Cyberbullying in North America
Cyberbullying is one of the challenges that comes with the wide adoption of information communication technologies in the world. Cyberbullying involves the online posting of rumors about another person with the aim of achieving disdain in other people's minds, or it might go to the degree of expressly recognizing casualties and distributing materials seriously criticizing and demeaning them (Pedersen, 2016). The perpetrators of cyber bullying mostly perform the act again and again intentionally (Zheng, 2010, p. 76). From the subjective view, cyberbullying leads to retraction in society, degradation of the mental state of the victim, poor performance in school and in the extreme cases, development of suicidal thoughts.
Cyberbullying is a fast-spreading phenomenon among youths and young adults in North America, the population forming most of the victims and also the perpetrators of the vice. The fact that virtually every teenager in the United States and Canada can access the internet either using mobile devices, home and school computers allow them to perpetrate the vice and also become easy prey for the vice from their peers (Zheng, 2010, p.183). The enormous presence of young people in the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram means that perpetrators of cyberbullying can be able to get personal information about their targeted victims and also get an easy platform on which they can disseminate the defamatory messages to a wide audience of people who already know the victim. Emails also allow people to perpetrate such a vice in the understanding that one can quickly create an email account using false information and then use it to disseminate the hate messages. Mobile phones messages, WhatsApp, and chatrooms also act as platforms on which hate messages are distributed (Zheng, 2010, p.169).
Parenting practices also contribute significantly to the occurrences of cyberbullying as there are parents who encourage their children to have access to mobile phones and other electronic gadgets while they are still in their early teenage years. Studies indicate that despite North America and Europe being the most advanced nations in information technologies, youthful populations in East Asia are spending more time in communication technology gadgets than their Western countries counterparts (Shapka, 2013, p.3). Despite the vice of cyberbullying being in schools for the last two decades and most school administrations taking steps to prevent it, there are still people who practice it despite their intentions and motivations varying. Another study by Li indicates that one in three adolescents in North America is a victim of Cyberbullying while one in five youth is a perpetrator of Cyberbullying (2007, p. 2). Most of the perpetrators of Cyberbullying hide their identities from their victims, as approximately fifty percent of the victims indicate that they do not know who the perpetrators (li, 2007, p. 1). More than half of all North American students have either been subjected to the vice of cyberbullying or are conversant with the vice.
Use of information communication technologies helps in connecting people regardless of the physical boundaries of institutions such as schools. This makes it hard for school administrations to prevent spreading of hateful and demeaning messages from being spread about a student or even a teacher (Li, 2007, p. 1). Bullying messages may be posted from inside the school, at home, at a friend's house or even in public places such as cyber cafes. Noticing that a person is suffering from cyberbullying is also hard as most of the time, they fear who might be the perpetrator and develop the tendency to defend themselves against everyone (Li, 2007, p. 1).
Cyberbullying and mental issues
It is possible for victims of cyberbullying to develop the feeling of worthlessness and consequentially escalate to suicidal behaviors. Cases of teenagers and young adults taking their life or attempting to do so have been reported in various media outlets. One of such cases is that of Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old who committed suicide after posting a video detailing her years of enduring bullying (Foxnews.com, 2012). The stress levels had led her to the point of feeling worthless and that nobody cared for her. When bullying occurs especially the perpetrators threatening to expose materials such as images or videos that are likely to affect the life of the victim, the victim may reach a point where they are tempted to commit suicide or kill the perpetrator. Li provide evidence of this by noting that in the past few years, media has run stories of teenagers who either commit suicide or homicides as a result of being subjected to cyberbullying (2007, p. 1).
In comparison to the physical burying, cyberbullying makes the victims more aggressive as a defensive strategy to prevent any more damage from happening. Li notes that in the physical bullying, the victims know the perpetrator and hence can try and avoid him/her (2007, p. 1). However, in online bullying, it is hard to escape as there are too many channels and means for the perpetrator to attract your attention so they can bully you. Cyberbullying victims tend to act more hostile as a way to protect themselves against the malicious behaviors of the cyberbullies. Li states that "Students become more aggressive which is why there needs to be more awareness of the negatives of increased technology usage because the bullied are more likely to become bullies to try to rise against their attackers, causing a vicious cycle"(Li, 2007, p. 16). Thus, victims of cyberbullying will become more assertive if the matter was not addressed appropriately. Ultimately the victims would think it is the only way to protect themselves and will imaginably begin to bully others (Li, 2007). This indicates that it is tough for the victims of cyberbullying to evade the harms since the damages can be effortlessly spread. As a consequence, this may lead to suicidal acts.
