The Disadvantages Of Cyber Bullying: The Dangers Of Cyberbullying

Catfishing is not the only danger of social media, cyberbullying is another huge, if not the worst disadvantage of social media out there. It is bad enough that there is so much bullying in person when people of all ages are at places like school, buses, parties, work, and many other places; but when you have unlimited access to social media, the effortless ability to bully someone through the internet has unfortunately become so popular. Many say that the reason so many people are victims are cyber bullied is because he or she posts information or a thought that the bully misinterprets, thinking the information is about them. The victim is then “ antagonizing” the bully and the bully does not know any better but to revolt against the victim.

Bullies need to have the feeling like they are superior towards the victim. In order to accomplish this the bully needs the victim to think that they are not afraid of anything. With this being said bullies use social media as a way to harass a person without being face-to-face. Sarah Spain, a radio host and Sports Illustrated reporter, and Julie DiCaro, an ESPN radio host and an ESPN reporter, are very familiar when it comes to harassment from people, usually men, on Twitter because of their profession as sports commentators. To make a statement, men were asked to read demeaning and insulting tweets to Spain and DiCaro, who read the tweets before hand, and no matter what the tweets said, the men had to read them to show how easy it is to post something on social media, but is so hard to say it to the person’s face. In the beginning, the comments were particularly mean but not horrible, but as the men read more, the comments began to get worse, calling Spain and DiCaro “sluts” and even “Bill Cosby’s next victim.” You can tell that the men were extremely uncomfortable reading these tweets, one man even saying “ So I have to read all of the, right?” This goes to show that it is so much easier for a bully to say something online than to

We have gotten so used to the fire, and its continuous burning and destruction that we do not realize how bad it is getting. As I had said before, social media has shaped people’s minds into thinking what “perfection” is because of the constant images of seemingly perfect people, but what people do not realize is that we are not only comparing our looks to others, we are comparing our whole lives. On the website, Social Talk, Dr. Jared Pingleton discusses the term O.C.D. When may people hear the word O.C.D. they think of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which is the disorder where a person has uncontrollable and reoccurring thoughts and behaviors that they have the desire to do over and over again, but that is not the type of O.C.D. Dr. Pingleton is talking about. This is a specific disorder that is usually brought on by constant use of social media, Obsessive Comparison Disorder, the disorder that a person acquires when they are constantly comparing themselves to others, their life, their job, their looks, every aspect of their life. Dr. Pingleton states, “Social media can be great, that is until you start to lose sight of happiness because you are constantly comparing yourself and your family to others on social media,” (Clinton). Dr. Pingleton is correct, social media can be a great thing, but when you constantly hear about new weddings or engagements, someone getting flowers or