Bullying has been a big problem in our school system for many years, but it has escalated over the past decade due to the new era of modern technology. Unanimously, we can agree that our daily lives greatly depend on technologies; the internet, cellphones, computers, tablets, IPad etc. Although the uses of technology positively impacted our lives, there is also the downside when it uses have negative connotations. For instance, modern technology made it very easy to engage in cyberbullying, perpetrators used cell phones or computers to conduct this hideous behavior, hiding behind their keyboards to express negative feelings and or thoughts toward others. Using social media for senseless and unwarranted insults to intentionally cause harm …show more content…
Statistics have shown that everyone can be victims of cyber bullying, but most incidents occur between the age of 11 to 15 years old, however, some report showed that children’s as young as 10 years old also been a victim of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can have long lasting effects on its ' victims that can lead to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, stress, and even suicide. Increasing number of young kids and teenagers committing suicide because of cyber bullying and sexting have been coming to the public 's attention. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people with approximately 4,400 deaths every year. The CDC estimates that there are at least 100 suicide attempts for every suicide among young people. More than 14 percent of high school students has considered suicide and nearly 7 percent have attempted it, that is why, sadly, there are increasing coverages about cyberbullying case in the media now more than ever. (NOBullying, n.d.) Despite the physical contact or audible insults, cyberbullying can be even more traumatizing and damage have a life time effect on mental health than traditional forms of bullying. Through social media and mobile communications, bullying can now potentially be viewed by all, a victim 's friends, family, and
Many would agree that technology has advanced remarkably, in the past decade and has impacted the the as we know it in so many good ways. However, it has come with some downfalls as well. One of these downfalls is, the impact technology has on teenagers especially when it comes to social media and instant messaging. With that being said, there is this epidemic that the younger generations face with the internet. This includes, being harassed over the internet or cyberbullying. Unfortunately, bullying has always been an issue especially among young adolescents. However, now we have the same issue yet the bullies are able to hide behind a computer screen and this has been affecting teenagers in a negative way just as traditional bullying has. According to Merriam-Webster cyberbullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (such as a student) often done anonymously”. Cyberbullying usually results in embarrassment and can sometimes lead to an even worse feeling if continued. According to the indicators of school crime and safety report done in 2013; 6% of students in middle school were cyberbullies and 16% of high schoolers reported that in the past year they have been harassed over the internet. Even though those numbers are smaller than students who get bullied in person, cyberbullying still has negative effects on the victim. The purpose of this paper is to reach out to kids who
Bullying at school is a big problem that is found in all the schools in the United States and across the world. Since the late 1990s there have been several fatal school shootings committed by victims of bullying that have brought bullying major media attention. This has resulted in an increase of awareness about the harmful effects on the kids being bullied as well as the bullies themselves. This has brought a large amount of local, state, and nationwide programs designed to try to prevent bullying or to at least try to contain the problem. “In an effort to adequately address the problem, many schools are taking a proactive approach through prevention and intervention, but how do we know if and when such intervention is effective? First and foremost, we must have an accurate understanding of the dynamic and complex phenomenon of bullying across development and as it spans the multiple levels of the social ecology” (Casper, Meter, & Card, 2015, par 2). Many psychologists, sociologists, and school administrators have been publishing research on school bullying. Bullying is a significant threat to many children because it causes psychological problems not only for those who get bullied but also those who do the bullying. Even though bullying is a significant problem the are few solutions that can help prevent or significantly reducing bullying like reporting bullying, know the characteristics, and passing laws.
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.
A large sum of suicides are indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression. Suicide is not an uncommon result of tormenting through social media. “The psychological impact [of cyberbullying] can be devastating, and suicide is not unknown among young victims. For some victims, the damage to their sense of dignity and emotional well-being could persist for years." (“Jessica Mendoza”) The effects of online bullying are extremely harmful to children. Any child that is having suicidal thoughts from online bullying is a deeply harmed child. Suicide in teens is not uncommon either. Jennifer Holladay states, “Our study of upwards of 2,000 middle school students revealed that cyberbullying victims were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to students not targeted with online abuse.” Online abuse it a growing problem with the modernizing society. More and more people at younger and younger ages have more access online, and to social media. This increases the online abuse, and will lead to more and more suicides in teens
Technology is rapidly advancing at a dizzying rate which has seen many amazing feats but has also introduced and increased the act of Cyberbullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as targeting someone using any form of technology (this includes social media) to tease, stalk or humiliate someone online (Dictionary.com, 2016). Cyberbullying is so detrimental because it encourages the targeting of an individual; It is often done in secret with the bully hiding who they are by creating false profiles or names, or sending anonymous messages. It is difficult to remove as it is shared online so it can be recorded and saved in different places. Cyberbullying has such a negative impact that research shows that there is a correlation between the violent
Michael M. Honda states that “everyone in America likely has a bullying story, whether as a victim, bully, or as a witness.” Cyberbullying has become a major epidemic in the modern day world because everyone has access to the internet in some way. By taking an in depth look at cyberbullying, one can see just how urgent it is to stop it, because not only can it strike anywhere at any time, cyberbullying can also lead to suicide and cause serious mental health issues.
