Cyberbullying and Bullying
Bullying occurs across different settings, including community level, workplace, and school context. According to Viana et al. (2017), bullying can be defined as aggressive behavior that assumes different forms such as physical, online, verbal, or relations.” Bullies often have different goals based on the approach that they use. The target of bullying is mainly individual vulnerability and thrive on fear and violence towards victims. Cyberbullying involves the use of technology; it can be done through email, instant messaging, social networks, or through mobile applications. The aggressive nature of these bullying actions has been associated with adverse outcomes. Victims of bullying are mainly inferior as well as have the weak mental strength to withstand negativity that is meted towards them. The relentless nature of bullies is aimed to achieve a specific outcome.
Children are most affected by bullying, especially within a school environment where children from different social class and ethnicity interact. Bullying occurs within a social context when students are interacting with each other. The consideration that some students consider themselves superior either based on physical stature, ethnicity, race, or religion. An individual who is exposed to such treatment is likely to develop stress, which influences their overall social interactions as well as mental development. Victimized and bullied students are more likely to developmental disorders. These are developments that can be controlled when there is a better structure that focuses on the wellbeing of children while also creating a profoundly transformed environment where the perpetrators are exposed (Blackwood, 153).
Self-belief and identity play a vital role in influencing their social interactions and the development of individual behavior. An individual who has a high level of self-belief is less likely to be a victim of bullying. Weak mental strength, however, is associated with a low self-belief, which makes students vulnerable to bullying and being victimized within a social context (Viana et al., 295). Therefore developing a more diverse process should concentrate on motivating individuals across different settings to ensure that they do not feel inferior, which is an essential aspect in defining a more exceptional approach in implementing positive outcomes.
Bullying in the workplace compromises organizational operations considering that it creates negative energy among employees. The perception of an individual and underlying stereotypes influence how different individuals interact. Workplace bullying involves a continuous pattern of mistreatment from other individuals within the workplace towards an employee, which results in emotional or physical injury. Organizations have a strong operational code that guides employee contact, thus limiting bullying (López-Larrañaga and Izaskun, 43). However, the interaction between colleagues can be different depending on their social relations.
In most cases, workplace bullies operate within a defined establishment with clear rules and policies. Superior employees majorly perpetrate it to their juniors. In such a situation, it is difficult to control because most people fear the repercussions of such actions hence suffer in silence.
Individual related bullying is a form of stress that is capable of causing adverse outcomes on employee health leading to psycho-physical symptoms, changes in individual mood, psychiatric disorders as well as anxiety disorders depending on the level of influence of bullying actions. It is related to workplace directed insults, wicked rumors, an intrusion of individual employee personal privacy, and humiliation (Menesini and Christina, 249). These elements need to be controlled within an organization context to ensure a positive interactive operational environment within an organizational context.
The Workplace Bullying Institute conducted a survey in the United States, which showed that 37% of all united states workforce had been direct targets of workplace bullying (Gillen et al., 81). However, organizational leaders have been unable to effectively identify the negative influence of workplace bullying on their productivity; hence have failed to implement strict anti-bullying measures that are aimed at protecting their employees. Thus, in mots organizations, bullying has continued undeterred.
According to Zapf et al. (2020), most of these bullying cases within organizations are reported, but very few organizational are implementing policies to control such occurrences. It is crucial to focus on improving organizational operations, which emphasize a more substantial commitment to change as well as the underlying measures that promote change. Organizations must be diverse and implement policies that help in creating a strong context for change as well as a commitment to improved organizational needs. Organizations have a responsibility to protect their employees and focus on the needs of organizations rather than worrying about their wellbeing. This is detrimental to their performance.
Cyberbullying has become a common challenge across the world. This has been as a result of the inability to fully control the influence of technology and how it is utilized. Cyberbullying pervades social and individual private life of individuals who are targeted. The cyberbullies ensure that they have access to individual private and confidential information, which is used to blackmail a victim into accomplishing a given outcome. Children and young adults have been highly caught between cyberbullying scandals, considering that they are highly active users of technology, especially social networks and the internet (Brier and Yvette, 27). Cyberbullying mainly influences individual psychological and emotional wellbeing leading to depression and, to a higher extent, death.
