Cyberbullying And Social Media

From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, humans have begun to rely heavily on machinery and different technology. With the invention of the microchip, The United States economy began to boom, and the economic growth rate rose to numbers that no economist had expected. With this new technology, society has new responsibilities. Different technology, especially computers and phones, has allowed us to easily contact and converse with other people. Many young teenagers today readily have a phone available to them. Many of these teenagers have different accounts on social media sites. These social media sites have allowed individuals to meet new people and strengthen relationship with friends. However, as history has showed us many times …show more content…
This is partly due to there being only limited research on cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is part of the social media and technological revolution, which is just beginning. Cyber bullying is defined as “electronically mediated behaviors among peers such as making fun of, telling lies, spreading rumors, threats and sharing private information or pictures without permission to do so” (Uhls para.5). Cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying. One reason that cyberbullying is worse than traditional bullying is that cyberbullying can occur anywhere versus traditional bullying that occurs mainly at school. Schools can protect children from traditional bullying by keeping strict supervision over them and punishing them for bullying. This is not as easily done for cyberbullying. The new problem involved with modern technology is how to deal with cyberbullying. (Billitteri para.4). Cyberbullying is more prevalent than people think, “one in three people ages eleven to seventeen are cyberbullied, with girls three times more likely” to be cyberbullied than boys (Doucet para.3). About half of cyberbullies are thought to know the person they are bullying. The conflict arises because the “cyberbully” can easily hide his or her identity by using social media (Doucet para.3). Many people treat bullying as a common occurrence and not something that should be strictly fought against. There is a difference between simply being rude and bullying. Obviously, cyberbullying is a problem due to its effects. Law enforcement officers are on alert against cyberbullying incidents that are linked to suicides being reported around the country (Foss, Cassie, and Cerve para.4). Due to cyberbullying being a recent phenomenon, there is a lot of controversy over how society and schools should address the problem (Billitteri