Cyber Bullying and Social Work Research Paper

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Cyber Bullying and Its Impact

Over the past decade, attention has been drawn to cyber-bullying by the media and researchers. Research on cyber-bullying has covered the various behavior aspects; focusing mainly on demographic and personal factors of the involved individuals. Particularly, the research has been targeted at factors among adolescents; who account for a majority of cyber-bullying cases. Nonetheless, it is important that other populations are studied too -- even adults where cyber-bullying may not be as common -- so that evaluations are made on the previous findings. Several personal factors linked to adolescent cyber-bullying, e.g. level of self-esteem, have been noted to change as one gets older (Obins et al., 2002). It is necessary therefore that studies be done whether or not such factors remain linked to cyber-bullying in various groups of different ages. Moreover, while research on cyber-bullying on adults is taking shape, they are limited to identifying individuals as either cyber victims or the cyber-bully (Zachilli & Valerio, 2011). Contrastingly, most of the research on adolescents makes distinctions on the various identities of cyber-bullies, which allows for the behavior to be better understood. This paper discusses 4 cyber-identities (cyber-bully, non-involved and cyber-victim/bully) among young adults, and the way self-esteem is connected to the four identities (Brack & Caltabiano, 2014).

Smit et al. (2008) broadly describes cyber-bullying as an intentional aggressive act that an individual or group carries using electronic contact means, repeatedly over a given time period against a victim that can't defend him/herself easily (p. 366). The description is the same as that given to the traditional bullying that takes place offline. It consists of three parts that differentiate bullying from such acts like assault and harassment (Sevcikova & Smahel, 2009). Specifically, a bullying act has to include aggression as well as identifiable power imbalance between the victim and the bully and the bullying act has to be done repeatedly over a given period of time (Newey & Magson, 2010). Nonetheless, using this definition to describe cyber-bullying raises questions on whether cyber-bullying is an extension of the traditional offline bullying and that they feature the same components (Beran & Li, 2005), whether it is distinctly different with very different characteristics (Ybara et al., 2007). In spite of these differences, there is agreement on the range of methods and activities used in cyber-bullying (Brack & Caltabiano, 2014).

Cyber-bullying can be done on several of the technological platforms, including: email, social media, text messaging, instant messaging, pictures and videos taken through phones and webcams, forums, chat rooms and also on some kinds of websites especially in the comment section (Smith et al., 2006). Further, cyber-bullying isn't limited to sending insulting and hurtful messages about a particular person. There are several components involved like revealing sensitive information about another person, to creating fake persona to get information or to humiliate someone (Willard, 2005). Further, research shows that there are many identities in cyber-bullying, not just cyber-victims and cyber-bullies. Instead, there are a number of identities, at times known as topologies, which discuss the various roles that are taken by individuals in cyber-bullying (Brack & Caltabiano, 2014).

The idea that there are different kinds of bullies was first introduced by Olweus (1997). He made the suggestion that bullying ought to be evaluated on a scale that accounted for the various groups of bullies, bystanders and victims. Typology use in classifying bullying has evolved since the initial categorization done by Olweus. Common among the literature is that four types of people are involved in an act of cyber-bullying: pure cyber-victims, pure cyber-bullies, cyber-bully/victims, and those people who have neither been cyber-bullied nor been cyber-bullies themselves (Florell & Wygant, 2013; Kowlaski et al., 2013). Several studies have reported a big overlap between cyber-victimization/cyber-bullying in comparison to other aspects of offline bullying factors. There is little explanation of this in cyber-bullying writings; however, logic shows that there may be characteristics of the cyber-bully/victim group that encourage more involvement in cyber-bullying (Brack & Caltabiano, 2014).

Estimates concerning cyber-bullying prevalence differ, with some studies making reports that 20-40% of children of school going age and adolescents experienced cyber-bullying in the position of a victim (Tokunaga, 2010), while around 2-21% have reported to being cyber-bullies themselves (Rasjauskas & Stoltz, 2007). While it has been suggested that cyber-bullying reduces as people get older (Sevcikova & Smahel, 2009), it has been shown that cyber-bullying increases among adolescents and then declines as they become more mature (Slonje & Smith, 2008).

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Further, studies involving adults have used different methods (Zachilli & Valerio, 2011) or have included much bigger ranges in age (Sevcikova & Smahel, 2009) than have been seen in samples of adolescents. This has made it difficult to evaluate the suggestions. For instance, among non-adolescents, Sevcikova and Smahel (2009) discovered that just 10.7% reported that they had been cyber-bullied in their places of work. As regards to being the cyber-bully, it was reported by Zachilli and Valerio (2011) that just 3.6% of students in college noted that they have been involved in a form of bullying in college, while about 20% of the entire adults sample reported cyber-bullying behavior most of them being aged under 35. Few studies focusing on cyber-bullying among adults exist but it is apparent that the findings are varied amongst the studies (Brack & Caltabiano, 2014).

A background on cyber-bullying

The usage of the term 'bully' began a long time ago -- traceable to the 1530s (Harper, 2008). Basically, bullying involves an intimidator/bully and the victim. The victim is abused verbally, physically or through other methods so that the bully gets a sense of power and superiority over the victim. The actions might be direct (like face-to-face assault, hitting, etc.) or indirect (like gossip and rumors) (Donegan, 2012).

Survival is an instinctual desire and is common to all organisms. Survival is linked to competition because of the high number of species around and the limited resources available for them to utilize. From the beginning, organisms have instinctively competed and desired to outcompete other organisms so as to survive. This instinct has not changed even with the evolution of the species. Competition and the survival instinct can be identified in economic, social and educational realms. The competitive hierarchy, while common in several societies, is different with each society given the different traditions, ethical values, and the level of control that the government exerts. Unfortunately, the capitalistic society in the United States has pushed the agenda that wealth and success go together. This way of thinking has influenced the nation and bullying has unintentionally been instilled as a tactic for survival from childhood (Donegan, 2012).

From the instance a child in America joins grade school, he/she is taught to be the best s/he can. While this lesson might be innocent, it might morph as the children go on with their education. Some of the students adopt corrupt means of getting ahead in the very competitive educational system as well as the social environment. Bullying might also be adopted and may encompass pressuring other people to give them answers for their assignments so as to get better grades, which in turn leads to them going to better colleges. The tactics are dangerous since when a student realizes that they are effective, he or she may build a lifestyle around these tactics. Being a habitual bully can lead to negative effects on a large number of people and also corruption at places of work (Donegan, 2012).

Progression in technology is always associated with human advancement. Critical innovations like the Internet has changed the way humans interact. While such technologies come with their advantages, some disadvantages come with them and some people might make use of them to advance selfish goals that are not good for humanity. This is true, considering the evolution of bullying to an extent that it has been brought to online portals. Cyber-bullying is different from traditional bullying in that the bully can hide their identity. The anonymity allows the offender to attack the victim without seeing the physical responses he or she has. The distance created makes the offenders do even crueler things than they would otherwise do had physical contact been made (Donegan, 2012).

With the evolution of technology, bullying has increased. The advent of the internet and associated means of communication has given bullies an opportunity to assault other people (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). AOL Instant Messenger supplemented chat rooms. Forums on the internet gave the youth a ground upon which they could assault one another. Forums and chat rooms have allowed people to spend several hours on the internet talking privately on the internet. The forums are always about subjects that interest the members of the group and this can include gossiping (Donegan, 2012).

There has been advancement in the areas of technology. The invention of the cell phones about half a century ago changed the way people.....

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