Technology And You Online Cyber Bullying

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.

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.

At 6 p.m., October 10, 2012, fifteen year old Amanda Todd hung herself after she posted a gripping video called, “My Story:Struggling,bullying, suicide,and self harm” after being harassed and bullied online for many years. While she was in the 7th grade, Amanda Todd had an online video conversation with someone who asked her to flash her breasts, which she eventually did. After one year, she was contacted by the same person who threatened to post her pictures on the Internet if she didn’t provide more provocative pictures. Even though she refused to send pictures to him, her pictures were sent to her family and friends. Despite switching schools, the cyber bullying continued and a Facebook page of her with the picture of her breasts as the profile picture was created. Even though Amanda tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, the abuse was too much, so she hung herself (Pendergrass and Wright,in press). Some questions to address with cyberbullying related suicides are: how do we define and recognize cyberbullying, how do we protect those who are cyberbullied, and how do we educate parents and other adults to protect children and adolescents from cyberbullying? With electronic communication becoming so prevalent, we cannot afford to ignore the increasing dangers of the societal shift from a traditional schoolyard bully to to the anonymous cyberbully. Children and adolescents deserve to be protected, parents and teachers need to understand the risks that cyber bullying

Through her tragic story, many people became more aware of the widespread problem of cyberbullying that teenagers now face. Amanda Todd's video that was posted before committing suicide, was plastered on every media network for the public to see. Although her story was tragic, it showed others how real cyberbullying is and how others can so quickly destroy one's life. It also brought awareness to teenagers, showing how easy it is for one to take advantage of others online. Regardless of the blackmailing, Todd was greatly affected by the comments and threats that her “peers” would leave on her social networks. Todd’s story also gave a perfect example of why teens that deal with these types of things avoid school. Although most of the bullying occurs online, school forces teens to be face to face with those trying to humiliate them. Many victims end up

Bullying can be found almost everywhere; in homes, on the internet, and especially in schools. Students of lesser abilities or non-conformists can essentially be main targets; however, anyone is vulnerable to a bully’s wrath. Although the common lunch thief threat has been the general association with the word bully, that term has unfortunately evolved and become apart of the violent side of our culture today. All too often students feel the need to “disappear” or escape leading to destructive decisions such as suicide, substance abuse, or depression (Kowalski 6). Today the causes of bullying are involved with social differences such as sexual orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity, or insecurities. For the past few years bullying has gradually increased in the US, and of course worldwide because of the internet’s growing diverse locations and servers. Statistics show that “A total of 29.9% of the sample reported moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, as a bully (13.3%), one who was bullied (10.6%), or both (6.3%)” (NIH Public Access). Forms of bullying include through a computer screen also known as cyberbullying and through physical confrontation leading students to experience symptoms of depression which could also provoke deeper personal issues. Cyberbullying has come across society through social media sites as well as personal opinion. Children are now breaking the norm of traditional confrontation and dunking heads in toilets

All the people of this nation need to consider the national controversy of cyber bullying. If you gazed at someone being teased on the internet, what would you do frankly? Did you know that 14% of high schoolers premeditated suicide and half of them that considered actually did? Because 55% of all teens convey that they have spotted online teasing and 95% of them overpass the locality watched, hectoring online is becoming a contention. Out of all teens in this nation, 52% declared that they have been online bulldozed. Internet intimidating is the leading determinant of the youth of this generation to execute suicide. People should be more perceptive of cyber bullying for the reason that technology is an uprising, the suicide cases for online antagonizing are unforgettable, and the population of teens is decreasinhjjg twenty-four seven.

Internet usage in children and adolescents has been increasing in a steadily fashion in the past number of years and with the increase in internet usage, a new form of bullying has developed – Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person,” (Merriam-Webster, 2012). This form of bullying can come through various mediums including but not limited to text messages, emails, videos, and social networking sites. There is an overwhelming amount of information that defines cyber bullying, identifies the demographics of bullies and victims of cyber bullying, and identifies the outcomes of cyber bullying on victims. More focus needs to be placed on who the perpetrators

Bullying has always affected teens and children in some form or another, but in modern times, with the advent of the internet and social networking, we have the first generations of young people facing a much more insidious assailment: cyberbullying. It is one much stronger than what traditional bullying once was, and poses problems of greater magnitude. For victims, this fairly new entity of social aggression has them facing substantially greater intimidation and emotional harm. Several issues even arise in protecting these victims.

