An interdisciplinary understanding of cyber victimization and novel concepts such as cyberbullying through the perspective of social scientists.

Introduction

Despite what the common phrase says, words can sometimes hurt more than sticks and stones given the situation that they are presented in. An online environment is nothing short of a greenhouse in which the worst kinds of people are given the opportunity to flourish, one in which anonymity is often abused, where actions rarely receive equal consequences. What this means is that anyone, targeted or randomly selected, can receive the blow that these types of people are willing to deliver, whether it be a single comment from a troll or hater to a repeated attack designed to break the victim down. Cyberbullying is one of many examples of attacks delivered daily online, where one person, random or otherwise, is on the receiving end of a barrage of hatred that has the potential to leave them broken.

Cyberbullying Observation and Example

The National Crime Victimization Survey in 2017 reported that of students within the middle to high school age demographic, 15% of those who experienced bullying experienced it on a digital scale (StopBullying, 2021). This number, while seeming miniscule compared to the large percentage of in person bullying, is vast when you consider the possibility that the harassment continued for long periods of time without solution. While physical bullying can be examined based on what type of harassment is being received, the density of cyberbullying is often too complex to truly describe. These attacks exist everywhere within a digital environment, from comments on social media pages, to messages sent directly to the victim through direct messaging, text messaging, or even email. Cyberbullying can extend to campaigns that rival political smear profiles, where one candidate produces videos painting their opponent in a negative light. The complexity of these attacks is only possible because of the creativity that the internet both allows and encourages.

In 2016, Brandy Vela, an eighteen-year-old high school student was driven to suicide over repeated harassment she received online from anonymous peers suspected to be her age. Following her death, her parents would go onto describe the harassment she was receiving in detail, stating that those committed to cyberbullying her would go as far as to sign her up for dating websites promising free sex (CBS, 2017). This story does not serve as a depiction of what cyberbullying is but shows what bullying in general has become. Before social media and the internet, bullying could often be solved by outing the bully in question and proceeding with solving the conflict. Often due to the anonymity of the internet, cyberbullying goes ignored due to the difficulty in discovering who is the one targeting harassment. In the case of Brandy Vela, her mother, Jacqueline, said “we have lots of incident reports, and they always say the same thing: They can’t do anything about it.” (CBS, 2017).

Why do Younger People Cyberbully?

Cyberbullying when truly broken down has the potential to affect everyone, nobody is truly safe so long as someone out there is willing to target others. These victims can range from younger children to college students, to even employees in their 40s, the only connecting factor is that someone out there decided to make them their victim. Many questions be asked when examining cyberbullying, such as if race plays a role into some cases, how it affects the victims long term, to simply why do younger people cyberbully each other? Larisa McLoughlin sought to answer the last question throughout her article titled: How cyberbullies overtly and covertly target their victims. Throughout this article she explores the means at which cyberbullying is achieved within a digital space, from the types of cyberbullying to the link between deviance and victimization. Deviance among younger age demographics exists in situations where the subject in question is looking to rebel, or to break away from the molds that society has placed onto them. Those seeking whatever it is they hope to gain in attacking someone can seemingly accomplish this in a conflict free environment, where the victim is often not willing to reply or even react to what they are doing. Younger generations feel as if their anonymity online gives them the abilities to act freely and feel less guilty due to not having to look their victim in the eyes as they say hurtful things (McLoughlin, 2021).

How Technology Perception Affects Cyberbullying

In answering in depth questions regarding why and who is cyberbullied, Roderick Graham in: Race, bullying, and intimate partner violence, connected technology itself to demographics that have the potential to experience cyberbullying. Evidence here suggests in some circumstances victims are chosen not at random but through highly specified criteria. Black youth, specifically, are more willing to embrace technology as a means of communication than other cultures, therefore the lines drawn between victims and cyberbullying rests not with choosing a particular group, but with those that are using technology the most. Graham also discusses the connection between groups that are more open to technology and intimate partner relationships, with black males as the example, they are statistically more comfortable with operating relationships through technology, something that could lead to negative emotions and actions if something were to happen within that relationship (Graham, 2021). This topic is further explored by Ellen Selkie in her article titled: Cyberbullying: a virtual menace takes its toll on college students, in which connections to Graham’s analysis can be made. By examining age groups that experience an open mindset to technology, those enrolled in a university are at the top. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, online access throughout this demographic is at an all-time high, allowing for more possible victims of cyberbullying. Selkie moves through data surrounding the female experience with cyberbullying, how at some universities such as the University of Washington, a fourth of their students had experienced cyberbullying, with 27% of the female population present experiencing similar experiences. She links the mental toll of experiences like cyberbullying to the long-lasting affect it has on the victim, specifically with how it could lead to long term depression and negative self-image (Selkie, 2019). Situations such as these exist not within the younger mindset of deviance and control but more within the anonymity of the internet and access to just about anyone, with connection to Graham’s article, one could assume that college students experience this the most due to their always-on internet mindset.

