Growing up in a modern society centered around social media can influence a large sum of individuals. With the use of technology growing, anyone can be an easy target for cyberbullying. Younger generations becoming more dependent on technology, are causing a rise in cellular usage in teens and young adults. Through social media, cyberbullying creates a way for individuals to anonymously make comments and posts about someone while being undetected, giving the victim constant access to the torture and unwanted stress and anxiety. This can eventually become overwhelming, making the victim feel alone and unwanted. Intern causing self-harm and suicide. Having this in mind, one should take note of the increase in suicides amongst teenagers and adolescents. Cyberbullying is the main cause of teen suicides today because of the use of social media through smartphone usage, the power of animosity and lack of proactive authority figures.
Social media plays a significant role in cyberbullying. In 2014, a young man named Matthew Homyk was a victim of cyberbullying through Ask.fm—a website that was considerably popular at that time. Through these unfortunate
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Hinduja states in his article, “The fact that teens are connected to technology 24/7 means they are susceptible to victimization (and able to act on mean intentions toward others) around the clock.” (par. 7). In 2003, Ryan Halligan became another victim of suicide through cyberbullying. In addition to some physical bullying at school, he was picked on online through instant messaging. Many of the messages he sent to those whom he thought were his friends were shared via email and distributed to other classmates through the internet. His father described the emotional stress was caused by “the pile on” effect and was the reasoning for his son’s death (Moreno). What can be done to prevent the effects of online harassment from carrying over into everyday
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...
Cyberbullying is no exception to this statistic. The two writers also stated that “There have been several high-profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part because of being harassed and mistreated over the Internet (Apollo, 2007; Halligan, 2006; Jones, 2008), a phenomenon recently termed cyberbullicide—suicide indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression,” (Hinduja and Patchin, 2007). These cases are not a constant issue in every school, but they have happened frequently enough to raise attention to faculty and parents. With adolescents being at such a sensitive age, it is important to remind them that the actions they take can have serious consequences, including
When asked what the major cause of teenage suicide is, most people would conclude depression or drugs. The twenty-first century, however, has a new cause on the rise: bullying. Although bullying is receiving unprecedented awareness and advocacy in schools and the media, startling reports of victims taking their lives are uncovering new realities. Suicide is often the horrific result for many teenagers feeling all alone, left with no means to escape the hurtful torture inflicted by bullying. Bullying has become broad and extensive with teenagers revealing its ugly nature in ways far more diverse than ever before. Common maltreatment once consisted of direct and indirect harassment. In the past decade as technology of cell phones and Facebook are at the forefront of most teenagers’ daily lives, mistreatment has elevated to new levels including the newest form of peer pressure with the creation of online ‘suicide pacts’. Bullying is no longer a quiet wolf around the corner happening to the shy, meager adolescent. With technology bringing forth a new form of peer pressure and bullying, as well as how it is aiding the facilitation of direct and indirect bullying, teenage suicide is becoming more prevalent because of technology’s hand in bullying.
“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.
Cyberbullying is simply the use of technology and its accessible tools to harass, hurt and embarrass the targeted individual repeatedly. Stopcyberbullying.org (n.d.), a dedicated organization to prevent cyberbullying and promote awareness, has defined cyberbullying as the use of the internet and mobile devices or digital technology such as text or instant messaging, e-mail, and/or post blogging by adolescents or teens to repeatedly threaten, harass, embarrass, torment, humiliate, or likewise the targeted adolescent(s) or teen(s). The 21st century has promoted and forced our teens to become very knowledgeable with the use of technology in addition to social media use and access. The array of social media medium includes Twitter, Facebook, and the even low-key Formspring—a medium that offers “total anonymity” to users (Holladay, 2011, p. 5). Even though ...
As we are living in the age of technology, we are seeing our youth being victimized by a new phenomenon of bullying, called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phones and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate repeated and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others. Cyberbullying can also employ media such as PDAs, blogs, and social networks (Beckstrom, 2008). This form of bullying is progressive because it can happen instantly due to the technology involved, whereas traditional bullying tends to take longer to evolve and happens
Cyberbullying has risen since the inception of social media sites and the rise of the internet. While the statistics regarding cyberbullying vary widely, anywhere from ten to forty percent or more of adolescents have reportedly been bullied online. The percentage of those on social media, like Facebook, has an even gre...
How many nights a week do you and your family take to a news program to find out what happened throughout the day? Most Americans watch a news program at least once a week; other individuals get all their information from news channels. News programs mediate real-word events which presents pros and cons. News programs inform the general public of events that take place worldwide that the public cannot experience firsthand. Larger news programs do not cover stories that are smaller and not national issues.
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...
The cons of social media can be very risky, especially when the youth of this society is partaking in it. Children and adolescents are now known for inappropriate content on social media sites or just simply not understanding the concepts of privacy. A nationwide issue that has been addressed is the action of cyberbullying. This action often leads to harmful circumstances such as suicide attempts, with some being successful. In just one state in the U.S., 1,491 high school students that were the “cyber bullies” were related to suicide attempts and about 4,693 students were rel...
Cyberbullying is one of the main causes of suicide and teens dropping out of school. Cyberbullying is a life threatening or even a harmful thing
With all the new networking site it makes it easier for bullies to target their victims. Kids don’t understand when they reach a certain limit it can trigger the young kids mind to commit suicide. Bullying and suicide have a huge connection between the two. Getting bullied at school is one thing getting bullied on social media is another, there are more people that can see if they post public. Getting made fun of on social media can make the other kid sensitive and can get to them to the point where they cannot take it anymore. If kids have easy access to get online it is easy for them to find their victim, now a day kids know how to work the new websites. Among average 61% have received mean or embarrassing posts online and 59% have received mean texts, e-mails or instant messages (Anderson, Bresnahan, & Musatics, 2014). It is easier to bully on social media then is at school or anywhere else. Embarrassing pictures or even inappropriate pictures of the victim can be uploaded by the bully leading to embarrassment for everyone to see. It is much easier to be behind a screen not being face to face to attack with harsh word, or whatever it is to embarrass the kid. Being behind a screen doesn’t like kids socialize, which is what is wrong with the society
Cyberbullying happens at all ages in life, effecting teens in ways that parents do not know or see. Cyberbullying is occurring the most with teens, ages 12-17, on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Social media has a major effect on most teens that are on social media twenty-four seven. Social media is causing teens to become depressed and suicidal because they are being cyberbullied. Being cyberbullied can cause teens to commit suicide because they do not know what to do when they are so hurt and embarrassed from people harassing, making fun of them, posting embarrassing pictures, and hurtful emails.
Imagine being personally targeted and bullied by another individual constantly. Maybe never seriously injured but verbally abused in person and possibly online. The issue of cyberbullying can be quite pivotal in this new generation. Cyberbullying is a controversial matter that the world must address because of how it can occur anywhere at any time, causes harm to targeted people, and affects all associated parties.