The ability of materials such as video, images, audio and electronic texts to be stored for long period increases the tendency to have victims tormented even after they avoid one of the platforms for a day, a week or even a year (Li, 2007). For example, if a text was sent to you via Facebook and you deactivate the account, the person may in future send you the same image in Twitter, WhatsApp or email. The possibility of bullied teenagers trying to intimidate the suspected perpetrator may lead to the establishment of a vicious circle, where even innocent youths may be bullied in the name of revenge (Li, 2007).
Unlike the physical bullying, cyberbullying has extreme mental implications to the victim as they do not know who to defend themselves against. Too much fear of the perpetrator eventually takes a toll at the victim, and they develop defensive tendencies against everyone, killing trust on anyone and classifying even the royal friends as possible perpetrators (Li, 2007). The mental fear developed may be accompanied by anger and the feeling of humiliation, eventually leading the victim to act irrationally. The victims' mentality may change due to torment making them believe that they are hated, despised, always mocked behind their backs and a laughing stock. In the case of videos of images that were taken without the knowledge of the victim, he/she may develop the fear of being watched all the times, a feeling that if experienced for an extended period may result in tragic consequences (Palmeri 2010).
Cyberbullying lowers the academic performance of the victim as they lose concentration with studies. In more detail, the victims avoid going to school because they lack the motivation to interact with their peers. According to Li, a professor of educational technology at the University of Calgary who researches on Eastern Asian adolescents, "Students who are impacted by cyberbullying tend to drop out of school to prevent further bullying"(2007, p.16). This reveals that it is preventing these victims from wanting to achieve their academic goals. Furthermore, it is even more discouraging when they are obliged to complete their assignment online (Palmeri 2010). This indicates that if their homework requires online communication, they do not have the enthusiasm to neither tackle nor basically connect their gadgets to the internet. Therefore, these problems lead to a "decrease in academic achievement [and] increased school absences" (Shapka, 2013, p.2). Clearly, with the increased use of technologies in schools, it is a greater challenge for the victims of cyberbullying. Due to the fact that it is easier to pull away rather than to face their difficulties with peers, it leads to lower academic performances. Consequently, this perhaps will eventually lead them to lower academics because of the withdrawal from society.
Victims of cyberbullying are more likely to drop out of school as one of the withdraw symptoms and also as a means to get away from people. Li explains that students who have ben bullied tend to drop out of school as a way to avoid further bullying. Instead of the students viewing learning as a way to pursue their dreams, they view school as a place of demoralization and ridicule and could use all means to avoid it. This many have a damaging effect to the life of the victim as Li notes dropping out prevents them from “fulfill their dreams and making them more depressed instead”(2007, p.16). Shakpa creates a direct link between bullying and poor academic performance noting that the students who are cyberbullying victims lack the necessary motivation to learn and attend school (2013, p. 2). Dropping out of school only makes the situation worse as the victim is plunged into more stress and may lack the motivation to live.
The relationship with friends and family is severely affected as the victims of cyberbullying are not sure whether to share with anyone or just keep it to themselves. Li claims that a number slightly less than half of the victims inform adult people in their lives of the bullying (2007, p.10). When the victims hold back such pain and anxiety, the agenda of the bullies, mainly to terrorize the victim is achieved. As noted earlier, the victim will decide to look withdraw from people on the assumption that anyone can be the perpetrator, or the information may have been given to any of the other friends or family members. Mostly, information that is used to threaten or undermine the victims is one that the victim would not want anyone, mostly a parent to have. According to statistics provided in ncpc.org, only eleven percent of the teenagers bullied online shared the experience with their parents (ncpc.org 2015). This indicates that most of the time, the teenagers believe that they either can handle the situation themselves or their parents would be angry be in case they knew their secrets.
The long-term consequences of cyberbullying may have more permanent effects on the lives of the victims leaving a scar that may never heal. Shakpa notes that there is the probability of victims to indulge in drug abuse as they try to boost their ruined self-esteem (2013, p. 2). Drug abuse accompanied by peer rejection isolation and lack of self-worthiness plunges the victim further down an abyss which they may never be able to come out of (Pedersen, n.d.). Isolation in school makes teenagers feel unsafe, making them good candidates for further bullying (Golden 2014).
In conclusion, cyberbullying is one of the challenges of wide adoption of information communication technologies. Teenagers have lost lives as they fall prey to cyber bullies who intimidate and terrorize them. Most adolescents and young adults are involved in bullying, either as the perpetrators or victims. Some of other consequences of cyberbullying include withdrawal from friends and relatives, development of fear and aggression as a defensive mechanism, loss of motivation to live and indulgence in drugs. Teenagers do not share with their parents the incidences when cyber bullies attack them as only eleven percent of the victims share their experiences with their parents.
