Bullying, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the exercise of “superior strength or influence to intimidate, typically to force someone to do what one wants” (1). Growing up, the only bullying that I have witnessed is on the television. For instance, a portion of people perceive a bully as a ruffian threatening another for his lunch money, but times have changed in unison with technology evolving. One of the overwhelmingly popular functions of the internet is to contact friends and relatives by posting pictures and sending comments on social media websites. For example, Jay Baer, a social media researcher, concluded that “56% of Americans have a profile on a social networking site” (2). The outcomes of these sites when practiced appropriately
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Teenagers are uninformed and uneducated about our digital footprint, as it is not taught by the school districts and not every parent sets guidelines. Indeed, once an item is published online, it remains in the cyber portal even if it is deleted. To illustrate, an immature middle school student can find him or herself unemployed and not accepted into college a few years down the road as a result of the way they have used their social media websites in a negative manner. In fact, according to a Kaplan survey of college admissions officers, “31 percent said they had visited an applicant’s Facebook or other personal social media page to learn more about them” (10) . Natasha Singer, journalist from the New York Times, reports “30 percent of the admissions officers said they had discovered information online that had negatively affected an applicant’s prospects” (11). In other words, middle school aged children lack a consideration for their future. They live in the moment and only think temporarily, considering their brain is not fully developed to be contemplating the future consequences of their current actions. That is the primary reason social network sites have age restrictions in place, but members lie about their age and specific websites allow the accounts to be established when a child is under the …show more content…
Yabarra, researcher from the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, “has found that about 17% said they’ve been bullied on the Internet in the past year”. The article continues, stating the people participating in the experiment were made up of “1,158 youths and the other of 3,777 adolescents” (12). Will a survey focusing on a problem teenagers are facing provide accurate results when only 30% of the people participating in the survey are teenagers? No, yet people in our society are brainwashed by these statistics and are honestly convinced that cyber bullying is not a problem. However, these inaccurate experiments are used to prove the problem that we remain to face in our society, cyber bullying. Particia Agatston, the co-author of Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, explains the intensity of cyber bullying higher and at a higher frequency than normal bullying because “it is very difficult to defend oneself from cyber bullying when the audience is cast and the perpetrator often anonymous”. She concludes with the powerful statement of “the Internet and mobile phones allow access to the target virtually around the clock” (13) that explains the increase in cyber bullying and explains the
Teenagers are uninformed and uneducated about our digital footprint, as it is not taught by the school districts and not every parent sets guidelines. Indeed, once an item is published online, it remains in the cyber portal even if it is deleted. To illustrate, an immature middle school student can find him or herself unemployed and not accepted into college a few years down the road as a result of the way they have used their social media websites in a negative manner. In fact, according to a Kaplan survey of college admissions officers, “31 percent said they had visited an applicant’s Facebook or other personal social media page to learn more about them” (10) . Natasha Singer, journalist from the New York Times, reports “30 percent of the admissions officers said they had discovered information online that had negatively affected an applicant’s prospects” (11). In other words, middle school aged children lack a consideration for their future. They live in the moment and only think temporarily, considering their brain is not fully developed to be contemplating the future consequences of their current actions. That is the primary reason social network sites have age restrictions in place, but members lie about their age and specific websites allow the accounts to be established when a child is under the …show more content…
Yabarra, researcher from the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, “has found that about 17% said they’ve been bullied on the Internet in the past year”. The article continues, stating the people participating in the experiment were made up of “1,158 youths and the other of 3,777 adolescents” (12). Will a survey focusing on a problem teenagers are facing provide accurate results when only 30% of the people participating in the survey are teenagers? No, yet people in our society are brainwashed by these statistics and are honestly convinced that cyber bullying is not a problem. However, these inaccurate experiments are used to prove the problem that we remain to face in our society, cyber bullying. Particia Agatston, the co-author of Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, explains the intensity of cyber bullying higher and at a higher frequency than normal bullying because “it is very difficult to defend oneself from cyber bullying when the audience is cast and the perpetrator often anonymous”. She concludes with the powerful statement of “the Internet and mobile phones allow access to the target virtually around the clock” (13) that explains the increase in cyber bullying and explains the