Who Me A Bully?

Bullying is harmful and may cause physical or psychological damage for life. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines bullying as any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another person or group of people, who are not siblings or current dating partners. Uncontrollable bullying throughout the world among people has caused health related issues and, for some people, even death. The National Youth Violence Prevention Resources Center stated that bullying is one type of violence that threatens young people's well-being and can result in physical injuries, social and emotional difficulties, as well as academic problems (Cite). Others including friends and families frequently feel the harmful effects of bullying. It is noted that bullying can hurt the overall health and safety of schools, neighborhoods, and one’s socioeconomic environment.

There are many social problems in the US and throughout the world today. One of the most significant of those problems is bullying (Macfarlane & McPherson, 2004). More than 160,000 children avoid school each day because they are concerned about being bullied or because they have been bullied and are too afraid to go to school (Macfarlane & McPherson, 2004). Cyberbullying - the use of a computer or other electronic device to bully someone - is also on the increase. That can be harder to avoid, and children have even taken their own lives because of the harassment. Nearly three million students are bullied through the internet every year (Macfarlane & McPherson, 2004). The number of children who are bullied gets larger each year, as does the number of children who bully others. There are many reasons children are bullied, and just as many reasons that children bully other children, but the main concern is how to stop the problem and keep all children safe.

Cyber-bullying can be broadly defined as any form of harassment or intimidation that takes place online (O’Dea & Campbell, 2012, p. 212). According to O’Dea and Campbell (2012), approximately one in three teens experience some form of cyber-bullying throughout their lives (p. 212). In their study, O’Dea and Campbell (2012) found that this number of teens (out of 400 study participants) report “multiple feelings of victimization, embarrassment, or harassment” (p. 212). One of the most significant issues with cyber-bullying is that this activity reaches a much wider audience than typical face-to-face bullying (O’Dea & Campbell, 2012, p. 212). This means that the victim of bullying may feel escalated feelings of shame and social isolation, as the person bullying can send their negative messages to as many people as he or she chooses (O’Dea & Campbell, 2012, p. 212). Cyber-bullying generally takes on two different forms: Bullying from someone who the victim knows, or from a complete stranger. O’Dea and Campbell (2012) say that online bullying can come from almost any source, given the fact that online social networks are highly open to the public (p. 212). Of course, this raises the issue of online privacy. While sites like Facebook and Twitter have privacy settings, there are very few effective measures that can fully prevent

Bullying is of various types: first is the verbal bullying, that includes teasing, threatening, inappropriate commenting based on a person’s appearance or sexual orientation. Second is physical bullying which includes hurting or attacking someone or someone’s possessions. The third type of bullying is Social bullying which includes damaging someone’s reputation. Cyber bullying is a form of social bullying that occurs on social media, online forums and through texting or gaming. It includes the use of digital devices such as cell phones, computers etc. According to the statistics from the 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 16% of high school students had experienced cyber bullying in the past 12 months. My goal in this paper is to discuss the causes and effects of cyber bullying, and to create a digital awareness among parents and teachers to prevent the cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying that allows individuals to threaten or intimidate others via online resources like social media and instant messaging, as well as other electronic technology like smartphones and tablets. Due to the fact that cyberbullying is a fairly new concept, due to the advances in technology it has become one of the most prevalent sources of bullying among adolescents. The ease in which children can gain access and use electronic technology, and the fact that cyberbullying most of the time can remain anonymous, has led to an increase in this form of bullying. With reports indicating that 93% of teens are active users of the Internet and 75% own a cell phone, up from 45% in 2004, there is great potential for cyberbullying among youths (Schneider, O’Donnell, Stueve, & Coulter, 2012).The increase in cyberbullying has led to an increase in suicide rates among adolescent, and has expanded bullying past the traditional school environment.

