A good example of how serious the psychological effects of Cyberbullying can be is the case of Allison. Allison was in ninth grade when she began receiving hate mail in instant message form from people that she presumed to be her friends (Winter & Leneway, 2008). When she asked her friends about it, they said it was somebody else, leaving Allison without any knowledge of who could have sent her this material (Winter & Leneway, 2008). Allison was left with a feeling of paranoia, causing her to lose focus in her classes (Winter & Leneway, 2008). This is just one example of how Cyberbullying can affect young people psychologically.
On the other hand the physical effects can be devastating. Hinduja & Patchin (2008) conducted a study in which one young man stated that the Cyberbullying he experienced made him think of killing himself. This is one extreme version of how Cyberbullying can affect a person both emotionally and physically. While suicide is probably a little extreme, other violent acts can result from Cyberbullying. While physical and psychological effects can be devastating, it is interesting to see how or why Cyberbullying exists.
According to Erwin and Morton (2008), children that are exposed to violence at a very young age have a reduced sensitivity to the pain and anguish of others . This could be a reason why kids participate in Cyberbullying today. Another explanation of why Cyberbullying is practiced is related to the socioeconomic status of young people, and is found in the Youth and Society Journal. There are many factors to be considered when looking at Cyberbullying, but the fact is that it can be harmful and even lead to fatality.
2 comments:
I think many children can admit they have fallen victim to cyberbullying at some point in their young lives. I think this issue hits home to middle schoolers especially because I for one can remember being bullied when I was about 12 years old. It seems like it is getting worse and worse with new stories that develop in the news. It is truly amazing to see how vicious these young children can be and how far some of them will go to diminish every ounce of self esteem these children who are victims have. I hear these horrifying stories about children going completely off the edge after being ridiculed online and doing something as drastic as committing suicide. Although I am a huge advocate of the Internet, I think some children spend way too much time on it, especially MySpace. That website is dangerous and is where most of the cyberbullying goes on.
Cyberbullying is a major issue, which has little to no regulation. Likewise there are various organization trying to take action on this problem.
When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others.
Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart. (http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/why_do_kids_cyberbully_each_other.html)
How do we regulation cyberbullying? What action can be taken to prevent this?
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