Cyberbullying

Shapiro 2

In our everyday lives, we hear about many different cases of bullying. More recently, we have heard a lot more about cases of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has recently been the most effective way to bully someone else for many different reasons. Many people find it much easier to feed out negative and hateful comments about someone through social media sites because of the different outcomes for the bully and the victim. Social media increases cyberbullying because the outcome is more efficient. What does it mean that the outcome is more efficient?

Cyberbullying is defined as the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending a message of an intimidating or threatening nature. “Because the online communication tools have become such a tremendous part of their lives, it is not surprising that some youth have decided to use the technology to be malicious or menacing towards others” (Hinduja). People find it much easier to bully someone via social media because it’s easier to hide behind a screen.

Many people can agree that cyberbullying has recently been the more attentive way to bully another peer. People no longer can escape the bullying from school because of cyberbullying. It follows them wherever they have a device handy. As Peter Ryan states in his book Online Bullying, “Online bullies have a much larger pool of victims and a much larger audience. Victims are no longer able to escape bullying in the safety of their own home,”(5). By saying this, it shows that people no longer feel safe away from the school because the bullying follows them home and anywhere there is a social media site available. Bullying through a screen can mean different things to the bully and the victim. Sometimes, the bully doesn’t realize that the words they are saying are negatively affecting the victim. “The asynchronous nature of

Shapiro 3

electronically mediated communication allows for actions to be separated from consequences. In this manner, a person who bullies on a screen rather than face to face may not clearly understand how their behavior affects the victim,” (Uhls). There is no way of knowing what the bully is thinking when they’re committing their actions, and there is no way of knowing what the victim is actually feeling. “Bullying can have a long-lasting, painful impact on both the bully and the victim. Some victims’ feelings of pain and hurt are so great that they can lead to violence and suicide,” (Ryan 10). Cyberbullying isn’t for everyone either. There are many people out there that aren’t connected through a device in one way or another:

Cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying in several key ways. Perhaps the most

obvious is that it requires some degree of technical expertise – children who are not

‘plugged in’, either through computer, cell phone or video games, do not partake in

cyberbullying, either as bullies or victims. Cyberbullying also provides anonymity to the

bully not possible with traditional bullying. Because of this, bullies cannot see the reactions

of their victims and studies have shown that they feel less remorse. (Peebles)

It puts many people in disbelief that some people could be so cruel to others over a device.

Many negative effects on people physically, mentally, and emotionally occur as a result of cyberbullying. “With the former, victims may not know who the bully is, or why they are being targeted. The cyberbully can cloak his or her identity behind a computer or phone using anonymous email addresses or pseudonymous screen names” (Hinduja). A lot of times, it’s

Shapiro 4

easier to hide your identity through the screen so the victim doesn’t actually know who is bullying them. Many other times, it is extremely hard for the victim to cope with the bullying, but many people don’t know how to react, “Expecting the targets of bullying to deal with it on their own—either by fighting back, ignoring it, or trying to appeal to the bully's sympathy, are not effective strategies and is unfair to the victim, says Davis. "You're basically telling the kid, 'Not only are you being mistreated, but it's your fault'"” (Ollove). The bullying now follows them everywhere. Instead of the bullying occurring at school and staying there, it now has followed them home and to other places that were once considered a “safe zone”. Scott Meech once said, “Perhaps the greatest long-term effect is the loss of the home as a safe-zone. Traditional bullying usually ended when a person was home, safe with his or her family. Cyber bullying enters into the home and is with the students at all times.” Sometimes it’s crazy to imagine how harsh people can be to others for their own reasons but they’re not realizing how much it affects the victims. Cyberbullying is one of the main causes for suicide. Teens especially think that suicide is the answer after being cyberbullied because that is what the bully drives them to believe.

There are many things that can be done to help prevent the cyberbullying temporarily or stop it completely. But are these things being done? People don’t understand completely how to react to the cyberbullying. “They estimate that threats due to peer-to-peer bullying are more serious than those due to cyber bullying. Even if that's true, that's no reason to abandon kids who are targets of cyber bullying, harassment and abuse. As shown by the case of Lori Drew, without federal laws, cyber bullies can't be prosecuted effectively. The judge acquitted this adult even

Shapiro 5

though she set up the Myspace site that was used to harass and abuse teenager Megan Meier until she committed suicide” (Leichtling). Even though some might say traditional bullying has a worse outcome, that’s no reason to completely forget about cases of cyberbullying. Those certain cases can result in things as permanent as suicide. Parents are encouraged to keep devices in their homes to monitor what their children are doing and always keep informing them about the safety