Social media has brought connectivity to the world like no one could have ever imagined. People can keep up to date with their families easier through Facebook. Users can get tailored micro-feeds through twitter. Snapchat opens the possibility to share every moment with another in video form. There are many other social media platforms that interconnect users with another and they have all proven to beneficial when used correctly. But what occurs when they are used incorrectly? What happens when users begin to single out an individual or a group? What happens when users start to shame and humiliate that individual or group? This is called cyberbullying and we must learn, as a society, how to deal with and prevent it.
Before we can even begin to tackle the issue of cyberbullying, we have to understand what it is and where it came from. According to Hinduja and Patchin (2014), the term cyberbullying can be defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices.” This term has completely evolved from the prior term, bullying which was simply cyberbullying without the electronic devices. When it was simply bullying, students could escape from the issues that were present. When I was a young boy, I was very shy and timid. When I was in 4th grade, I faced an instance of bullying in school and on the school bus. I loved going to the gym during my classes rotation until I began to be repeatedly bullied by a group of boys that through basketballs at me on multiple occasions. Despite telling the coach and teacher numerous times, only one other student stood up for me. My father stepped in and discussed the issue with administration. Ultimately the resolution came down to me simply skipping out on gym and attending another teachers class during that timeframe. I was able to escape the situation. This issue occurred well before there was social media and cyberbullying. The major issue with cyberbullying is that it can’t be escaped so easily.
Since cyberbullying occurs online, and often in social media, online gaming, and through text messaging (stopbullying.gov, n.d.), the bullying doesn’t simply disappear. Thanks to students using electronic devices regularly, they have easy access to a saved copy of the bullying. Since this kind of bullying is not directly visible, it can be drastically harder to recognize and put a stop to. As educators, we must know how to recognize when a student is being cyberbullied and we must know what to do put an end to the cyberbullying. We must be able to go beyond this and promote awareness of cyberbullying with the hopes that we can prevent the bullying before it even begins.
The following is a list of resources that I have found to be useful for promoting the awareness of cyberbullying:
References
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2014). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: preventing and responding to cyberbullying (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Stopbullying.gov. (n.d.). Kids on Social Media and Gaming. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/kids-on-social-media-and-gaming/index.html