The article I chose to review was from The Journal of Cybersecurity intelligence and Cybercrime called Cyberbullying during COVID-19 Pandemic: Relation to Perceived Social Isolation among college and university students, by Nadya S. Neuhaeusler, M.S, University of Michigan-Dearborn. This article researched how the increase in technology use during the COVID-19 global pandemic affected the lives of young adults around the world as they began to Rely heavily on social media during a period of self-quarantine. As many may know during this worldwide pandemic most countries were forced to do everything from home such as work and school. This article spotlights the effects on young adults during this time and weather cyberbullying was a result of this change or if it was social isolation that influenced certain behaviors. Although technology with emphasis on social media skyrocketed during the pandemic there is no direct correlation between the two. This article used correlational analysis, which is used to determine whether there is a relationship between two variables which was conducted in this article through descriptive statistics and Bivariate statistics. The information used came from several countries such as the US, Finland, Spain, and South Korea which did a survey with individuals between 15-25 yrs. old, as this was the age group affected the most, as most are avid social media users. I observed several concepts in this article one of which is Determinism, as stated in the article, according to Boursier et al. (2020), “lockdowns induce feelings of loneliness, prompting individuals to turn to social media for a sense of social belonging, with the goal of bridging the gap between desired and actual social interactions” (as cited in Lisitsa et al., 2020; Mikkola et al., 2020)..With individuals having to have a sense of belonging it in tune had an impact on their behavior towards others on social media during this time which could have led to cyber bullying. Next concept that I identified was, Parsimony In relation to the “Self-Control Theory”. Self-control goes hand in hand with loneliness as these feelings could birth impulsive behaviors that may potentially come from low self-esteem and seeking validation from others. According to the article, “There is a recognized need for early prevention strategies targeting cyberbullying experiences in adolescence, as well as further research to understand the prevalence rates amidst increased online presence during the COVID-19 pandemic (Neuhaeusler, 2024)”. Early prevention strategies could have a great impact on this topic, putting age restrictions on social media and, limiting the use, as these could help adolescents and young adults cope better with changes other than social media. The overall contribution of this study will help society in a way that they will implement better strategies for young adults going through a big change such as the pandemic as it can have a strain on mental health. In conclusion, cyber bullying and social isolation have been possibly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, due to an increase in technology use with emphasis on social media. Limiting the use and setting restrictions for teenagers could have a better impact on how they react to changes in their lives.

References

Neuhaeusler, N. S. (2024). Cyberbullying during COVID-19 pandemic: Relation to perceived
social isolation among college and university students . International Journal of Cybersecurity
Intelligence & Cybercrime, 7(1)
https://vc.bridgew.edu/ijcic/vol7/iss1/3