Negative Consequences Of Cyber Bullying

A new form of bullying, known as cyberbullying, came into existence in the last decade which derived from the advent of new technologies, and tragic cyberbullying cases have appeared in the news. The term is defined as an act of frequently bullying or harassing someone using electronic means such as mobile phones. Unfortunately, no society is immune to this widespread phenomenon at present, and many teenagers, predominantly students, in my community are likely to fall victim to it. The main purpose of this essay is to discuss two different points of view: negative consequences of cyberbullying and positive results of the Internet.
Firstly, this online harassment is inextricably intertwined with the Internet, so teenage students in my community

For instance, students in my community claim that they have the right to express their opinions without any constraints; nevertheless, this does not allow them to damage others’ reputation by uploading derogatory content: comments, messages, blogs, images, video clips, and so on. Kowalski et al. (2012, p. 167) explain that students tend to make the assumption that they have free will to say whatever they want on the Internet. In my own experience, some culprits feel a lack of empathy for their targets since no physical confrontation is involved, so they become incentivized to jeopardize others; however, it poses catastrophic anxieties to the victimized students, thereby resulting in their poor academic achievement and low self-esteem. Faryadi (2011, p. 25) demonstrates in his research that there is a positive correlation between cyberbullying and academic performance in addition to psychological effects. In other words, if it interferes with students’ study, their chances of performing poorly in school is considerably high. I have met some classmates who could not concentrate on their study and transferred to other schools because they were repeatedly harassed by other students. Hence, we need to educate adolescents about digital citizenship which Ribble, Bailey, and Ross (2004) define as “the norms of behavior with regard to technology use” (p.

For example, the youth of today are equipped with the Internet to effect constructive political changes and raise awareness about the deteriorating environment with their own creativity (Kowalski et al., 2012, p. 17). Recently, I created a Facebook page to mention the destructive flooding in Burma, and afterwards other people cooperated, thus raising awareness about needy flood victims. Furthermore, many teenagers rely on social media and networking sites to make friends and communicate with each other. Of the 21 colleagues whom I interviewed to learn about the prevalence of these networking sites in my community, 95% of the participants said that they had one social networking account such as Facebook, while 60% of them reported having been harassed or witnessed a cybervictim (ACU students, personal communication, August 19, 2015). Nevertheless, there is a likelihood that the Internet usage among students will increase exponentially, and we must take into careful consideration how it helps them with their study, creativity and