What is Cyber Bullying?
According to Besley (2004), cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support, deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.
As of today, almost all of the people are just a keyboard a way to post what they think and feel about certain subjects. It is indeed scary to think that we are not that secured anymore about our personal lives especially if someone holds a grudge about you. We are living in an era wherein we are being monitored by almost everyone and being judged by almost all of them. Ans what’s worse is that, they are using the online environment to fire bullets on you. The social media is an example of that deadly weapon they are using as of now to bully and degrade you.
What are the reasons of a cyber bully to do such act?
1. Cyberbullies Are Motivated by Revenge
When kids have been bullied, they often seek revenge instead of coping with the situation in healthier ways. The motivation for these victims of bullying is to retaliate for the pain they have experienced. When this happens, these kids are often referred to as bully-victims.
Bully-victims feel justified in their actions because they, too, have been harassed and tormented.
They want others to feel what they have felt and feel justified in doing so. By cyber bullying others, they also may feel a sense of relief and vindication for what they experienced. These kids will sometimes even go after the bully directly. Other times, they will target someone whom they perceive to be weaker or more vulnerable than them.
2. Cyberbullies Believe the Victim Deserves It
Bullying often revolves around a person’s social status at school. And some kids will cyberbully others based on the school’s perceived social ladder. For instance, a mean girl might get cyber bullied by an anonymous group of girls who are hoping to bring her down a notch or two.
Or, by contrast, a mean girl might cyberbully a girl who excels academically because she is jealous of her success. Other times, one girl might cyberbully another girl because she believes she stole her boyfriend. Whatever the reason, kids sometimes feel their cyber bullying behaviors are warranted and deserved. Consequently, they usually do not feel remorse or guilt for cyber bullying.
3. Cyberbullies Are Power Hungry
Cyber bullying can be a manifestation of social status. Kids who are popular often make fun of kids who are less popular. Likewise, kids who are attractive might single out others they feel are unattractive. They use the Internet to perpetuate relational aggression and mean girl behavior. They also will spread rumors and gossip and may even ostracize others through cyber bullying. Meanwhile, kids who are trying to climb the social ladder at school or gain some social power will resort to cyber bullying to get attention. They also might cyberbully to diminish the social status of another person.
Cyberbullies have a range of different motivations, but the general goal is to increase their own power by reducing the power of someone else.
4.Cyberbullies Cave Under Peer Pressure
Sometimes kids will cyberbully to fit in with a group of friends or a clique. As a result, these kids succumb to peer pressure in order to be accepted at school, even if it means going against their better judgment. They are more concerned with fitting in than they are worried about the consequences of cyber bullying. Other times, groups of friends will cyberbully because there is a false sense of security in numbers.
5. Cyberbullies Lack Empathy
Most kids who cyberbully believe it isn’t a big deal. Because they do not see the pain that they cause, they feel little to no remorse for their actions. In fact, several studies have found that a large number of students who engaged in online bullying reported not feeling anything for the victims after bullying online. Instead, many kids reported that online bullying made them feel funny, popular, and powerful.
EFFECTS OF CYBER BULLYING TO THE VICTIMS
There is a massive effect on the victim’s life once he/she is a victim of cyber bullying and some of those effects are the following:
- Low self-esteem
- Withdrawal from family and spending a lot of time alone
- Reluctance to let parents or other family members anywhere near their mobiles, laptops etc
- Finding excuses to stay away from school or work including school refusal
- Friends disappearing or being excluded from social events
- Losing weight or changing appearance to try and fit in
- Fresh marks on the skin that could indicate self-harm and dressing differently such as wearing long sleeved clothes in the summer to hide any marks
- A change in personality i.e. anger, depression, crying, withdrawn
WAYS ON HOW TO PREVENT CYBER BULLYING
There are numerous ways on how to prevent cyber bullying or how to prevent yourself becoming a victim of such hideous crime. These are the following:
- Don’t reply to any form of cyber bullying. Bullies are often craving attention and can back down if ignored.
- Talk to an adult you trust like your parents, your school principal or guidance counselor, or another grown-up. The best defense against the demand for secrecy is sharing the secret with someone who has more power than the bully.
- Keep an offline diary. Print emails, take screenshots of text or social media messages, and take notes about the days, times, and people involved in the bullying incidents. If you don’t know their real name, note the fake names they use.
- Block or mute cyberbullies. Most social platforms, online forums, and mobile devices have methods for blocking unwanted messages. Blocking is the best option but if you’re afraid of retaliation, muting can be a good strategy. Muting protects you from seeing their messages but, unlike blocking, a muted person usually doesn’t know they’ve been muted. If you don’t know how to block and mute, ask an adult.
- Put down your devices. Spending less time on the internet gives you more time to make friends and have fun away from people who are hurtful.
“PULLING SOMEONE DOWN WON’T HELP YOU REACH THE TOP” so please stop cyber bullying.
Cyber Issue 