Impact of Bullying on Victims

Bullying is defined as abusing or mistreating someone by using superior strength, typically to force them to perform a certain act. School children use aggressive behaviour against others to humiliate and intimidate them. Bullying is a repeated process, and the person who is bullied may have severe, lasting problems. The popularity of internet and social media sites are continuously growing, and many people use them to bully others. The rate of cyberbullying is growing along with the popularity of smartphone. A large number of people are affected by cyberbullying that causes serious, lasting mental problems to them. This essay will focus on analysing the similarities and differences between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Further, the essay will evaluate why cyberbullying is a larger problem than various forms of traditional bullying.

Bullying is a serious matter which affects a large number of people. Many studies have provided the negative impact of bullying on victims and how it adversely influences their lives. According to Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (ACBPS), around 1 in 4 students, i.e., 27 percent have reported of being bullied by others from elementary to high school (Nobullying, 2017). Cyberbullying is a growing threat, and it is a larger social issue than compared to various other forms of traditional bullying because of various factors such as it allows cyberbullies to hide their identity, attack from anywhere, humiliate victims in front of large audience, lack of reporting and many others. The number of cyberbullying attacks is growing substantially; nearly 43 percent of the kids have been bullied online (Dosomething.org, 2017). In 2009, a national study conducted on bullying in Australia provided that one in four children between the age of 4 and 9 reported being bullied every few weeks (Bullyingnoway, 2017).

Traditional bullying is defined as any type of bullying which is not carried out through electronic means. Primarily, traditional bullying is divided into three parts: physical, verbal, and social bullying. All form of traditional bullying involves harassment of a victim with use of extensive force or pressure by an aggressor whose intention is to inflict harm on the victim (Wang, Iannotti and Luk, 2012). In verbal bullying, the victim is mocked and teased by the aggressor directly or indirectly through verbal means. In case of direct verbal bullying, the aggressor uses name-calling, hurtful comments, or verbal threats to harass the victim. The victim did not immediately know about indirect verbal bullying because bully makes hurtful verbal comments about the victim to other people. Physical bullying involves bodily attack on the victim in order to force them to perform certain action; it involves kicking, punching, striking, pushing and other physical aggression. In social bullying, a person negatively manipulates victim’s social status to spread rumours about him in order to diminish his/her reputation (Hemphill et al., 2012).

Traditional Bullying

Cyberbullying is defined as a form of interpersonal harassment, and it is conducted electronically. A person can perform cyberbullying through various mediums such as sending hurtful text, email or instant message. The popularity of social media sites has provided a new platform to people, and they misuse it to bully others (Kowalski and Limber, 2013). Cyberbullies post hurtful or humiliating comments through social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and others. In some incidents, cyber bullies upload embarrassing or sensitive pictures and videos of the victim on social media sites to humiliate them in public. Both cyberbullying and traditional bullying negatively affects its victims, and they are often emotionally devastated. Numerous studies have provided that victims of cyberbullying suffer from social discomfort, low self-esteem, depression or other psychological issues. Some victims choose to commit suicide due to persistent cyberbullying or traditional bullying instead of facing the continued harassment (Kowalski, Giumetti, Schroeder and Lattanner, 2014).

Cyberbullying is a larger social problem as compared to most form of traditional bullying because of various factors. One of the primary reasons is that most traditional form of bullying is either direct or indirect and victims can clearly identify their tormentors. But in case of cyberbullying, most of the electronic platforms used by cyber bullies allow them to hide their identity (Law, Shapka, Hymel, Olson and Waterhouse, 2012). Many cyberbullies make their fake accounts on social media sites and then anonymously attack their targets. In case of cyberbullying, victims may have no idea about their cyberbully which makes the process of handling such abuse more difficult. Many cyberbullies use anonymity to harass and abuse their victims continuously. The comments and actions of cyber bullies are more abusive and aggressive because online platform provides them an extra degree of protection than compared to a face-to-face encounter which makes it more dangerous that traditional bullying. 

The cyber bullies take unfair advantage of anonymous feature and more aggressively attack their targets since they know the victims cannot find out their identity. The negative impact and process of cyberbullying intensify because of the disconnected nature of the cyberbullying; the cyber bullies did not witness the negative influence of their actions which make them less likely to experience guilt (Sticca and Perren, 2013). The absence of guilt and protection from negative consequences often pushes cyber bullies to become even more aggressive. The cyberbullies also have multiple ways to attack their victims on online platforms than compared to traditional form of bullying. Usually, traditional bullying attacks performed in the schoolyard or other locations near victim and bully, whereas, cyberbullies can attack anyone from anywhere. Internet is a global platform, and it connects people from all over the world; many people use this platform to bully others.

