An Exploration Of Cyberbullying Problems and Why You Should Be Concerned?
Cyberbullying is a big issue in the world right now. With the growth of technology over the past decade, more and more people have become acquainted with it. People do everything on technology nowadays. From talking to friends, to playing games, and even doing your banking. But there are people who use technology for unjust. Not criminals even though the things they do could be counted as crimes in some people’s eyes. Bullying, antagonizing, or oppressing; all of these are unjust. These actions push and beat down their victim mentally through social media and private messages. There are many different reasons why people bully. It could because of the jealousy, a way to become popular, anonymity, getting even, others are doing it too, or they have been the victim before. Theses beatdowns of abuse can take a toll on the victim. The victim could start a eating disorder, self-harming, push away people, and worst case scenario is suicide. Even the bully will have bad effects from their actions such as guilt, regret, and trauma. The effects of cyberbullying are horrific and it should be stopped.
One of these effects are low self-esteem. Low self-esteem is when you think poorly of yourself. According to End To Cyberbullying’s article “A Surprising Long-term Effect of Cyberbullying,” if the victim of bullying gets repeated hate messages online about themselves they will soon start to believe them.
The internet has created an entirely new world of social communications particularly for youths. There are no more barriers. Family, friends, young and old may now stay in touch with just about everyone, anywhere in the world through the use of email, text messaging, web chat, and instant messaging. Although, most interactions are friendly and in good nature, there are some that are not. The use of technology as a tool to antagonize, torment and intimidate others is now a widespread problem. Sadly, this form of bullying like all others is most common among children and young adults. Research done by Cox Communications on children between 13 thru 18 year-olds, 25 percent said they were cyber-bullied whether online or by cell phone (Cox Com. 2009). Also in 2007, the National Crime Prevention Council reported cyber-bullying as a problem that affected approximately half of all American teens. Since it is popular among this group of American teens, then it is safe look at some of possible reason cyber bullies of this age group are encouraged to take part in such activity.
Technology―it’s the focal point of our lives, from sending a quick text to checking the latest news. But the real debate comes when the conversation switches to cyberbullying, which is customarily described as an act that is “repeated, hostile, and severe with the intent to embarrass, threaten, or harass” (“The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Warnke, lines 26-27). Bullies in the real world can and do get prosecuted, so what makes this any difference. In some cases, the bullying is so deleterious that the victim commits suicide. If all of this can be prevented, then lives will be saved and children will be able to live without the fear of being bullied. The three sources “The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Brett Warnke, “Sacrificing the First Amendment
With Cyberbullying it is easier for the bully to affect you, as they are behind a screen so you may not know who the person is, some people don’t know that they are bullying. It has become a regular thing to see bullying online as some website don’t a lot of anti-bully things to help them. There are not many things that the internet can do as there is many people getting bullied on the daily. More than one in four young teenagers had been deliberately targeted, threatened or humiliated, either by another individual or a group, through the use of mobile phones or the internet. The abuse can come in many forms: hurtful comments left on social networking sites such as Little Gossip and Facebook; private images that had been photoshopped and displayed for all to see. Now, though, it is no longer necessary to be in the bullies’ physical presence in order to be bullied: instead, their presence is a constant one, 24-7, thanks to modern technology and young people’s obsession with their mobile phones.
Cyberbullying is a relatively new threat, and it is very similar to traditional bullying. Despite the fact that cyberbullying and traditional bullying both share the common goal of harassment, cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying in that it does not stop at the schoolyard, and can continue when the victim is far away from the aggressor. It is just as devastating as common bullying, and sometimes is even more damaging. Professors Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin note in their journal, “Cyberbullying Creates Dangerous Stress and Anxiety”, that cyberbullying affects anywhere between 10-40% of students (contingent on their age group) (par. 1). J.D. Kelly A. Albin, in her article “Bullies in a Wired World”, defines cyberbullying as “…the ‘willful and repeated harm inflicted through use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices’” (157). It is caused by the fact that children feel their actions are mitigated when they use social media, as it creates the illusion of indirectness, and its effects range anywhere from mild depression to suicide.
Such occurrences lead to shame and affects the reputation and self-esteem of the victims. Many people do not understand how severe the effects of cyberbullying are on children and teens. Reading real life victims’ stories can help people to understand the destructive effects of cyberbullying on
For example, “unlike other forms of bullying, the harassment, humiliation, intimidation and threatening of others through cyberbullying occurs for twenty-four hours a day”. This proves that technology adds a whole different type of bullying called cyberbullying. Kids who witness cyberbullying feel an intense sense of isolation, fear, loneliness and despair. Their desperation can sometimes lead to acts of self-harm or tragically, even suicide. This shows that technology has a dark side. In summary, technology can create big problems such as
Millions of comments get posted every day. Some are bound to be offensive. some democratic senators want to make a law against cyberbullying. The law includes trolling and flaming. Although some people may argue that it is necessary to protect kids, if someone is getting bullied there is always a block button. Some reasons that this bill is impractical are that it can burden the court system, restrict freedom of speech, and even discourage responsibilities.
