Onsite Bullying Vs Cyber Bullying - Research Paper Example

? Onsite Bullying Vs. Cyber Bullying Introduction As the world has progressed, one can observe evolution of problems as well that have victimized almost every citizen in this world. Bullying is one of such issues that are very common nowadays and affect millions of children as well as adults every year. Particularly, bullying a dilemma in which individuals perform certain violent and/or unethical behavior that results in harmful effects on other individuals. Although bullying does not always involve the purpose of causing harm to other person and may also involve the notion of cracking a joke but it always results in causing embarrassment of an individual and/or individuals in front of others. In this regard, process involving such violent or unethical acts that cause harm or embarrassment to other person is referred as bullying (Macfarlane & McPherson, pp.10-15). It has been an observation that gender, religion, social background, physical appearance, and culture are some of the common aspects that become the reason of bullying for strong individuals resulting in usage of verbal and non-verbal pressures by such individuals. Bullying is not a very simple phenomenon, as it exists in different types and forms that make it easier to handle and prevent. Some of the most common types and forms of bullying are physical bullying, verbal bullying, on-site bullying, and cyber-bullying. For instance, any bullying that results in a physical injury or harm is considered as physical bullying, whereas, any act of bullying that involves passing of verbal comments that cause embarrassment and/or harassment comes under verbal bullying. This form usually involves comments related to physical appearances, color, creed, or race of a person, as well as socio-economic status of the individuals. Although bullying occurs in almost all the social settings where individuals interact with one another, however, schools are the most common places where bullying occurs in all its forms, and thus, students are the easiest preys that become the targets for bullies in the schools while other students witness the incidents as bystanders (McGraw, pp. 9-12). Particularly, this paper will include discussion on two types of bullying that are on-site bullying and cyber bullying. Discussion Analysis of studies has identified bullying as a very devastating issue that affects thousands of students every year globally. For instance, in the year 2009, bullying affected approximately six hundred thousand students in different parts of the world, and “American schools alone have approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million students, who are their victims” (Rooney, pp. 171). According to Mattern (pg. 165), 56% of students in schools admit that they have observed someone bullying an individual in their schools. Moreover, studies have indicated that bullying has become so common that in every eight minutes, a child suffers from the acts of bullying at elementary level that results in adverse effects on his/her life (Lines, pp. 19-20). Unfortunately, these statistics include only those children and/or students that report the acts of bullying to their parents, siblings, or school management, and educators believe that a large number is still missing due to non-reporting of bullying in schools (McGraw, pp. 39-43). All these statistics include all forms of bullying; however, on-site bullying dominates in these reports. Particularly, “on-site bullying usually happens in classrooms, hallways, playground, bathrooms, and school buses. The bullies start with verbal harassment such as teasing before they get physical with their target, and peer abuse is another term given to bullying when it occurs in school” (Sanders & Phye, pp. 159-161). On the other hand, the other form is cyber-bullying, which has become very common after expansion and introduction of internet at every home, and especially after involvement of children in social networking websites, such as Facebook that allows anyone to create an account without any verification, which allows anyone to bully anyone with a fake account and information. Moreover, on-site bullying remains limited to the boundaries of school, school campus, and/or school buses, as well as to the duration of school. On the other hand, advancement in the field of information and technology has resulted in a virtual environment for bullies who find easy targets. This continues even after school hours at home; one of the basic differences between onsite and cyber bullying, as well as more dangerous because adults are usually not there with a child all the time at home. In addition, parents usually give priority to their work that enforces children to spend more time on the internet with known or unknown people giving way to bullying. Furthermore, analysis has indicated that onsite bullying usually requires time and efforts, whereas, with the help of social networking websites and speedy emails, bullies nowadays can easily bully someone sitting from any part of the world that causes upsetting effects on lives of children. One of the most disturbing aspects of cyber bullying is its duration that often goes up to weeks and months, and involvement of a victim up to weeks and months indicates the level of serious effects that bullying causes in the lives of the victim, and which sometimes even results in suicide. Although on-site bullying differs from cyber-bullying, however, research has shown that effects and causes of both onsite and cyber bullying are almost the same. Incapability of an individual is usually one of the most common reasons that bring that person into bullying someone, as bullying allows the person to take the attention away from his/her failures and/or incompetence. Particularly, here, incapability refers to underachievement of students in their academic exams that result in their involvement in bullying individuals who are usually good in academic performance. This reason relates with another cause of onsite or cyber bullying that is jealousy or envy with performing students. In addition, this does not remain limited to academic performance but also relates with socio-economic status of students, as sometimes, poor students bully