With multiple ways to use technology and social media cyber bullying is a bigger issue then it ever has been. There are two main forms of bullying which are traditional and cyber bullying. Traditional bullying is physical and name calling to the victim. Cyber bullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others (Belsey, 2008). Cyber bullying occurs through instant messaging, mobile phone, e-mail, chat room, social network site, blog, forum, and websites (Campbell,2005). Cyber

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

Bullying has always been a hot-button topic, but due to the Internet this has become an even larger problem. "With an estimated 45 million children between the ages of 10 and 17 in the U.S. alone using the Internet every day, social interactions have increasingly moved from personal contact in the school room to virtual contact in the chat room, and Internet bullying has emerged as a new and growing form of social cruelty" (Williams & Guerra, 2007). With the rise of social media also came the rise of cyber bullying. Before the Internet, most bullying occurred only at schools or the workplace. Once the individual who was being bullied left the school or the workplace they were free from the bullying for the rest

It may be difficult to grasp, but “How does a bully victim think?” It’s hard to imagine children living in pain, both physically and emotionally. This is how bully victims feel every day. Every time they are confronted by their bully, they feel more and more worthless. Imagine being laughed at, pointed at, and talked about and made fun of on a continuous basis. The impact of these abuses can be devastating. Bullied victims may feel like there is no escape, from the pain and torment. They dread getting out of bed on school days, and they look for ways to stay home.

Most bullies do it because they want to get noticed and be popular among their peers. Bullying is their way to boost their self- confidence. Because of lack of supervision they think it is cool to harm other people. Unfortunately, in many instances, school officials deal with incidents of bullying much too late. By the time intervention occurs, the psychological damage and pain has become almost indelible. This damage affects not only the bully and the target(s), it also affects the bystanders. Wolk (2010) states, “Most bystanders do not like witnessing another person being bullied. It puts one into an uncomfortable psychological state known as cognitive dissonance to witness a bullying incident and do nothing about it. Cognitive dissonance occurs when our actions do not match our internal code of ethics and morality.”

For kids and adolescents, most of their days are spent at school, in which they can be victims of bullying (Source?) It is once they get home from school and the bullying continues online that brings forth the concern of further harm which schools feel they can not control (Froese-Germain, 2008; Cassidy, Jackson, & Brown, Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones, But How Can Pixels Hurt Me?: Students' Experiences with Cyber-Bullying, 2009; Cassidy, Jackson, & Brown, Cyber-Bullying: Developing Policy to Direct Responses that are Equitable and Effective in Addressing this Special Form of Bullying, 2006) What is mind-boggling in the aspect of responses from teachers and educators in the sense of cyber-bullying is the lack of respect that is shown towards the teachers, as not only does cyber-bullying occur towards students, but teachers often also find themselves as victims (Cassidy, Jackson, & Brown, Cyber-Bullying: Developing Policy to Direct Responses that are Equitable and Effective in Addressing this Special Form of Bullying, 2006; Froese-Germain, 2008; Kuehn, 2008). What needs to happen is for teachers to become more “computer-literate” and trained to deal with cyber-bullying in order to fully understand the harsh effects of cyber-bullying on students (Cassidy,

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

Cyberbullying is becoming more of an issue than traditional bullying because of social media. Social media gives kids the opportunity to bully others and not get caught because they are hiding behind a screen. "Bullying among teens in the United States had become an increased problem since the invention of the Internet only several decades ago. Teens use their access to the internet to target other teens that might have emotional struggles already. Bullies use social networking sites, such as Facebook, to send off bad messages about their peers for everyone acquainted with the bully to see. The harsh comments eventually end up in person at school, making it an environment the victim can not learn in." (Lindsey, para. 1) Most people do no report that they are getting bullied so

Bullies are looked upon as vestibules of unhealthy tendencies while also harboring deep seeded emotions including anger and hatred. Feelings of anger and hatred can force a person down a path of darkness that only leads one way; into the pit of self-destruction. In present times, these destructive acts can cause a child to become a relic of pain and sullenness; all of these emotions create a bully. “Bullying is commonly defined as a specific type of aggressive behavior that involves intent to cause harm, occurs repeatedly, and involves a power imbalance.” (Hunt, Peters, and Rapee 156) This aggressive behavior has been constantly studied over the past ten years due to an increase in abnormal tendencies in children and teenagers. Three

Previous studies on cyber bullying have been conducted at the middle school and high school levels. Bullying has always been a problem in this age range, so its natural for many researchers to target children as their survey participants, studying their activities and communication through technology. However, very few studies have been conducted on cyber bullying at the college-age. This is the age group that not only grew up when the computer found its way into almost every home, but when the cell phone became a