This Kid is the Anti-Cyber Bully

Readers of this here blog thingy know  I sometimes complain about, and advocate against,  kids who bully, particularly cyber bully, because of the extreme harm these bullies can cause.

Jeremiah Anthony of West Bloomfield High School in out in the Midwest is not one of these cyber bullies.

Jeremiah Anthony, the man behind the anti-cyberbullying
Twitter feed @westhighbro

Recognizing that doing the exact opposite of something destructive can have beautiful results, he and some of his friends started cyber complimenting people via Twitter and Facebook he knew in the school.

Using his Twitter account, @westhighbros,  Jeremiah and his co-conspirators tweet positive comments about and to people they perceives as needing a cyber-hug.

He's got a Facebook page that pretty much does the same thing. On Twitter, looking at @westhighbros posts, you can see Jeremiah at it every day. If he sees a Twitter feed of someone who seems to have a negative attitude toward themselves, he gives them a boost.

An example: One young woman tweeted, "Sorry, didn't realize I had to be perfect."

The response from @westhighbros was fast. It said: "But you are. We've said it before, we'll say it again. You're an excellent athlete and you've got an irresistable smile."

The @westhighbros Twitter account has gotten a lot of publicity in recent days because HooplaHa, a web site featuring inspiration and/or fun stuff they find, highlighted @westhighbro and made a video about Jeremiah and the reaction he's gotten from fellow students.

What I really like about Jeremiah Anthony's idea is it can virally spread from school to school, and we could end up with a zillion Twitter and Facebook accounts like @westhighbros.

So if anybody in some high school, or grade school or college, or anywhere, really is reading this, go ahead and copy Jeremiah's idea. I'm sure he won't mind.

Here's the video from HooplaHa, which further describes what's going on here: