What Is Cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is one of those words which you are likely to stumble upon in your everyday life, nowadays. Why? Well, with an ocean flooding, astonishing features of technology designed to be enabled by just a touch of button, social issues like cyberbullying have surpassed traditional bullying, hands down. Cyberbullying has always been different than physical bullying; it is not just simple harassment, rather it is worse, partly due to its unconfined nature. One needs only a valid email address to create or participate in groups online, so it is very easy set up “fake” accounts and bully anonymously. Because anonymous comments and actions aren’t connected to the individuals doing the bullying, they are free to do as they please without repercussions.

Unlike the traditional “playground” bullying, cyberbullying can be practiced behind a veil. Yalda T. Ulhas in the article, “Cyberbullying Has a Broader Impact Than Traditional Bullying” sheds light on the this issue: “[a] bully can target a victim while shielded behind a computer screen or mobile phone”. A contrasting viewpoint is presented in the article, “The Real Truth About Physical Bullying Facts” as, “Unfortunately, physically bullying is often more easy to spot as it happens because parents or other adults can see the acts happening”. However, as for cyberbullying, anonymity makes it nearly impossible to track down the bully, for the bully easily gets away with it without the fear of being caught. This is fully endorsed by Scott Meech in his article, “CyberBullying is Worse Than Traditional Bullying”where he says, “A major difference between cyberbullying and traditional bullying is the ability to bully without a face-to-face confrontation. Kids become emboldened by the false feeling of being anonymous and they say things they might not have said in person”. An example encompassing the idea of anonymous hate is a website, Ask.fm. This website offers to pass comments anonymously. Cyberbullies took advantage of it to such an extent that several people, especially teens committed suicide: Jessica Laney, a 16-year-old innocent soul from Pasco County,

Although, physical harm traditional bullying can inflict cannot be overlooked, the emotional, psychological and mental disorders cyberbullying can trigger can last for a long time, even forever. With any luck, traditional bullying ends with a change in location. In cyberbullying, however, the results of bullying can be incredibly long lasting (mostly permanent when online), and has been shown to have traumatic psychological damage including anxiety, depression, and other serious stress and emotional related disorders which further leads to suicide attempts.More specifically, in a study about cyberbullied victims, “[O]ne researcher found that 38% of bully victims felt vengeful, 37% were angry, and 24% felt helpless” (Hinduja and Patchin). The vengefulness and helplessness sooner or later becomes cause for illnesses in