RESPONSE In David Gribble's Eastern Reporter opinion article, "For our children's sake we need to act on the curse of social media" (February 6th, 2018), he addresses the complications which are associated with social media for children. He addresses his target audience of parents and stakeholders on the issue with a concerned, critical and disappointed tone. David Gribble contends that social media needs to be regulated in an effort to combat cyberbullying to being his article which was placed after the visual element. This is due to cyberbullying currently resulting in alarming rates of youth suicides and negatively impacting the well-being and mental health of young people. Gribble argues that suicide is the leading cause of unexpected …show more content…
He uses statistical evidence when stating that; "suicide is the leading cause of unexpected death for children ages 13-17 in Western Australia, along with road trauma?" This technique can increase the author's credibility to his target audience which can position them to agree with his contention and grasp the severity of the impact of cyberbullying on children. By referencing the political climate in the United States of America in relation to the debate on gun laws, Gribble appeals to his audience's sense of patriotism when stating that, "we have a blind spot too-it's called social media." His criticism could have provoked the audience, however, his comparison of the two issues is done in an attempt to display the seriousness of the cyberbullying. He also refers to this comparison when concluding that article and he states; "This is Australia's school shooting debate". The author refutes the apparent solution on the cyberbullying issue of just removing the children offline by stating that it is unrealistic. His attempts to argue this to his target audience through a hyperbole when stating that "telling children to just "not go online" if they're being bullied is like telling us not to". This comparison of the younger generation to the older generation is an attempt to explain to his target audience of parents the reality of their children's social lives and
In her article “How the Internet Has Changed Bullying”, Maria Konnikova explained how bullying has reached technology, and in the workplaces of many adults. The Internet has made it harder to escape from bullying, and easier for bullies to escape from confronting their victims. Furthermore, the author stresses that cyberbullying not only targets high schoolers, but it’s affecting the lives of college students as well (Konnikova 1). Cyberbullying takes place in the Internet world where is easier for a bully to gossip and humiliate multiple of victims in a faster pace. The studies have shown that cyberbullying is making a greater impact in the victims’ and the bullies’ lives more than the traditional bullying and many people are not aware of it; therefore the schools, witnesses, and employers should work together to fight against cyberbullying and provide help to the victims and bullies.
In Chapter 6 of the book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, authors Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin (2015) begin to move the subject matter away from theory into application. In the last chapter, the authors ended their discussion that explained the details of cyberbullying, and in chapter 6, they begin to discuss how the reader may apply this knowledge to combat the issue. This paper will present a summary of those application processes and it will review some of the practical steps that the authors give, which if followed, can help prevent the occurrence of digital harassment, as well as help reduce the amount of harm that it may cause. The chapter starts off by cautioning adults to try not to solve cyberbullying issues by simply removing a teen’s access to the internet.
Continuing from Probst’s article, she mentions a few negative qualities of social media, including: being addictive, making people compare their lives with others, causing restlessness, giving rise to cyberbullying, and inducing peer pressure. While scrolling through social media, users tend to see images of people on adventures or of people spending time with numerous friends. As the users view these images, they cannot help but to compare their own lives to those who appear to be having more fun, and they may think less of their own lives. Another problem that is arising through social media is cyberbullying. A survey was conducted showing that 95% of youths have witnessed cyberbullying (Probst). Not only is the effects of cyberbullying harmful to mental health, but it is very difficult to stop this type of bullying because it often happens behind closed doors; a private message is sent and can only be viewed by the sender and receiver. An online questionnaire created by Helen Gore and Catriona Morrison shows the correlation between depression and internet addiction and they were able to conclude that internet use is causing people to have more depressive tendencies. Depression is a difficult issue to deal with and can leave many feeling alone and vulnerable. As users of media, we should be aware of the unfortunate side-effect of
Teens use technological devices as weapons through the use of social networking websites, text messaging and other ways. Teenager use these social networking websites and text messaging to make fun of one another, call each other names and threaten one another all to the point where the victim feels worthless and ends up with psychological problems or in the worst scenario, committing suicide. The most famous website that teenagers use these days for cyberbullying is Facebook; they login to their account and write a status about their victim and tag their victim on the status or ask a friend who has the victim as a friend to tag him or her in a comment below the status. Teenagers also use chat rooms to post pictures of their victim and publicly humiliate and make fun of their victims and others usually join in adding to it. I decided to write about cyber bullying because it has been happening a lot lately and as a mother I am really concerned about it, so I would like to know what to do in case my children were to go through a situation like that. I took advantage that it’s a good topic for a research essay...
