Cyberbullying: A Dark Side of Social Media

Bullying has always been a worldwide issue faced in many schools, neighborhoods and public places. In the past, bullies targeted their victims by acting tough and intimidating in person. As our society advanced in technology, the types of bullying advanced as well. The creation of the internet and social media sites now allows bullies to now hide behind their computer screens to torment their victims. Social media negatively affects our society more than it benefits us because it has created cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has become a worsening issue in our society that is difficult to prevent. We need to reduce our usage of social media networks in order to decrease cyberbullying on the internet. Cyberbullying is known as “electronic bullying

Different types of cyberbullying include harassment, denigration, outing and trickery, and impersonation (Agatston, Kowalski, and Limber 62-65). Harassment can be described as sending repetitive vulgar messages to someone. In fact, “most harassment occurs via personal communication channels such as e-mail but harassing messages may also be communicated in public forums, such as chat room and discussion groups” (Agatston, Kowalski, and Limber 63). Denigration is when information about someone is posted that is untrue. This includes posting fake and edited pictures of someone that can be harmful to the victim. Outing can be described as posting embarrassing, personal information about someone without their permission. Trickery is similar to this, however, the bully tricks their victim into sharing personal information about themselves. Lastly, impersonation is when the attacker pretends to be someone else to harass their victim. MTV has created a television show called CatFish that shows many stories about the victims who face cyber-impersonation. This show has helped our society and teengers become more aware of the dangers and types of cyberbullying social media brings. The internet has become such a huge part of our society and people tend to overlook the dangers that it can cause to our lives. These many different types of cyberbullying tactics give

Since most bullying occurs at such an immature age, the negative effects of social media are even more detrimental. Social media networks were not intentionally created for children, so the effects can be worse on children than they would be on adults. Socially, these websites are deteriorating and stunting children 's development. This explains why many parents feel uncomfortable allowing their children to have access to these sites. Social media sites are not suited for children because they are still learning life skills and developing their morals on ways to express themselves. These sites are simply just causing children to be exposed to the unneeded stress and unwanted feelings cyberbullying is bringing to their