Media Reflection 2: Cyberbullying and Social Media

Garrett Powell
University of Calgary
Word Count: 1746

The world we know and love today, may be a completely different place tomorrow.
This domain we call home is expanding and developing so fast that we cannot keep the
same pace. With the technology that is now available to the average citizen, social
networking has become a significant part of our daily lives. The wide variety of social
media sites available gives more users the ability to get online; therefore the use of these
sites has been steadily increasing. Over the last several years there has been an increase in
usage by all age groups as demonstrated in articles by Lenhart et al. (2011) and Seo et al.
(2013). Teens today have become very comfortable with technology such as mobile
devices, computers, and the internet. An issue that commonly arises amongst the youth in
todays society is cyberbullying. Williamsons (2010) describes it as repeated, unwanted
aggressive behavior over a period of time (p.2). This type of bullying is hard to identify
as it occurs online and may not always be displayed to the public. People are being effect
by this more than we all know, and it is time that people became more aware of this issue.

Online Interactions:
There are many positive factors in the ways that technology interacts with our
everyday lives. We use it to tell time, for directions and the most popular, to keep up with
the lives of our friends. The general census about online interactions seems to be a good
one. For example Seo et al. (2013) found that most teens generally have a positive
experience online, finding a sense of social inclusion through sharing information in the
digital sphere (p.3). Much like in an article by Lenhert et al. their research found that
69% of social media using teens think that people are kind online, and 85% of adults

thought the same, while only 5% of people questioned that people were behaving in a
negative way online. Even though this is a minuscule percentile or people behaving in a
negative way, when compared to the amount of people that have access to these sites it is
still a very large number.

With the extensive cellular data networks, and easy accessible internet available
today we are able to constantly check our social media feeds. Whether it be our
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr etc., people are checking in multiple times a day.
We are always interested, and need to know what is going on with all of our peers.
Some people, however, are taking advantage of this accessibility and acting in a deviant
manner. Cyberbullying is evolving as fast as the social media sites are; the bullies
continue to find ways to adapt to the new sites, and privacy settings. Even though we are
trying to safeguard ourselves from spam, and this type of behavior that exists online, it
will always be difficult to completely block out the data we do not want to see.

On these sites we have a large group of friends/followers, some which we know,

some that we wish to get to know, and then the ones we have never even met. The things
we say and share with these people are frequently a rough interpretation of what our lives
really are. We have become obsessed with portraying to our online subscribers a perfect
life. A like, a share, a follow, a form of simple recognition online seems to give us some
sense of satisfaction, so much so that we continue to promote our lifestyles in this manner
to the world. The likes, the shares etc. are good when we wish for them to be on our

posts. From my observations cyberbullying happens most frequently when people post
things about us that we did not give consent to, and we really do not want to see online.
This is when the likes begin to hurt us instead of benefit us. It tends to feel like the entire
internet is ganging up on you when a negative post about yourself is receiving lots of
online attention.

The Bullies
Several studies including ones by Felix (2008), Williamsons (2010) and Whittake &
Kowalski (2014) found that females are dominating the social media presence, as well as
having the most negative assessment of online interactions. I am positive that we have all
seen this, that teenage girls are fairly cruel when it comes to the whole idea of popularity
throughout the years of adolescence. With the advanced technology available they are
becoming more devious, as it is easier when you are hiding behind the screen of your
device to have the courage to say many things people would not be able to face-to-face.
This creates a lower risk of getting physically or emotional hurt. Boys and girls often try
to push others out of being social included in an attempt to move up in the social
hierarchy of adolescence.

This issue was prevalent at my high school, I watched two friends of mine be
bullied online, and end up changing schools. This was for the very reason mentioned
previously with the ability to hide behind a screen, almost anything could be said. The
cyberbullying that took place here consisted of constant degrading of the girls through

social media; other students at our school did this bullying. After speaking with the two
girls recently it became apparent that it started out with only one or two people posting
negative things, and saying mean things to them online. Throughout their high school
years it seemed that the group grew from two, to ten, then to what seemed to be like the
majority of our grade. There were groups formed on Facebook with demeaning names,
and streams of comments about pictures on various sites that would make anyone feel
terrible about themselves. At the time, all of this seemed as though they were playful
jokes, and that none of it really mattered. As when we scroll through our feeds, a lot of
the time it is a quick browse just to check in, and we think nothing of the comments being
said online. I still remain great friends with the two girls who left my high school and I
do not understand why anyone would of done something like this. Thankfully both of
them have gotten over the events that occurred, and now are very involved with an antibullying organization called, Project Orange (which one of them actually started).

