CYBERBULLYING VRS TRADITIONAL BULLYING
How different is bullying on the internet from our every day traditional bullying?
Society tends to give more attention to traditional bullying and overlook cyber bullying which makes it a problem for victims to come out and be themselves.
In traditional bullying, you’re usually working with a bully, victim, or bystander, but that’s not the case in cyberbullying.
cyberbullying is rarely pre-meditated unlike traditional bullying, where the bully plans his or her line of attack. In many cases, cyberbullying is done impulsively online through the internet or social media which is not planned out like in traditional bullying where the bully pre-meditates the next attack. Also, traditional bullying has the following characteristics that may not be present in cyberbullying cases:
• A need for power and control
• Proactively targeting the victim
• Aggression
Just imagine scrolling through the internet and you come across degrading posts ( photos) of yourself with a fake account, following the post are negative comments from people you don’t know. The question now is how do you clear your name to people you don’t even know? How do you also face the ones you know without feeling embarrassed? People play too much on the internet that, they don’t strike a balance between jokes and disrespect and since they can’t see the person’s reaction to what they post or text they don’t realize if when they’ve gone too far.
Therefore It’s an easier way to bully because unlike traditional bullying, it doesn’t involve face-to-face interaction, people take advantage of the internet and do things they wouldn’t do to a person’s face. Having fun on the internet comes with responsibility, exercise caution when joking, don’t crack jokes at the expensive of another person’s feelings.
By: Mavis Fordjour