Cyberbullying and Mental Health

What is Cyberbullying ?

Before smartphones took over the world, teenagers used to pass notes in class, notes
that could have been confessions about their crushes, spilling secrets, creating gossip,
or maybe just making after -school plans. Today, this things are done via text message
or social media, but the content is still the same. Hearts can still be broken, secrets can
still be spilled, gossip can spread faster and farther than wildfire, and realtionships can
be forged and broken. It’s easy to imagine how these interactions could become harsh
and cruel in “real life,” and unsurprisingly, the same kind of thing happens online.

When someone thinks of “bullying,” the images that come to mind might be of a
big kid pushing a little kid down on the playground, a bully shaking a kid down for
lunch money, or maybe even a fight breaking out at school. “Traditional” bullying
often involves harassment, teasing, or forcing another person to do something and
happens when the parties involved meet face-to-face in the schoolyard. It includes
components of physical bullying (e.g., hitting, kicking), which is an aspect that makes
it distinct from cyberbullying. Traditional bullying also includes relatinal (e.g.,
spreading umors to damage a person’s reputation) and verbal (e.g., name-calling)
bullying. So then what is cyberbullying ? Broadly, cyberbullying can be defined as
“an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or indivedual,
using electronic froms of contact, repeatedly against a target who cannot easily defend
him or herself”. Electronic forms of contact include social media, like Fcaebook,
Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagra, e-mail, text messaging, and even online gaming.
Online harassment can include behaviors such as insults, impersonation, exclusion,
spreading rumors, hacking, stealing personal information, unwanted sexual advances,
and creating damaging websites to defame others.

Traditional Bullying Compared with Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can be just as harmful as traditional bullying. Traditional bullying

often has a physical component to the harassment, but online bullying offers
perpetrators the benefit of anomymity. Often, perpetrators will then act without much
regard for consequences, and this reduces guilt and accountability for their actions.
Traditional bullying also often occurs at a specific time and place, often at school.
Targets of cyberbullying, however, potentially must deal with harassing behaviors
anytime and anyplace. Even if online, taregts often worry about what is being posted
without their knowledge, especially because information can be spread so quickly and
widely. However, the Internet and social media are integral to many adolescent’ social
identity and daily lives-- this make it nearly impossible for most teens to “just log
off”.

Although there are distinct differences between traditional bullying and

cyberbullying, the fact remains that many individuals may be targets of both. Bullying
that begins in the schoolyard can extend to messages online and vice versa. The
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that
cyberbullying should be considered within the context of traditional bullying rather
than viewing the two as separate entities. This is an important concept to understand,
because screening efforts and interventions are often geared at only one type of
bullying when in reality, a more global approach has the highest yield for preventions.

Technology and Social Media Use

Technology use among adolescents is nearly ubiquitous. 92 % of teenagers aged

13-17 go online at least once a day, with a smaller subset of 24 % who say they are
online “ constanly.” Almost three-quarters of teens have smartphones, and 71% use
more than one social networking site. In terms of social networking sites, Facebook
remains the most popular, with 71 % of teens using the site daily, although Instagram
and Snapchat continue to rise in popularity with 52 and 41 % of teens on these
platforms, respectively. For more detailed demographic information, please see Chap.
2 of this book.