Cyberbullying

In traditional bullying, the victim usually changes his/her school because of harassment and after that, the bullying stops. But, cyberbullying attacks continuous even if victim changes his/her school or home which makes it more dangerous problem than traditional form of bullying. Cyberbullying is pervasive, and it affects everyone because it is easier for cyberbullies to attack their targets. The process of cyberbullying has become easier with the popularity of smartphones. Cyberbullies use smartphones to target their victims and harass them easily (Bonanno and Hymel, 2013). Cyberbullies use instant messaging application, social media sites, and other sources of online communication to harass their victims and humiliate them in public. The traditional form of bullying also performs in front of a relatively small group of people, whereas, cyberbullying exposes the victim to a larger group of people. The number of social media users has grown substantially and victims of cyberbullying face humiliation in front of millions of people which increases the devastation of victims. 

For example, children are bullied at school in front of other students, whereas, in cyberbullying, they are humiliated in front of all their family and friends, as well as public. It is also difficult for the victim to remove the humiliating picture or video uploaded by cyberbully over social media sites since he/she did not have control over bully’s account. In case of cyberbullying, it is significantly difficult for victims to avoid their attackers than compared to traditional form of bullying. Many victims might not be aware of their cyberbully, and the attackers create posts online to defame their victim anytime they desire (Mishna, Khoury-Kassabri, Gadalla and Daciuk, 2012). The victims find it difficult to confront their bullies as well because most bullies hide their identity online. To make matters worse, most of the witnesses of bullying often plays a role in increasing its negative impact; they share and forward embarrassing or hurtful photos, videos, posts, and emails which increases the negative impact of bullying. UCLA conducted a study on cyberbullying which provided that only one in ten (10 percent) children reported the cyberbullying incident to adults and 90 percent of them suffered in silence (Wolpert, 2008).

Conclusion

Conclusively, the growing rate of cyberbullying makes it a potential social threat which is affecting millions of people. Cyberbullying is a larger social threat that most form of traditional bullying because cyberbullies can hide their identity, humiliate victim in front of a larger audience, easily attack their target from anywhere, attack more aggressively and many others. The victims of cyberbullying are less likely to report the incident of bullying to teachers, parents or other adults due to the fear of punishment or reprisal which makes it a bigger threat than traditional bullying. Many children avoid telling their parents because they are afraid of losing their cell phone, computer or internet privileges. Non-reporting of cyberbullying increases the number of victims suffering in silence which affects them negatively. Due to pervasive and unavoidable nature, the number of cyberbullying victims is growing considerably; the ability of hiding identity has increased the number of cyberbullies online. The number of cyberbullying cases in substantially high yet a larger number of victims avoid reporting the cases; therefore, cyberbullying is a larger social threat than most forms of traditional bullying.

References

Bonanno, R.A. and Hymel, S. (2013) Cyber bullying and internalizing difficulties: Above and beyond the impact of traditional forms of bullying. Journal of youth and adolescence, 42(5), pp.685-697.

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Hemphill, S.A., Kotevski, A., Tollit, M., Smith, R., Herrenkohl, T.I., Toumbourou, J.W. and Catalano, R.F. (2012) Longitudinal predictors of cyber and traditional bullying perpetration in Australian secondary school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51(1), pp.59-65.

Kowalski, R.M. and Limber, S.P. (2013) Psychological, physical, and academic correlates of cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(1), pp.S13-S20.

Kowalski, R.M., Giumetti, G.W., Schroeder, A.N. and Lattanner, M.R. (2014) Bullying in the digital age: A critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among youth.

Law, D.M., Shapka, J.D., Hymel, S., Olson, B.F. and Waterhouse, T. (2012) The changing face of bullying: An empirical comparison between traditional and internet bullying and victimization. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), pp.226-232.

Mishna, F., Khoury-Kassabri, M., Gadalla, T. and Daciuk, J. (2012) Risk factors for involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully–victims. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(1), pp.63-70.

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Wang, J., Iannotti, R.J. and Luk, J.W. (2012) Patterns of adolescent bullying behaviors: Physical, verbal, exclusion, rumor, and cyber. Journal of school psychology, 50(4), pp.521-534.

Wolpert, S. (2008) Bullying of teenagers online is common, UCLA psychologists report. [Online] UCLA. Available at: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/bullying-of-teenagers-online-is-64265 [Accessed on 06/01/2018