If they do not help their teenagers with safety tips on the Internet there could be many negative consequences. According to The Editorial Board, “Parents remain the first line of defense against cyberbullying. Too many, however, ignore their children 's online behavior, deny that their kids could be bullies, or are themselves models for this harmful behavior. The stepmother of the 14-year-old charged with bullying Rebecca was charged last week with child abuse over allegations that she punched two boys visiting her home”. This illustrates the importance of parents’ role in a teenager’s activity on the Internet. In this occasion Rebecca’s 14-yeaar-old cyberbully had actually been bullied by her stepmother. This could have been the cause of Rebecca’s bullying since her cyberbully perhaps was bullied by her own
Harmful insults and acts of bullying are no longer restricted to the actual world. Cyber world is now infected with these issues in which technology and private information are instinctively used to constantly harm or bash emotionally hostilities towards a group or one particular individual. Social networks such as Facebook, twitter, and Google plus have been gaining immense popularity in the past years. With the popularity of these sites, the problems of cyber bullying, online sexual predators and accessibility to adult content also continue to grow. The younger generations are becoming more techno-friendly, with electronic devices such as tablets, computers, and cell phones. With this fact younger children are becoming more vulnerable and more likely to be confronted with these problems. These problems and issues of social discriminations are why there needs to be an age restriction or improved rules and provisions in order to prevent this.
“Amanda Todd was a 15 year old girl when she committed suicide because she was blackmailed, bullied, and physically assaulted on social media” (NoBullying). Suicide is a very serious issue that happens to appear frequently. Kids figure that they have no one to go to and get help, so they choose this path instead. “Suicide is responsible for nearly 4,500 deaths of kids every year” (CyberBullyHotline). It is also ranked 3rd for what causes the most deaths in the U.S. About 20% of teens will have the thought of suicide but 1 in 10 usually attempt it” (CyberBullyHotline). As mentioned a little before about kids not having anyone to turn to, it is just a product of thinking. The kids get put down so much that they feel like there is just no possible way for them to be helped. But that isn’t necessarily true because they never get around to asking for help because in their mind it isn’t an option. And this all happens because people decide that it is okay to make someone else’s life miserable. Social media has an influence that can cause bad mental health.
Since Teen suicide is the second leading cause of teenage death in the United States, there is a need for legislation that promotes awareness and education about Cyber-Bullying. Due to the growth of technology in the American society, the younger generations of adolescents are adapting to the excessive use of computers, cell phones, and social-networking sites. According to a study done by Amanda Lenhart, 87% of adolescents who are between the ages of 12 and 17 are using the internet on a daily basis (Trolley, Shields, and Hanel, “Demystifying and Deescalating Cyber Bullying in the Schools”).With these numbers increasing across the nation, the numbers of adolescents being harassed through technology means is growing as well. The relationship between cyber bullying and teenage suicide has been named “cyber bullycide”. Studies show that 1/3 of teenagers who have used the internet have stated that they have received threatening or offensive messages either through text, e-mail, IM, and other technology related programs. In 2007 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially labeled “electronic aggression” being cyber bullying as an “emerging public health problem” (Billitteri 387).
In today’s world filled with computers, tablets, and phones; all capable of accessing the internet, the dangers of the cyber world are relevant to everyone. Andrew Schrock and Danah Boyd’s article, “Cyberbullying Is a Serious Problem”, highlights the full extent of cyberbullying and online harassment. The effects of cyberbullying haunts many people in America, specifically adolescents. These victims are threatened, embarrassed, and humiliated on a platform that everyone can see. The authors use of emotional and logical appeals works very well in making the reader fully grasp the seriousness of this topic.
