For decades, physical bullying has been a consistent problem for young people attending school. Yet the rapid growth of the Internet has redefined how students pick on one another. This is a sample essay written about the tragedies that have occurred as a result of cyber bullying in the last several years, as well as how school administrators, students, and parents can best go about protecting their loved ones from these attacks in the future. If you are interested in purchasing a custom essay sample on this topic (or any other), give us a call or simply check out some of our writing services today! You can be sure that our terrific writers will craft something of genuine quality. This is only a glimpse of what Ultius writers can do with APA style.

Social Media Bullying: Modern Warfare

Social media has become a well-known pastime of young individuals today. Websites that allow interactions on a social basis are usually considered social media sites. These forms of media offer individuals a portal for entertainment, communication and general social development. It is however, important that parents monitor what is happening on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other virtual worlds that provide avenues of entertainment and social contact via the Internet. With the onslaught of cyber bullying, it can only be dealt with by continuous monitoring by parents and a general ascertaining by Congress to curtail it through the passage of laws specifically combating it head on.

Prospective problems such as cyber bullying, sexting and inappropriate behavior can occur without the appropriate monitoring by parents and the lack of regulation associated with today's youth and young individuals. A lack of self-regulation and potential susceptibility to peer pressure, many young individuals today are at risk of succumbing to social media and the hazards that come along with it. A significant portion of individuals today are digitally prone to head towards technological advances such as social media as a form of interaction (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011).  

Cyberculture has become second nature in society. It has become the groundwork for much of the multicultural understanding. Web-based information is what people now turn to for speed, convenience, and overall depth. The internet has a pivotal impact on society today and is a rich subject for sociology writing. The availability of information has been enhanced due to updates in technology and because of this a sweeping progression of how people see each other and the world has taken on a direction of its own ("Cyberculture: Society, Culture, and the Internet," 2012). The Internet has become an entryway into how people understand events ranging from diseases such as diabetes to issues such as social media bullying.

The Emergence of Bullying Online

Bullying happens normally in the physical world, but has found its way into cyberspace. It often begins in primary school but has far reaching aspects into high school and beyond. Across a national sample of students surveyed from grades 4 through 12, 38% of students stated that they had been bullied and 32% stated that they had bullied or were bullying others. Bullying, by designation is recognized as a national health issue by the White House, by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association. Bullying exhibits itself in many different forms and the overall undercurrent in all bullying incidents whether in the physical world or in cyberspace is the perception of differences in individuals that range from characteristics such as race, gender, physical appearance, sexuality and economic status (Xu et al, n.d.).

Cyber bullying differs from the more conventional forms as it can occur at any time and through a vast amount of on the spot circulation mediums such as emails, images, texts and videos. The perpetrator can remain anonymous behind a computer as many social media sites allow individuals to make up fake user ids and many bullies tend to give false information upon registering on many social media platforms. The most common form of cyber bulling is through messages on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging ("Cyber-Bullying," 2012). The practice of cyber bullying on platforms such as these is not solely restricted to children and young adults, but to adults as well when examined through the lens of social media bullying. To ascertain further discourse on social media bullying, three specific mediums were examined: a video on social media bullying that dealt primarily with a woman named Amanda Todd who was bullied and subsequently took her life; a blog that handles cyber bullying and how to deal with it with references to Amanda Todd, and an audio podcast that spoke on bullying in school mostly, but also on social media bullying as well. 

The 2012 YouTube video, "Cyber Bullying Awareness ~ RIP Amanda Todd," provided insight on social media bullying and was intently focused on Amanda Todd, a young woman, who took her life due to be being bullied on social media. It addressed all aspects of social media bullying and provided insight into the trends that seem to be apparent on Facebook and Twitter. The two women presented information about the advancement of technology and how it has become hazardous and nasty because individuals can get away with it. 

