards, Jim. Users On This Web Site Have Successfully
Driven Nine Teenagers To Kill Themselves. N.p., Sept.
2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/askfm-and-teensuicides-2013-9?IR=T&>.
Foster, BJ. 5 Dangers of Social Media For Teens. N.p., n.d.

ask.f
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End of presentation.