O’Mara feels that parents should become more protective of their children, and if they are not sure how , then perhaps the legislation which will hold them accountable if they refuse to do so will prompt them to take better care of their children and place more attention upon them (O’ Mara, 2). Otherwise, Eaton concludes her article upon a different note; she states that parents should become more informed about the issue of cyberbullying and that legislators should give second thoughts about criminally charging parents for such cases. She mentions that cyberbullying is a relatively new issue which did not exist when the parents were young, so their understanding of the issue is perhaps vague and needs more depth and explanation before fingers should be pointed onto them to take the blame (Eaton,
This sort of phenomenon makes major headlines regularly in recent times and effects a clear majority of today’s youth. State and local lawmakers have taken steps to prevent this type of bullying by making illegal under several criminal law codes. Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics explained, “There were consistent associations between exposure to cyberbullying and increased likelihood of depression.” Cyberbullying became widespread among students with the rapid growth in use of cellular devices and the Internet. With this kind of technology bullies have the ability to send harmful messages to their recipients at any given time. This type of bullying is the hardest to control because it involves students but often happens off school grounds. However, because the evidence is material, students and parents could bring this evidence to the school and local police departments if a situation were to happen. Parents should be mindful of their child’s use of the internet and electronic messaging, cyberbullying usually takes place in a medium in which adults are seldom present (Mason, 2008). Also, instead of sending direct messages to other students, bullies use platforms such as social media and anonymous blogs to post harmful things for others to see. Educators must understand the significance of social media use to their students, especially
Because cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, there is some degree of variance in its definition. In its early inception, cyberbullying was thought to be limited to the internet. However, the rapid creation of new technology tolls has expanded the boundaries to include cell phones, instant messaging, chat rooms, and email (Campfield, 2006). Campfield (2006) conducted a study of middle school students to determine the incidence rates of cyberbullying. She found that nearly 70% of students were involved in cyberbullying in some capacity, as a bully or victim. In a similar study, Li (2007) found that 39% of students have been involved in cyberbullying, while 52% were aware of a peer being harassed through electronic m...
Adults are easily accessible to the goods and bads on social media, compared to children that are less capable to realize what is convenient for them. As a result, children have become victims of cyberbullying via social media. One of the major problem of cyberbullying had to do with the fact that “[t]he Internet provides more than ample opportunities for children to bully one another anonymously. Kids can embark on impressive and terrifying bullying campaigns, drawing in dozens of other completely anonymous children. Even a child who never does anything risky online is at risk of being bullied”, (Woda,2015, p.32). Children are expose to more cyberbullying in social media than in their normal everyday lives. According to Woda Tim, (2015) “a 2013 Pew Research Center study, indicates that 20.8 percent of kids ages eight to ten report that they have been cyberbullied at least once in their life, while 88 percent of social media-using teens say they have witnessed someone being mean or cruel on a social media site”, (32). Parents should focus more when their kids are using phones or computers in the house and it should use in public areas of the house, where parents can be aware of what their kids are doing in social media. They must use a “Parental intelligence” with their children and know that kids are the more vulnerable to be involved in cyberbullying. It is painful to see how everyday in the news kids are committing
Thomas J. Billitteri’s “Cyberbullying” sees social media as a cause of bullying and states out of the teenagers using social media, forty percent have a least once claimed to have been cyber bullied. Child advocates view the incivility from television reality shows to the political arena as growing to a point where youth have learned it acceptable to humiliate other people as a form of entertainment. This attitude is commonly found on commentary sections of social media and news websites. The article points out the responsibility social media sites takes in contributing to and preventing cyber-bullying. Working with individual states and law enforcement, Myspace has tried to help to stop harassment and cyber-bullying. Meanwhile, the social media website Juicy Campus was solely made to spread gossip that is hurtful (Billitteri “Cyberbullying”).
A great number of children and young adults are the main target of bullying via the internet. In most instances the youngsters cannot understand that they are being bullied as this shows that that the once safe internet environment is over time becoming a great sources of anxiety and confusion (Berson, Berson & Ferron, 2002). Cyber bullying tend to have negative effects of the one being bullied in that the victim attains a confused feeling and are hurt since they have been targeted and insulted for no justifiable reasons. With time the victims develop feelings of loneliness and fear and may opt to stay at home where they feel secure and may even avoid to schools or in other social gatherings. This is likely to affects