Cyberbullying

Gone are the days of privacy. That is unless you refuse to be connected. But if you aren’t connected then what would you be missing out on? Information? News? Social interactions? Friendships? As a society, we have transitioned into this world that thrives on these online interactions. For many, social networking and quick information has become an addiction. Teenagers have lived in this world their whole lives and don’t know what a world without digital interaction is like. For them, growing up is similar in that they deal with the same issues of bullying just like those of us from older generations dealt with. But their schoolyard woes of getting picked on look and feel vastly different and has an ongoing and profound effect on them way past recess. Bullying doesn’t remain alone at the school lunchroom tables, in the locker rooms, the hallways at school, or the schoolyard at recess. No , it lingers with them online in these social interactions and digital lives they have have built in cyberspace. Today’s teens, and really everyone that decides to be connected online, are susceptible to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009).

When is comes to cyberbullying, the victim is the person who is being picked on by an aggressor. There are many forms of this type of aggressive cyberbullying. Aggressors can carry out rumor spreading, post unwanted pictures and videos, bully through use of captions, commenting, and messaging, photoshop images of a person, spread personal information about a victim, confess secrets about the victim, impersonate to harass or cyber stalk a victim, or even tag or untag the victim to make a point to make a person feel bad or unwanted. Much of this cyberbullying can even lead to physical threats being made towards the victim leaving them living in fear. Oftentimes the victim of such cyberbullying can suffer psychological or health problems, start skipping school, begin failing their classes and sometimes will gain such a low self-esteem that the victim may even start self-cyberbullying which could then lead to suicide (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009).

So is being connected to get instant information and networking to build relationships worth it if it comes with such a harsh price of the consequences of cyberbullying? Many say yes. So how can we as parents and educators help prevent such negative online behaviors? First it would be beneficial to assess any situations of proposed cyberbullying to see how bad the situation is and then make a plan to educate the students as well as the school community on how to avoid situations where cyberbullying may occur. It is important to get students to think before they post reminding them that whatever they post will be apart of their permanent digital footprint. Monitoring students online activity and apps they use is also important. This may take educating parents on how to do this. But in the end, I believe that teaching students early on about good digital citizenship and helping them focus on becoming future-ready for what they want to do in life, will help them understand that everything they post and how they treat others online will ultimately affect their future life pursuit. If we are going to be connected and have our students interact online, let’s make some good out of it by teaching the good practice of digital citizenship by giving our youth the digital tools to succeed and avoid instances of cyberbullying (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009).

References

Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyperbullying. (2nd ed.).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.