Young adults’ reliance on the internet has developed into an addiction, resulting in teenagers to feel isolated and disconnected from their peers. In an experiment conducted in “The Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’ Social and Academic Development: Current Theories and Controversies” June Ahn “found that longer use of the Internet was related to increased depression, loneliness, and smaller social circles.” The younger generation lacks genuine socialization because of the extensive amount of time teenagers spend isolated in their own virtual world. The lack of physical interaction has taken a toll on youths’ ability to develop social skills and friendships. With a lack of these social skills, today’s youth will experience trouble socializing, affecting their ability to create and maintain friendships. Furthermore, in Keith Hampton’s article “Is Technology Making People Less Sociable?” he reveals today’s youth, “spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online

Bullying is a term that most of us recognize. We have either experienced it first hand or been a witness to it. Due to the precedent of today’s technology and the high speed Internet, bullying has evolved into a virtual war zone and the casualties, unfortunately are our youths. As stated by Cross, Dooley, and Pyzalski (2009) cyber-bullying by definition is “an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.” Cyber-bullying is most prominent among today’s teenagers and youth. The motivation for this type of harm is stemmed from different agents and can be driven by economic,

Bullying doesn’t just happen on the playground or in the workplace; it has now taken over the Internet and popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The term for online bullying is referred to as “cyber-bullying”. “Cyber-bullying is defined as the use of email, cell phones, text messages, and Internet sites to threaten, harass, embarrass, or socially exclude” (Patchin, 2015). Much like the face-to-face bullying some may encounter in school can cause physical harm to someone, cyber-bullying causes emotional harm to children and adults across the globe. Cyber-bullying comes in many different forms, from spreading false rumors online, commenting on someone’s appearance in a picture posted on social media, to sharing intimate/sexual photographs of someone without their consent/permission. This issue has become a serious problem as it has resulted in children experiencing mental/emotional harm as well as committing suicide because of what the emotional distress it left them in (Notar, Padgett, & Roden, 2013).

Cyberbullying cannot remain denied as an issue in schools, at home, and in neighborhood communities because research displays that bullying causes an increase in suicide and incident rates. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts and over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, with almost 7 percent already attempting it (“Bullying and Suicide,” 1). According to Bullying Statistics, over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying (Cyberbullying Statistics, 1). As an observation of these statistics, this means that almost every child will be a friend or bystander of a bullied victim, a bully, or a victim of bullying themselves if the issue does not raise awareness to be prevented. There are no benefits by harassing a student because of the way they look, smell, or nationality. no punishment to perpetrators, and fear of bullies by bystanders are the reason why cyberbullying should be prohibited in the United States of America.

As we enter the age of the Internet we have ushered in the newest, and arguably, most powerful form of bullying, called cyber bullying. Unfortunately, no one is exempt from cyber bullying. The Internet is a tool that gives anyone a voice, including bullies. It is a marvelous element that has become an operating tool in our daily lives. We learn from it, communicate with it, and are entertained by it. However, there are people who use it to mistreat others. We hear on the news, more often than we should, of young people committing suicide due to cyber bullying. While there are bullies of all ages, today’s youth is growing up in a technological age which makes the already tortuous period of adolescence even more painful. During adolescence we are naturally influenced by others, and constantly, obsessively comparing ourselves to everyone else. In cyberspace the bully has an accessible, almost effortless outlet that, if he so chooses, makes him anonymous. By concealing his identity, unless someone is a cyber-hacking wizard, the victim of his bullying won’t know where it is coming from. This allows him to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants, at the click of a few buttons, and remain nameless. This gives him the audacity he may not have in a face-to-face situation, to say anything that invades his head to this person he intends to hurt, without having to witness his victim’s reaction. It is almost as easy as having a thought. He can type harmful comments almost as fast as the

For such a long time, physical bullying has been the largest problem schools and parents had to face with their children, but now another form of bullying has arisen; cyber bullying. In society today, teens are drawn cell phones, laptops, and other technological advancements. Social media is a way for many teens and adolescents to interact with one another and share countless happenings of their personal lives. Cyber bullying occurs when individuals use the internet to send or comment cruel and unnecessary messages to another. In its various forms cyber bullying includes, indirect and direct harassment, posting inappropriate pictures, impersonating another being, or just being plain cruel. Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, improper use of the internet can further induce harassment, due to the adolescents desire to use modern day technologies. The harassers could be classmates, online “friends’’, or anonymous users. One barrier that is difficult to overcome is determining who is responsible for the attacks online, because many bullies hide behind fake usernames or profiles to protect their real identity, which is commonly known as “hiding behind a screen”. (Bonanno 2013). The motives for a cyber-bully are never clear, some might say

Today in our world, teenagers are constantly using the internet and sometimes it can get out of hand, but for the most part, teenagers use the internet to their benefit.With our growing society and our new inventions in technology associated with the internet, there are many pros and cons when it comes to having the internet around and I think that the pros outweigh the cons. “Chatting online with others helps young people build social skills,”(Source 2, Step 3) states how most parents think the internet and social media makes teenagers less social, when in reality, many teenagers learn several social skills through online chatting which helps them face to face. Although there are a handful of teenagers who use the internet to move away from social interactions, using the internet more often could help teenagers become more confident in being social. “Most of us learn the hard way to back up data, avoid clicking on mysterious links and save often. As kids explore on the computer, they are picking up