The first amendment protects our right to freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly. As a Jewish woman, a writer, and an advocate for equality this is one of the most essential amendments stated in The Constitution. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen people abuse that right, and defile what was once a tool of empowerment and compassion, into a tool of hatred and fear.

I think it's a fair statement to say that everyone has been made fun of for something over the course of the lives, whether they've been outright bullied, or not. But somehow it feels different when it's online. Not better or worse. Not more or less painful. Just different. It's different because once something is on the internet, it's there forever. Instead of hearing the brutal words in your head every night as you fall asleep, you can read them or listen to them over and over, and so can others.

The most publicized cases of "internet trolling" usually involve celebrities. Back in July, "Ghostbusters" star, Leslie Jones, was viscously attacked on Twitter. She was compared to apes, the gorilla who was recently shot in a Cincinnati, Harambe, people sent her nude photos, and one even photoshopped a picture of her with semen on her face.

Back in 2014 following the suicide of Robin Williams, his daughter, Zelda, was targeted by trolls on Twitter. They photoshopped pictures of her father's body lying in a morgue with bruises on his neck, and was branded as a "heartless bitch."

I'm sure I'm not the only one who could never forget Jennifer Mayers' sandwich tweet that went viral at the beginning of July this past summer. Mayers, a self proclaimed: wife, mother, and Christian, posted this on her Twitter, receiving backlash, but also support.

Not only celebrities are effected by this. Anyone with a social media account, email account, or even a cellphone is at risk of being bullied, harassed, and ridiculed by friends, peers, and people they may not even know.

I didn’t have a single social media account until I was 16. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I got a Facebook. I grew up without having an easy way to connect with friends, but I also grew up without an easy way for people to attack me on the Internet. I am the exception, however, most certainly not the rule.

So a little over a year ago when I began writing for “The Odyssey,” I received my first taste of technological truculence, I felt turned around.

It was a Saturday night a few weeks after I'd posted my seventh article. I got a call from an “unknown” number, so I just let it go to voicemail as most people do. This is the transcribed version of the voicemail left on my phone.

Recently as Odyssey writers, we've been experimenting with posting our articles on different social media sites like Tumblr, Pinterest, and Reddit. I thought I'd give Reddit a try because I'd never used it before. After posting a humorous article comparing Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry to Greek Life, I received some "feedback."

We have been taught since elementary school that the reason bullies bully others is because they've been bullied themselves. But I've never been able to wrap my head around the fact that someone who has felt the scratching of those harsh words against their ears, or in this case their eyes, and has been in such pain, could turn around and create that same pain for someone else.

Taylor Swift is right in saying that people who are bullied should, "Shake it Off," and that no matter what they do, "the haters gonna hate." But that doesn't have to be the way it works. When people are ruthless and malevolent on the internet, it is important to shake it off and keep moving forward with your life, but why do we concentrate more on those bullied than the bullies themselves. We tell victims to "be strong," and to "fight back," but why not just tell bullies not to fight in the first place?

Somehow make them realize that the people they are sadistically chipping away at are human beings, we're all just human beings. We all feel, cry, laugh, smile, and have problems in our lives that we have to deal with. Again, we're all just human beings.

Why can't they see that? I just don't understand. Maybe it's because the only time I see a glass half empty is when that glass is my gas tank, maybe it's because I'm more of a Mencius kind of person than a Hsun Tzu kind of person, but whatever the case may be, we need to be kind to one another. And if you won't take my word for it, take Euripides': "Yes, but what we love too much is dangerous. That depends, sometimes it's dangerous not to love."