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Cyberbullying Sociological Perspective

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As cyberbullying has become a major social concern for school administrators, students, parents, it becomes increasingly important for them to understand the different perspectives people have on cyberbullying in order to be able to offer and work out solutions. Two sociological perspectives, the conflict and functionalist perspectives, can provide crucial insight on the victim and the bully, two important sides of the problem of cyberbullying. Conflict perspective or conflict theory is one of the major sociological approaches to analyzing social problems. This perspective originated with Karl Marx, a famous philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist, and whom many credit contributions to the birth of modern …show more content…

The bullies are satisfied with having control over what they consider the weaker students, knowing that making inappropriate comments or jokes and teasing over the Internet or instant messaging will not be reciprocated. They are able to keep this power imbalance in check because, according to Stoel, “[they]… hide their identity through the use of screen names… The use of technology makes it possible for cyberbullying to be done secretly…” (p. 2). The victim experiences repetitive harassment from various This is extremely powerful in terms of the conflict theory because of the emphasis not only on the presence of the power imbalance between the bully and the victim, but the bully’s ability to perpetuate that power …show more content…

This perspective originated with Émile Durkheim, a French sociologist, social psychologist, and philosopher, and the one who formally established and is considered the father of sociology, as the social sciences was not considered an independent field of study separate from philosophy at the time of his writings. Durkheim was interested in how social order and society as a whole remains stable, and used a scientific approach to study society. As Kenneth Allan quotes from Émile Durkheim (2005), “…if, in addition, society lacks the unity based upon the commitment of men’s wills to a common objective, then it is no more than a pile of sand that the least jolt or the slightest puff will suffice to scatter” (p. 136). Using this view of society as a creation of a collective group of individuals that work toward a common objective, functionalism looks at the institutions of society and how they contribute to the society’s stability. These institutions include the government, family, education, medicine, the justice system, the military, mass media, and other similar formal organizations. Each of these institutions are organized to fulfill the different needs of society and are all interdependent. Functionalism focuses on the order and social stability of a society, and credits disorganization and a lack of adaptation to new and changing times as the causes of social

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