The commonly utilized cyberbullying types include insults or hurtful messages or images sent to the victim directly with a critical purpose of humiliating the victim or instilling an element of fear. The complexity of technology means that it is difficult to identify the perpetrators. These individuals usually have a better understanding of their victims, either physically or through following their online profiles. Cyberbullies also use their skills to obtain classified information about their targets, which increases their chances of hurting their victims psychologically (Glambek et al., 228).
A cyberbully is generally portrayed as someone wicked and looking to cause harm to innocent individuals within a given context. Technology is used as a tool to propagate their torments. Cyberbullies can be teens who torment their fellow teens or adults. Gillen et al. identified that the majority of cyberbullies tend to have emotional or psychological challenges which they are unable to control (39). These challenges might have occurred in their childhood, which influences their focus on children as prime targets or adults depending on the underlying cause.
Some of the cyberbullying incidences primarily based on online activities are fun to perpetrators without knowing the negative influence such actions have on an individual the age of social media has created massive problems among teens and young adults who interact through different platforms. The comments by individuals online can be either positive or negative. The negative comments have an injurious influence on individual emotions and psychological wellbeing (Brier and Yvette, 34).
The occurrence of cyberbullying is different depending on the perpetrators and how they intend to carry it out. It might include hacking and individual’s profile, positing negative comments, or spreading rumors to defame others. Every individual has easy access to a social network, which makes it easier to misuse this access. Cyberbullying, especially online through social networks, has become common that control strategies are being taught among individuals on how to overcome such negativity, especially among famous individuals who have many followers on social media (Glambek et al., 235). Manipulating, harassing and defaming people online has become common despite the legislations that are being undertaken to help control individual actions through social media by ensuring that they are responsible for their posts and could be held liable to them.
The fundamental basis for cyberbullying is to hurt others in different ways. Cyberbullying is becoming a serious concern, especially within the social environment within online platforms. The fact that these actions target an individual mind and emotions makes it easy to cause challenges such as depression and other depressive disorders. Many people do not know how to deal with negativity. This means that the only viable option that they would consider is suicide (López-Larrañaga and Izaskun, 61). Constant cyberbullying weakens an individual mental strength and has a detrimental influence on their growth, especially among young individuals. It is crucial to focus on better approaches that define a positive context within which it is easier to make determinations and decisions regarding individual protection against any form of bullying.
Every individual can control bullying based on how they respond to these issues. Being strong and showing no signs of vulnerability amid adversity presents a better way to deal with different forms of bullying. When the perpetrators know that their victims are strong mentally, they tend to withdraw and target others. All types of bullying can be controlled if there are better plans and integration of crucial measures that promote negativity across different settings. The technological changes have led to cyberbullying, which is difficult to control, considering that, identifying perpetrators is always a challenge because of the existing freedom associated with technology and social networks.
Works cited
Blackwood, Hilary Schronce. “Regulating Student Cyberbullying.” Rutgers L. Rec. 40 (2012): 153.
Brier, Joan, and Yvette Ahmad. “Developing a school court as a means of addressing bullying in schools.” Practical approaches to bullying. Routledge, 2017. 25-36.
Gillen, Patricia A., et al. “Interventions for prevention of bullying in the workplace.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1 (2017).
Glambek, Mats, Ståle Einarsen, and Hoel Helge. “The sources, prevalence, and consequences of bullying in the workplace.” Violence and abuse in and around organisations. Routledge, 2018. 224-251.
López-Larrañaga, Maria, and Izaskun Orue. “Interaction Among Psychopathic Traits in the Prediction of Cyberbullying Behavior.” Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica 24.1.
Menesini, Ersilia, and Christina Salmivalli. “Bullying in schools: the state of knowledge and effective interventions.” Psychology, health & medicine 22.sup1 (2017): 240-253.
Viana, Janile Lima, Cinthia Meneses Maia, and Paulo Germano Barrozo de Albuqueruque. “The Cyberbullying and the Limits of Freedom of Expression.” Braz. J. Pub. Pol’y 7 (2017): 295.
Zapf, Dieter, et al. “Empirical findings on prevalence and risk groups of bullying in the workplace.” Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Theory, Research and Practice (2020): 105.