Cyberbullying in the Society Research Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

Cyberbullying in the Society
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Cyberbullying in the Society
Bullying, whether traditional or cyberbullying causes a significant amount of psychological and emotional distress. The cyberbullied kids just like any other type of bullied victim, experience fear, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Further, they may have a hard time in struggling academically and experiencing physical symptoms. Lately, this menace has become the primary topic of discussions in the nations’ headline. It has been identified to be the dominant cause of suicide among those school-aged kids. Bullying is the act of being aggressive toward another individual and intimidating, victimizing or rather injuring them through the internet or other forms of electronic media within which the victim interact. The act is more or less the same as the traditional form of bullying only that it takes a better form of the mythical. It perpetuates its harassment and torture using information and communication technologies at any given time. Perhaps the rate of cyberbullying is continuing to escalate due to the proliferation of communications and information technologies in the current society. Therefore, with the grown cases of cyberbullying and advancement of technology, it is essential to understand, explore, and investigate its potential effects in the current community.
The speed at which technology improvement is moving is astonishing. While it has a much positive impact on human life, the side effects are even perverse and wanting. With this same technology, the traditional form of bullying is moving into the virtual world, thus, leading to the existence of cyberbullying (Koppejan, 2011). The physical separation between the victim and the bully is no longer a limitation because of the availability of internet and electronic media. Therefore, instances of bullying are no longer a confinement to the real-world settings as it was before. The most worrying and common thing about the cyberbullies is that they are always anonymous, thus, making it so difficult to trace, therefore, avoiding the responsibilities of their own actions. The worst thing is that this form of harassment is always intentional aimed at damaging the psychological violence with the imbalance between the victim and the bully. According to Limo (2015), cyberbullying has negative effects on both the parties. It is so because the bullies will develop criminal behaviors in the future. Nevertheless, it results in negative social, psychological, and physical issues such as being upset, depressive symptoms, and extreme stress.
Some of the young individuals either implicitly or explicitly defend the act of online peer teasing as a way of building social capital with friends. The majority view it as something very easy and a better way to make oneself look good. Further, to the kids, it is something that will make others thinks they are funny especially when doing it to someone no one likes in school (Nilan et al., 2015). Seemingly, young people find themselves engaging in cyber harassment with the intentions of building status and consolidating the social capital through amusing others at the expense of someone else. As the strategy to raise someone’s stake, it is easy to play out cyberbullying if the victim or the target already suffers from peer disapproval. On the other hand, the cyberbullying would be entering someone else’s comfort zone, both physically and mentally through writing or using images on the internet that depict criticisms or demean another person.
In many cases, teenagers often want to be in the lead by having so many friends in the social media. It falls under the social status war where, if one has more friend, then the better position they are in social status. It is so ironical because even if they have never met in real life and they barely know each other, they will still add up to the popularity of the media. With respect to this, those kids who do not have the popularity or rarely keep an update on their online identity end up falling to be the victims (Nilan et al., 2015). It is so clear that some students build their social might on platforms such as Facebook by belittling and mocking schoolmates with fewer friends or those who lack what majority of the mockers call “cool” attribute. According to Limo (2015), several factors slow down or propagate the chances of bullying happening in schools. He further says that boys are more likely to be among those involved than girls both in being the victims and bullies are. Also, children coming from families with socioeconomic status, separation or divorce, child abuse, hash home environments, or under authoritative parents have a higher risk for victimization or bullying.
Age is also another factor that is likely to affect the chance of an individual undergoing bullying. Majority of people undergoing bullying are those under the age of between 7 and 9 (Limo, 2015). On the contrary, those bullying others are of age between 10 and 12. It is more likely that discriminating others is in social media comes with some sort of ego. The bigger kids always want to outshine the younger ones or rather want the rest to feel their presence. Also, some scholars argue that race and ethnicity could also play a significant role in cyberbullying. However, it does not have so much impact as compared to other factors.
After understanding some of the important aspects of cyberbullying, it is necessary to highlight the most popular and dangerous effects it imposes on the victims. There is the common habit among the adolescent of having the desire to be and remain popular. How others view them mostly determines their self-esteem. Therefore, the judgment about what we are worth and feeling from other people’s point of view is the self-esteem. Scholars have found that those adolescents with the lower self-esteem are likely to report less life satisfaction, more depressive moods, and less general well-being (Koppejan, 2011). Cowie further adds that, the victims of cyberbullying experience lack of acceptance in their peer groups resulting in social isolation and loneliness (Cowie, 2015). Therefore, this leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to the risk of suicidal thoughts. It is essential for parents and guardians to be closer to their children and to help them get through this stage without having to undergo all the memory torture events.
There is the likelihood of bullying effects that occur in schools to extend to young adulthood. Nilan et al. (2015), indicates that a survey of around 2805 students who were through with university showed that around 5% reported cyberbullying by the members of staff or other fellow students. About half of the victims proclaimed that they had been in the same situation before they left school. Therefore, the survey indicates that the effects are not only to the young children but also to the young adults. It is with deep concern that those deemed as the role model become the epitome of the situation. Similarly, it is likely for those undergoing cyberbullying to be involved in the traditional form. The most endangering aspect of this menace is that it can extend into the target’s life at all times, be it day or night. Therefore, in addition to the lower self-esteem of an individual, several other negative effects accrue. Such impacts include poor emotional well-being and academic achievements.
The greatest concern is with the parents especially when the kids undergo such type of discrimination in school. It is an expectation of every mother or father f...