Other Victims of Cyberbullying

Within the digital environment however, nobody is safe from harassment and even cyberbullying. So far younger age groups have been discussed, followed by young adults within a college environment, but unfortunately victim demographics do not end there. Noel Purdy in: cyberbullying by parents and pupils takes toll on teachers, discusses how in some situations even teachers experience levels of cyberbullying, often times from both the students they teach, and the parents that raised them. Purdy describes that the cause of this often leads to an examination in how the facilities handle cyberbullying in general, and how in most instances only the students are covered. Through message boards within the class to outside conversations, students and pupils open their criticism of teachers up to include more harassment that critique. Websites like ratemyprofessor.com experience this wholesale with students who experienced a negative year with a teacher going as far as to slander and attack them and their reputation for others to see. Students are not the only group contributing however, parents too often result in bashing teachers for how they handle situations involving their students, conversations that when added up leave the teacher distraught, like a student’s experience with cyberbullying would (Purdy, 2021). Teachers are not the only adults experiencing this however as employees too suffer attacks from both superiors as well as those that they are looking after. Natalia D’Souza in: What employers need to do to protect workers from cyberbullying, explores the affect that patient comments leave on nurses, another situation only worsened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. D’Souza examines cyberbullying experienced by employees, specifically nurses, and how it is handled by employers within a work setting. She says that within a workplace setting, cyberbullying is hard to pin down because “there is no consensus on how to define it,” often with employers having to simply ignore the claims due to the difficulty in stopping them. Nurses, similarly to college students, note that it is difficult to ignore the comments as they are often used to attack the actual work that they are doing, with some instances leaving some to wonder how it will affect their reputation and career as a whole. Like numerous other situations, the solution is not as clear due to the difficulty in stopping online comments. Even at times when the comments border on slanderous, it is both not worth the time or effort to track down one person when there is only so much time throughout the day. D’Souza defines steps to prevent cyberbullying as having communication between the employees and educating them on how to prevent and/or ignore the attacks themselves, something that in the moment will not help (D’Souza, 2021).

Closing Thoughts

Cyberbullying does not select victims or target anyone, it is unlike other forms of harassment or crime in which some groups are more easily victimized, or how some groups are easier to target, it all comes down to the random selection of who will be on the receiving ends of the comments. While some groups such as those who are more approachable to technology experience cyberbullying more, the display of victimization still shows that anyone could be targeted, from youth to young adults, to even adults working for salaries. Cyberbullying is talked about so severely not because of how dangerous it is, but because of how difficult it is to stop. Cyberbullying is something that will exist for as long as the internet allows others to communicate to each other, fueled by anonymous behavior and the desire to insight conflict. Due to this, cyberbullying needs to be addressed nationally, with efforts made to educate the masses on what it is, and how it can target anyone.

References

CBS. (2017, February 7). Cyberbullying Pushed Texas Teen to Commit Suicide, Family Says. CBS News. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyberbullying-pushed-texas-teen-commit-suicide-family/.

D’Souza, N. (2021, May 11). What Employers Need to do to Protect Workers from Cyberbullying. The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/what-employers-need-to-do-to-protect-workers-from-cyberbullying-87499.

Graham, R. (2021, February 1). Race, Cyberbullying and Intimate Partner Violence. The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/race-cyberbullying-and-intimate-partner-violence-79627.

McLoughlin, L. (2021, August 17). How Cyberbullies Overtly and Covertly Target Their Victims. The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/how-cyberbullies-overtly-and-covertly-target-their-victims-90448.

Purdy, N. (2021, October 18). Cyberbullying by Parents and Pupils Takes Toll on Teachers. The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/cyberbullying-by-parents-and-pupils-takes-toll-on-teachers-25679.

Selkie, E. (2019, October 31). Cyberbullying: A Virtual Menace Takes its Toll on College Students. The Conversation. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/cyberbullying-a-virtual-menace-takes-its-toll-on-college-students-38357.

What is Cyberbullying? StopBullying.gov. (2021, August 27). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it.