Bullying- What is the deal?

Bullying has become quite the issue in recent years on the news, in the schools, and even at home. I am not sure how I feel about all of it. Don’t get me wrong, I do not condone bullying what so ever, but I have to wonder how did it become such an enormous issue?
I remember, back in the good old days of elementary school, I got along with just about everyone. Now my school was very small, there were only nine kids in my class, so we were grouped together with the next grade up or down, depending on the year. Going to school with so few kids meant you kind of needed to get along with everyone, or you might not have any friends at all, but still, there was always that one girl that I didn’t always get along with. Both her and I look back now and think it was cute that we constantly sent each other “I need space” notes. As far as bullying goes, I don’t remember any of that going on. The bigger boys always had to pick on the younger kids, but I never considered that to be bullying. I wonder if that is what most of these cases now are actually about. A few months back, I read an article that posed the question if kids today know how to communicate face to face with each other anymore, because of the huge increase of technology. If I wanted to communicate with one of my friends, I would pick up the phone and talk to them. Now, I can pick up the phone and send them quick little messages. Computers and phones don’t have the ability to convey if you are laughing, crying, being sarcastic, or any other emotion that could be behind that sentence. For example, the comment “You are such a PIG” could be conveyed multiple ways. The obvious is that someone thinks you are disgusting, but, (flashing back to my elementary years), it most likely meant, “You are such a pretty intelligent girl!” So I have to wonder if some of the issues today with bullying aren’t just, at the end of the day, a miscommunication that went too far.
Another thought is how much we should blame the people that raise the children. I hate the fact that this might even need to be brought up, but where do the kids that are doing the bullying get that it is ok to do it in the first place? If I bullied someone at school and my parents found out, I don’t even want to imagine the consequences, and I am 25 years old! I am sure it would involve not being able to sit for a week.
I know two little boys, ages 8, that were supposedly bullying a little girl, age 6. The information that I gathered was, one of the little boys called the girl ugly. Call me whatever, but I don’t think that is considered bullying. Does the little boy need to be told that calling people names is not ok? Absolutely, and an apology to the little girl would need to take place. Later, I found out that the little girl called the other little boy “four eyes” because he had just gotten glasses, before his brother called her “ugly”. So now I realized that the first little boy was actually protecting his brother, and I have to give him credit for not hitting her too, as so many little boys think that is ok when they get mad. Eventually everybody said sorry to everybody, and from what I understand, everyone is getting along. Neither set of parents went to the school and cried bullying, but they were involved enough to get to the bottom of the issue, and make all the kids apologize to each other. Sometimes, I think if these types of issues were resolved at young ages, then bullying might not ever become an issue later in life.
Unfortunately, we are dealing with it now as a society. I feel bad for all the kids that are picked on or bullied, and sometimes the only thing to do is tell them that we believe in them, and they need to believe in themselves, eventually the mean kids will disappear from their lives, and life will get better. But what child listens to an adult when we tell them that life will be ok?