Bullying has increased drastically because of technology. The power of the media has influenced the lives of many Americans negatively. With a touch of a finger away, Social Media’s such as Snapchat and Instagram have allowed people to not use them in a positive way. Cyberbullying is a resulting factor. People use those media platforms to bring people’s self-esteem down. People who use these trendy network platforms allows people to help spread gossip and rumors anonymously. People who get bully among these social media platforms have a greater risk of committing suicide and self-harm. Technology has made it much easier for people to bully using electronic devices.
In order to understand the importance and consequences of cyberbullying, the main idea of cyberbullying must be expressed. Suzanne Phillips states that “cyberbullying like any form of bullying is relational aggression. It is intended to make the victim feel frightened, humiliated, helpless and too often—hopeless. What makes cyber bullying particularly harmful and in the case of too many young people who have committed suicide, so deadly, is the nature and virulent reach of electronic medium” (Phillips 1). Students are put in danger everyday due to the relevance of cyberbullying that surrounds them. The effects are detrimental to their health and have major impacts on the society. Justin Patchin explains that teens have unhealthy ideas when he states that “cyberbullied youth also report having suicidal thoughts, and there have been a number of examples in the United States and abroad where youth who were victimized ended up taking their own lives” (Patchin 1). Average teenagers express everyday that the effects of cyberbullying are harmful to their well being and self esteem. This causes most teens to feel worthless and makes them believe that their lives are not meaningful. Justin W. Patchin also shows the many outcomes of cyberbullying and displays that at “first, many targets report feeling depressed, sad, angry, and frustrated.
Cyberbullying, intentional aggression through means of digital technology, is slowly becoming recognized as a social problem that needs to be addressed. This new form of bullying, emerged with the information and communication revolution during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Cyberbullying occurs largely through communication devices; cyberbullies harass their victims “by sending photos, text messages, e-mail, instant messages, and video through cell phones, personal digital assistants, and computers” (Swartz 2009). Since there was an initial gap between those who grew up with the new forms of communication technology and those of the older generation who had not adapted, the threat of cyberbullying was often left unchecked
After being cyberbullied, 20% of victims have suicide in mind, while 1 in 10 victims actually go through with it. Suicide has grown to be the third leading cause in the death of teens. “4500 kids commit suicide each year” (Laird). Cyber bullying is a growing issue that needs to be resolved. However, can a solution actually exist after so many years of tyranny? Government officials, parents and even students have tried and tried again to raise awareness and thus enact a movement against this life-threatening illness that has infected social media. School officials don’t do anything to prevent these actions mainly because they are unaware that it starts in the classroom, in the hallway, or on school campus before it ever becomes a problem on
The growing use of technology is one of the major context that increase cyber and traditional bulling among children and adolescents. One study done by Agatston, Kowalski, and Limber (2007) examined 150 students in two middle schools and two high schools. During the study the students were divided by gender into two focus groups. Cyber bullying was described for the students as using the internet or other technology such as cell phones to be intentionally mean or to harass others students (Agatston, Kowalski, & Limber, 2007). Results indicated three things. First, that students were very familiar with technology (Agatston, Kowalski, & Limber, 2007). Second, the majority of the students indicated that they own cell phones and had internet access at home (Agatston et al., 2007). Third, students indicated that they were currently experiencing the majority of cyber bullying outside the
In the past few years, there has been a tremendous amount of improvements of technology use in teenagers causing a new problem to arise. “Half of students admit to being bullied online, while an estimated seventy-nine percent of teenagers say it’s a problem,” (“An Old Problem with a New Face”). Since the rapid growth of technology, cyber bullying has become life-threatening for too many teenagers. Now that teenagers have phones and technology almost twenty-four hours a day, they are putting themselves at a greater risk of being cyber bullied. Cyber bullying is different from regular, old-school bullying; cyber bullying is using the internet to ruin the life of other teenagers. “Cyber bulling is when a teenager is tormented, threatened,
While cyberbullying affects each child differently, there has been a clear correlation between victims and non-victims and their self-esteem. In one study, bullied victims had less self-esteem than those who were not bullied online. Additionally, it was reported that victims of cyberbullying were thirty percent more likely to think about committing suicide (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2012). With the lack of parent supervision, it was found that those who spent more than three hours per school day on social networks were 110% more at risk to be a cyberbully victim as compared those who do not spend as much time online (Gilkerson, 2012). What may be worse is the fact that majority of those bullied online do not tell their parents or an adult about what occurred. Despite the fact that most adolescents state that bullying occurs more offline then online, cyberbullying is still a real and large threat to the youth of America (Lenhart, 2007).
The new form of bullying is “Cyberbullying” through electronic gadgets utilizing texting from cell phones, posting on networking sites, and the Internet. This niggling conveys tormenting others on another level, publicly discrediting their integrity. This is a quick and exclusive way of tantalizing a
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.