Blocking Out the Bullies

Cyberbullying is affecting more and more teenagers every day. Whittaker &
Kowalski (2014) state Online communication no longer has to be direct and somewhat
private, as it was with instant messaging. It can now be indirect and very public (para
21). This is much like the groups created at my high school, and some of the posts that
were made. Even though things are indirectly posted, a lot of the time it is easy to see
who it is meant to be hurt. The events I witnessed were mostly public, however, I do not
believe this is how most of cyberbullying takes place. I have discussed the issue of

privacy with several peers and many said that they have their family members and other
people of importance blocked so that they cannot see certain posts. All social media sites
have fairly extensive privacy settings that allow us, and the bullies to block out people
who will see our posts and the abuse that takes place online. An article by Whittaker &
Kowalski (2014), supports my findings as it states that 62% of teens who have social
media profiles say the profile they use most often is set to be private so that only friends
can see the content they post, 19% can see some version of their profile, and only 17%
say their profile is completely available to the public (p.7). This shows us that much of
cyberbullying takes place hidden away from the people who will try to stop it. Society is
becoming more aware of the issue known as cyberbullying and finding new ways to stop
it. The most common method of dealing with a cyberbully seems to be by blocking them
from contacting you online and reporting them for abuse. However, Williamsons (2010)
found that the response from high school teens, as well as the average bystander, is to do
nothing. Most of the time we cannot truly see the damage that may be being caused by a
simple comment or post online. We see these things as jokes, and friends messing around,
but frequently it goes much deeper.

Conclusion
It is fantastic to see the comfortability that the youth has online, and that the
majority of people are having positive experiences with social media sites as supported
by Seo et al. (2013) and Lenhart et al (2011). Even younger children are becoming more
comfortable with online usage every year. Children as young as ten now have their own

cellular devices, webpages, and social media accounts; More than half of children have
used an online social network by the age of ten (Anonymous 2014). For people in the
later years of adolescence, dealing with a bully may be less difficult; from being more
mature older teens may have the courage to talk to someone, block the bully, or handle
the situation on their own. Now cyberbullying has the potential to reach an even younger
population, and this scares me. From being a first hand witness to some forms of
cyberbullying I believe this is an issue that needs to be addressed more seriously by our
society.

Works Cited

Anonymous. (2014). 59% of 10-year-old children have used social media network, study
shows. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/59-of-10-year-old-childrenhave-used-social-media-network-study-shows.1391672382
Hyunjin Seo, Brian Huston, Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, Emily J Kennedy, & Alexandra B
Inglish. (2013). Teens Social Media Use and Collective Action, 16. Retrieved
from
http://nms.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/content/16/6/883.full.pdf+html
Kathie Felix. (2008). Net Watch - Net News - Pew/ American Life Project Report.
Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ps/retrieve.do?
retrieveFormat=PDF_FROM_CALLISTO&accesslevel=FULLTEXT&inPS=true
&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=ucalgary&tabID=&workId=PI-0QLG-2008M-A00-IDSI-2.JPG&docId=GALE
%7CA176902071&callistoContentSet=PER&isAcrobatAvailable=false
Lenhart, A., Madden, M., Smith, A., Purcell, K., Zickuhr, K., & Rainie, L. (2011). Teens,
Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites: How American Teens Navigate the
New World of Digital Citizenship. Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?q=social+media%2c+issues
%2c+teens&id=ED537516

Whittaker, E., & Kowalski, R. M. (2015). Cyberbullying Via Social Media. Journal of
School Violence, 14(1), 1129. http://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2014.949377
Williamson, R. (2010). Cyberbullying. Education Partnerships, Inc. Retrieved from
http://eric.ed.gov/?q=%22social+media%22+%22teens%22+%22bullying
%22&id=ED538551