rich students and vice versa. This variation in the causes of bullying is one of the reasons that every other student has been a part of bullying in the role of a bully, a target, or a bystander. Another important cause of bullying is acquisition of fame, as well as revenge that has been common in cyber bullying, as individuals often get involved in the acts of bullying to attain fame in a group of students, and/or take revenge from an individual who had done something wrong in the past. Interestingly, sometimes, even victims of bullying often becomes the bullies to give lesson to the individuals who had bullied them through cyber bullying as it allows them to ensure their anonymity on the internet (Dixon & Smith, pp. 22-26). As far as effects of bullying are concerned, they are almost the same in both onsite and cyber bullying. In onsite bullying, the incidents happen at the school, this directly affects social development of children, as school is the platform for this development. Unfortunately, bullying in the school or in the school bus somehow enforces the victims to stay away from school or they result in a negative connotation of school in their minds that affects their social development adversely. This adverse effect on social development in context of school is one of the effects that distinguish onsite bullying from cyber bullying, as cyber bullying happens outside the school as well. Besides, reports have indicated that both forms of bullying enforce victims to get involved in stress and depression, and in absence of school and parental supports, victims often find themselves into drinking, smoking, drugs, and sometimes, even suicidal attempts (Kenneth, pp. 31-35). Poor academic performance is another common effect of bullying as even highly performing students often start getting worse grades due to their lack of confidence in their abilities that results in their low self-esteem. Low self-esteem also causes reluctance of victims to participate in any social events, and reluctance in even attending the school due to their insecurity and relationship of school with their bad memories. Sometimes, victims often retaliate in response to the acts of bullying in which, bullies often get injured due to fights in case of onsite bullying, whereas in cyber-bullying, victims sometimes take revenge from other people or try to trace the bully by getting into acts of hacking (Kenneth, pp. 31-35). Another common effect of bullying, especially onsite bullying is guilt in bystanders, as they often want to do something for the victims but they cannot do anything to avoid bullying on themselves. Although both onsite bullying and cyber bullying have become very common in today’s educational settings and at home, however, they are still very solvable and one needs to take preventive and responsible measures to avoid devastating effects of bullying that have already affected millions of children and adults worldwide (Sanders & Phye, pp. 159-161). In this regard, it is very imperative for school management, teachers, and parents to take the issue of bullying very seriously, as sometimes, victims report incidents to management, teachers, and parents and they only face ignorance. Therefore, it is important to take up this social issue very seriously, and thus, schools must organize awareness campaigns for teachers, students, and even parents, and should endeavor to introduce policies against acts of bullying (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 60-64). Secondly, teachers can also play a significant role by organizing small activities in the classrooms, such as group discussions, role-plays, etc that will enable the students to understand the shocking effects that devastate lives of students. Furthermore, “parents play an essential role in the life of their children; therefore, they should be actively involved in the anti-bullying campaigns that the school organizes” (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 60-63). During these campaigns, schools should put efforts along with collaboration of related organizations to provide information about both onsite, as well as cyber bullying since both have similar causes and both result in shocking and disturbing effects (Swearer, Espelage, & Napolitano, pp. 64-67). When it comes to cyber bullying, anonymity is a major barrier; however, parents can play a crucial role by installing child-monitoring software that will allow them to stay informed about activities of their children on the internet. In addition, nowadays, software are available in the market that allows the users to track down sender of an email or a chat on the internet, so one can eventually trace an email to its original source, which can be used as evidence against the bully. Lastly, teachers and school management can also contribute by informing students about constructive usage of internet in different sessions, and should inform students about legal consequences of cyber bullying since it is now considered as a cybercrime. Conclusion Conclusively, bullying has become one of the most common social issues of the present era; however, we all can eliminate this dilemma from our society by addressing the issue seriously with abovementioned preventive measures that will be helpful in saving lives of millions of students every year. Works Cited Dixon, Roz, Smith, Peter. Rethinking School Bullying: Towards an Integrated Model. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Lines, Dennis. The bullies: understanding bullies and bullying. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008. Macfarlane, Aidan, McPherson, Bullying. Oxford University Press, 2004. Mattern, Joanne. Bullying. Heinemann Library, 2008. McGraw, Jay. Jay McGraw's Life Strategies for Dealing with Bullies. An imprint of Simon and Schuster Children Publishing Division, 2008. Rooney, Anne. Bullying. Arcturus Publishing, 2010. Sanders, Cheryl E., Phye, Gary D. Bullying: implications for the classroom. Elsevier Academic Press, 2004. Shore, Kenneth. The ABC's of Bullying Prevention: a Comprehensive School wide Approach. Dude Publishing, 2005. Swearer, Susan M., Espelage, Dorothy L., Napolitano, Scott A. Bullying prevention and intervention: realistic strategies for schools. The Guilford Press, 2009. Read More