The video reinforced how social media websites should provide an avenue in stopping bullying from happening and ceasing it from happening once a person such as Amanda Todd takes their own life. Amanda Todd was a young woman who was cyber bullied who recently took her own life. It also provided a look into criminal charges that need to be charged to those who are taking part in harassment on social media and the consequences that may result from it. The video did not provide any statistical information about social media bullying. It was more a rally for it to stop by two women who felt bad about what happened with Amanda Todd. 

One blog by the Cyber Bullying Research Center discussed the impact of social media bullying. It also discussed Amanda Todd and what happened with her. The blogger, Justin Patchin, talked about how many individuals feel that they cannot handle the impact of being bullied on social media and the stress related to it. Social media bullying makes people feel helpless and increases the risk of individuals' who are being bullied to feel as if they will be the talk of the school or town. Patchin concluded by asking those who feel they are being bullied on social media for any reason to ask for help and finds someone they can trust to talk to.

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Is Cyber Bullying the Worst Form of Bullying?

A podcast by The Prevention Researcher, discussed the impact of harassment in school and family violence and mentioned harassment overall. The podcast was an interview with Dr. Michael Green, who provides consultation services regarding youth predominantly. Greene defines the general consensus of bullying as: “a form of aggression; a power balance in characteristics that is important to both the victim and the bully; and that the process is repeated more than once," ("#008 Relational Aggression Among Youth: An Interview with Michael Greene," 2012). The podcast did not mention Amanda Todd as its sole focus within the context of bullying, but dealt with bullying in general, at both the school and social media platform.

Within the United States, there are currently a number of legislative pieces that have been directed at social media bullying given its rise in number over the last few years. Maryland, Missouri, New York and Rhode Island have all specifically introduced legislation in 2007 sought to curtail digital harassment. The following year, California took cyber bullying head on when they passed one of the first laws in the country that dealt direct with cyber bullying. The other states had only pursued legislation (McDermott, 2007). Research has suggested that awareness of it is the most essential element of social media bullying in addition to legislative recourse in handling the ongoing problem.

Bullying for the most part has been a continual problem in society. The problem has been exacerbated by social media. While social media is an excellent playground for ideas, musings and thoughts, the playground has become a breeding ground for angst, disgust and a cacophony of hate. It's very clear that cyber bullying is one of many unintended consequences of social networking today. The government needs to continue to understand the importance of confronting the problem of cyber bullying head on, before it continues and other issues result.  Parents need to educate their children and young adults on safer ways to use social media platforms in order to potentially avoid the blitz that is social media bullying.

For more research related to cyber bullying, click here to read an annotated bibliography on bullying and explore further research.

References

Cyber-Bullying. (2012, July 18). Social Networking. Retrieved from http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/cyberbullying.html.

Dear Sybersue. (2012, Oct 15). "Cyber Bullying Awareness ~ RIP Amanda Todd" [Video file]. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIWBRGwCXkQ.

Cyberculture: Society, Culture, and the Internet. Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce. 2002. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cyberculture-society-culture-and-internet.

McDermott, K. (2007, December 20). Bill targets adults who cyberbully. News. Retrieved from http://www.pantagraph.com/news/bill-targets-adults-whocyberbully/article_6ade6d44-a162-54d1-9be0-88bebf181f6d.html.

O'Keeffe, G. S., Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011, April 1). The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families [Clinical Report]. Retrieved from The American Academy of Pediatrics http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.

Patchin, J. W. (2012, October 30). Amanda Todd, Cyberbullying, and Suicide [Blog post]. Retrieved from Cyberbullying Research Center http://cyberbullying.us/blog/.

Xu, J.; Jun, K.; Zhu, X.; Bellmore, A (n.d.). Learning from Bullying Traces in Social Media [PDF]. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin-Madison website: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jerryzhu/pub/naaclhlt2012.pdf.

#008 Relational Aggression Among Youth: An Interview with Michael Greene [Audio podcast]. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.tpronline.org/podcast.cfm/bullying.