Basically, cyberbullying can lead to depression, which can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. A study was conducted on high school students, where they were asked various questions. The study created data for typical bullying and cyberbullying. The study found that “for females, cyber victimization was strongly related to depression, which in turn was associated with suicide attempts” (Bauman 346). An interpretation of this quote can make the inference that females are typically more in tune with what others think about them. This can also make them more likely to be cyberbullied because bullies typically choose a vulnerable target. The study also concluded that “because many cyberbullying actions are attempts to publicly humiliate the target or damage her friends and social status, the self-focus of the imaginary audience may magnify the belief that the entire social world in which the target interacts is aware of her humiliation, contributing to the development of depression” (Bauman 346). This imaginary audience is the users behind their screens observing the cyberbullying. The idea of imaginary audience is actually quite scary and even more humiliating because the victim does not know who has seen it and who has not. This plays into the fear and humiliation that the bully wants to evoke in her prey. Another study that was done on cyberbullying and suicide in the U.S., Canada, United
Bullying is a negative practice used to control, intimidate, and hurt the feelings of others. In the past few decades, there was only one type of bullying, which was called “traditional bullying” or “face-to-face bullying.” The traditional bullying occurred when the bullies and the person who was being bullied are both present. Nowadays, with the revolution of technology, bullying has changed creating a new type called “cyber bullying.” Cyber bullying involves the use of technology such as computers, smart phones, or any information technology device in a negative way to intimidate and hurt the feelings of others in a similar way to traditional bullying. The primary difference with cyber bullying is in the methods of occurrence, as it is more sophisticated than traditional bullying. Furthermore, the effects on individual feelings may lead to serious consequence like attempting or committing suicide or even murder. These horrible situations may happen as a result to the threats surrounding the individual who has been bullied. In addition, the bullies may not be identified because the identity can be hidden by the cloak of the Internet. This paper will
Children develop mental problems because of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying, which happens face to face. Children struggle with mental problems because they are constantly being harassed, threatened and embarrassed online. “Cyberbullying is increasingly considered a particularly damaging form of bullying because it can happen 24/7” (Wienclaw 257). It can also be shared with a wide number of people (Wienclaw 257). Children that are cyberbullied never feel safe because it can be carried out at any time or place. Children can be very self conscious due to cyberbullying. This causes them to lack self confidence. Children that lack self confidence tend to be insecure and lack social skills (Wienclaw 123). Lacking self confidence because of cyberbullying can lead children to different acts that they believe will help take away the pain and the suffering.
With the advancement of technology, cyber bullying has becoming a prominent issue in society. The term cyber bullying is defined as using technology, like emails, social media and text messaging as a means to inflict psychological distress on another (Barlett, 2013) Since this is a new term derived from the old one; bullying, it is defined as either inflicting physical pain or social exclusion as a means of harming (Chibbaro, 2010). This new advancement known as the Internet has lead to the misuse of technology, which is seen in younger individuals who are unaware of the psychological distress they cause to one another (Barlett, 2013). This issue discussed by Siegel (2012) reports the excessive use as “the Internet is in the air they breathe, how they function in the world” (Siegel, 2012)”. These individuals turn to the Internet as a
we know that social media has made it easy for people to keep in touch with each other, but it has also made it easier to participate in cyberbullying. Moreover, it made easier to bully online while staying behind an Internet because of advanced in technologies. The internet is essentially a public space, almost everyone has access to social media and its personal informations, so the entire public is responsible for cyberbullying even if we are not a victim of cyberbullying. Whereas, some people become bully internet, so they can able to hack victims computers and online accounts. They can steal password and all the personal information behind the scenes. Bullies send anonymously death threats messages such as, I am going to get you, i know where you live, and I will kill you. As per report show, 33 percent of teenagers have been becoming the victims of internet bullying. As a Effects, this victims have been experienced of social
Dueck (2006), Shariff and Hoffman (2007), Wiseman (2011), WG3 COST Action IS0801 (2012) outline some of the causes and effects of cyberbullying. Online bullying may happen for several reasons. First, bullying by popular kids happens because they want to maintain their popularity. Such people use bullying to validate their popularity. Often, this requires the support of backers and henchmen who remain on the sidelines cheering actively and passively as the bully brings down the victim. The other group of online bullies is people who are less socially successful. This group forms the bulk of cyber bullies. They find solace in bullying as it helps them cope with their low self-esteem. Their objective is to fit in with their peers and bullying provides a chance to help them achieve this goal. Cyberbullying requires even less courage than
We use technology in almost every aspect of our daily lives; it is how we stay connected in this fast-paced world. Technology provides many benefits, but it has the potential to destroy many people. With technology use on the rise, bullying has taken a new, more destructive form. Cyberbullying, as defined by the Cyberbullying Research Center, is the willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text (qtd. in Chait). Cyberbullying is a serious problem and has serious consequences.
As the development of technology ,people could keep in touch with each other through internet. All kinds of social media makes people have opportunities to communicate with friends,family,even strangers.Internets are good most of time,but there’re also a lot of people using internet to attack others. Bullying becomes not only physical but also a serious problem in society.