Bullying at Its Various Levels: Cyber Bullying - Research Paper Example

June 11, Introduction According to psychology today, bullying can be defined as a “distinctive pattern of deliberately harming and humiliating others” (Psychology Today). However, this is in many ways a clinical definition. To many, who have been bullied taken part in the bullying, it is more than just a pattern; it can be culture, a lifestyle and even an addiction. However, it does not have to be a pattern, nor does it needs to be distinctive. Indeed many will be victims of bullying without awareness of the fact. A similar scenario can be true of the bullies as well. This paper will discuss bullying at its various levels and types and the modern forms of bullying namely, cyber bullying. It will attempt to discover the causes and effect these activities have on the minds and live of the bullied sometimes the bullied. Background A common motif in high school level movies is the instance of a bully who beats up other kids targeting a smaller and inevitably brighter kid. The latter takes the bullying for sometime then gets fed up and stands up to the often twice as big antagonist. They are involved in a fight and the underdog ultimately wins the fight ending the bully’s reign of terror and living happily ever after. For instance, bullies are not always big although it helps and being bullied does not mean that one is beaten up. Traditionally that has been viewed to be the most dominant king of bullying. This has been proven deficient box in which to hold all the many kinds. Bullies use other methods to achieve their ends, apart from inflicting pain and emotional suffering; it also humiliates the victims reducing their sense of self worth. Most of the victims of bullying are often students who are different by virtue of appearance academic achievement, and possibly alternative lifestyles among other things as a result of their achievements they may not have many friends, making them soft victims (Theravive). The popular students with lesser academic aptitude often intimidate the achievers with threats of violence and isolation. The former often referred to geeks are victims of pranks that could range from harmless to cruel. They are embarrassed, beaten or even forced to do homework and write papers for others. Other groups who are often victimized are minorities. In this case, it can mean a white kid in a place where majority are; African Americans, or Hispanics and vice versa. In such a case, the discrimination stems from racial discrimination or simply a desire to dominate or hurt others just because it can be done. This malice is not exclusive to adults, children have been found to equally capable of such sentiment. Cyber bullying Cyber bullying refers to repeated harassment, mistreatment of making fun of someone using mobile phones or other electronic devices that allow one to access cyberspace (Cyber bullying Research Center). While bullying has traditionally chiefly taken place in, the school rooms, parks and residential areas, the developments in ICT have given bullied a new platform to “ply their trade” the Internet. While it may seem relatively harmless, since one assumes if someone is bullying you, just unfriendly them or avoid the pages they frequent. The dynamics of bullying are more complicated than that, for instance, on social networking sites bullying happens in terms of sending insulting messages threats and humiliation by posting insulting pictures online. While one may simply block someone threatening or abusing them, they do not have to be present for them to be humiliated. Another instance could be if someone posts embarrassing picture of their victim online whether the victim sees them, not is immaterial since the latter friend will view them, and this is the intention of the bully. It takes many other faces such as when someone impersonates another rand creates a false page. Herein they post personal information of pictures with the motive of hurting and embarrassing them. Sometimes one can bully without knowing say by consistently committing in terms the victim considers harsh or cruel without being aware. The victim may feel ashamed but not say hence suffer in silence. Another instance of cyber bullying is when people consistently hack ones account and deletes their contact or messages to spite them. Posting of racial comments on the Internet and the use of social networks to promote racial and other discriminative agenda is also employed often-targeting minorities and celebrities. In the latter, it can translate into cyber stalking. Sometimes, cyber bullying can translate it to more physical, and the bullies can get bored of just harassing people and decide to do something about it. This will result into people being preyed on the net with the targets often being young children targeted by older “predators” intending to abuse them emotionally or sexually. Cases of people being lured over the Internet and assaulted as aforementioned have become more common with time. Cyber bullying also creates an easy avenue for victims who may want to lash back. They do this by bullying someone who may have done it to them in real life. Bearing in mind that the geeks who are bullied in schools are said to be proficient with computers which ergo the name geeks. They often use this avenue to humiliate their antagonists. Being bullied often has lifelong effects on the victim, it is possible for them to develop bullying tendencies and end up bullying others in the future as a form of coping mechanism. Alternatively, they could suffer from loss of self-esteem and this will affect the way they interact with others in posterity. Effect of bullying on bullies The bullies on the other hand, often do it for a variety of reasons. Some are just reacting to retrospective bullying and as mentioned above may reacting to that by bullying others. Others are abused, say at home by their parents and as a coping mechanism project on their peers (Hollowell). Parenting is indeed a key factor in bullying. It is also likely that many of the bullies come from homes where the parents do not show any concern about their behavior; as a result, they become undisciplined and develop a propensity for bullying others. Ironically, bullying can also have deep-rooted effects often bullies. Some of them do not like doing it, and they hate themselves for it. Others do it to get attention, and feel relevant, possibly because of neglect at home. (Hollowell) This especially are those who do not excel in areas such as academics. One dominant characteristic of bullies is they like putting the blame for their problems on others. (Theravive) This often ends badly when they have to live in an environment where it is impossible to bully people such as if they work in a junior capacity. Since they were used to people terrified of them and intimating others, they may suffer self-esteem issues and end up feeling irrelevant. Conclusion Ultimately, bullying is a social vice that has simply refused to disappear. On the contrary, bullying seems adapt to circumstances and reinvent itself to suit the times. This is especially so in cyber bullying where the vice has gained technological heights. This gives the bully anonymity, and makes them harder to trace. The social implications have proven to have far-reaching effects on both the victim, and aggressor, and it can influence someone. Bearing in mind that bullying often starts from childhood, it can only be solved from this early age. As such, it is the onus of the parents and teachers to ensure they detect if their children are involved and try to fix it. Works cited Cyberbullying Research Center. Research. (2004-2010). Web. June 11, 2012 Psychology today. Bullying. n.d. Web. June 11, 2012 Hollowell, Karen. Causes of School Bullying. ehow. n.d. Web. June 11, 2012 Theravive. The psychology of bullying. n.d. Web. June 11, 2012 Read More