Cyberbullying is rampant in our society today. It is defined as “when someone repeatedly and intentionally harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another person online or while using cell phones or other electronic devices (Irimia, 2016).” Around 41% of the students in the U.S. have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetimes(Irimia, 2016). Cyberbullying has negative effects on the victim and the bystander. However, there are ways we can deal with this issue.
Cyberbullying can have many disastrous consequences. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. A drop in class performance and grades can be one effect of cyberbullying in victims (Yurtoğlu 2018). Another negative effect of cyberbullying is that things shared on the internet will always be on the internet. They can never be completely erased which means that they can pop up at any time during your life and cause those same feelings to rush back. Cyberbullying can even lead to suicide (Yurtoğlu 2018).
Being a bystander means also taking part in bullying behavior. I don’t thin bystanders and bullies are the same. However, bystander behavior is definitely partly at fault for the bullying behavior. Bystander behavior is when people become onlookers to an event without helping. In the case of teenagers, this can occur because of peer pressure. Peer pressure will cause kids to stop themselves from doing the right thing in order to be cool or liked. Victim’s themselves are often scared to tell adults so they won’t be ridiculed further by their bully.
What can we do about cyberbullying? I don’t think we will ever eradicate it completely, but we can reduce it. It is important for parents to teach their children to be kind to others and teach them about what cyberbullying can do to its victims. The computer should be kept in a shared space so parents can monitor what their child is watching or doing. The final piece of advice I can give is that Parents and superiors should encourage kids to come forward about these kinds of issues. They can do this by giving kids a comfortable environment in which they can speak freely.
Cyberbullying is just as the name implies, it occurs when bullying behavior occurs through an electronic device. We discussed teh negative effects cyberbullying has on its victims like in severe cases suicide. Bystanders are accomplices to bullying behavior. Parents can do many things to help their children. Like limiting technology in the house and creating a safe environment for their children to talk in.
References
“Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic Revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” Cyber Bullying Research Center, doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.
Yurtoğlu, Nadir. “Http://Www.historystudies.net/Dergi//Birinci-Dunya-Savasinda-Bir-Asayis-Sorunu-Sebinkarahisar-Ermeni-isyani20181092a4a8f.Pdf.” History Studies International Journal of History, vol. 10, no. 7, 2018, pp. 241–264., doi:10.9737/hist.2018.658.
Cyberbullying is definitely a problem our society has, especially as we are in the digital age. There can be many different causes of cyberbullying and also many different outcomes. Society, while not paying as much heed as it should to cyberbullying, is at least aware of the negative outcomes of cyberbullying and has but in place some anti-bullying programs in schools around the country. However, there is very little said about bystanders and their effects on the perpetrators and the victims in a bullying situation.
The bystander effect, a psychological concept regarding people’s behavior when many other people are present in a dire situation, is well known in the social science world. When many other people are also witness to a negative event, responsibility is diffused among everyone, and so no one feels the need to act because no one else is acting either. This could give us a glimpse into why a student’s peers might not step in to help in a bullying situation, but this does not tell us what the end result is of this lack of action.
As with the case of John Halligan and his son Ryan, many of Ryan’s peers knew that he was being bullied, but no one stepped in and helped or told an adult what was going on. The end result was Ryan’s suicide. While having other students ignore his struggles might not have been the deciding factor in Ryan’s choice to commit suicide, it certainly did not help. If any one of those students had reported the bullying, either to the school or to Ryan’s parents, it is possible that he would still be alive today. Also, having no one step in to help might have made Ryan feel even more isolated and alone, adding to his distress.
Educating students on the importance of stepping in during that kind of situation, or even just telling an adult, is paramount to stopping this cyberbullying epidemic.