To have a better understanding of cyberbullying, the meaning of it is when someone harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another person online while using cell phones or other electronic devices. The problem with this is that it can occur maybe at 2 in the morning, in the middle of the night, or during class hours. People see this happen on Youtube comments, on Instagram photos, Twitter, and Facebook as well. The common age group that this is mostly happening to is preteens and teens, and it often makes them feel so helpless. There's very minimal evidence that cyberbullying is a good thing, but it does have some upsides, like how it lets the victim learn how to defend themselves in their everyday lives. There’s more downsides to cyberbullying, like how it can make a person suicidal. But one thing that makes the whole situation worse is that people ignore it. Surveys have been saying that cyberbullying has been ignored by people who have seen it happen because it’s easier to not get involved into anything related to it.
Only a handful of preteens and teens are capable of saying their problems. A group of young people were surveyed on cyberbullying and this is what they said. “Of the young people who reported cyberbullying incidents against them, one third of them reported that their bullies issued online threats” (Cyberbullying Statistics 2015, bullet 3). By the statistics of this, it means that only 33 percent of the people they surveyed/tested actually reported and said something about the bully issuing online threats. Teens are hard to work with, and it starts even on the younger side. Children are very capable of lying about little things like how they didn’t eat the last piece of pizza or how they feel sick when really it was just an excuse to not go to school. It’s like that old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” because young people can lie too, and it’s just natural. It proves how us young people are afraid of saying the truth and opening up with our problems.
Teens are often uncomfortable telling their parents and other adults their personal problems. “More than half of young people surveyed say that they never confide in their parents when cyberbullying happens to them” (Cyberbullying Statistics 2015, bullet 5). With the statistics for this, it means that they haven’t told their parents about them being cyberbullied. It’s typical for teens not to have a decent conversation with their parents mainly because they think it “isn’t necessary” or “it’s not cool.” More so, if it’s something personal to talk about, it’s even harder to say to your parents because you know that they’ll scold you and ground you for doing such a thing. But it really helps to get it out of your system, and you’d feel relieved. It’s like when you get home from school or work and you start letting loose and getting comfortable at home. It’s a feeling all of us want to have, and it’ll happen if you just say all your problems and trust in the people you’re telling them to.
Like what was said in the beginning, the ones who were surveyed and has seen cyberbullying occur hasn’t done anything about it and ignored the problem. “An astounding 95 percent of teens who witnessed bullying on social media report that others, like them, have ignored the behavior” (Cyberbullying Statistics 2015, bullet 4). It’s easier to ignore something rather than to be involved in it, which is what most of us teens do to stay away from trouble. It’s like being peer pressured into doing something horrible. You can choose to ignore it rather than get yourself into something you’ll regret in the future. Ignoring the problem can also make it worse, since people will continue to cyberbully others. Cyberbullying is something that we can’t control, because there’s way too many people doing it at the same time that it’s hard to keep up with.
So there’s no actual way for cyberbullying to stop, but we can try to prevent it from happening, by teaching others the consequences of it after it’s been done. Overall this problem is one of the hardest things to solve, since there’s way too many people involved in it. We’ve all experienced cyberbullying at least once in our life, and it’s hard to ignore. If we keep ignoring the problem, it’ll only get bigger. “One of the most crucial things for parents to do is talk to their teens about the consequences of bullying” (How to Prevent Cyber Bullying, par. 1) This is an important topic, and it’s because cyberbullying affects way too many teens, that it’s such a big problem.
Works Cited
Franklin White. Cyber Bullying Statistics. keyloggers.mobi/cyber-bullying-statistics. Keylogger. July 30, 2016. August 12, 2016.
Justin W. Patchin. 2015 Cyberbullying Data. cyberbullying.org/2015-data. Cyberbullying Research Center. May 1, 2015. August 12, 2016.
Pros and Cons of Cyberbullying. healthresearchfunding.org/pros-cons-cyber-bullying. Health Research Funding. March 16, 2014. August 12, 2016.
Statistic Brain. Cyberbullying/Bullying Statistics. statisticbrain.com/cyber-bullying-statistics. Statistic Brain Research Institute. February 19, 2016. August 12, 2016.
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