Trevor Green

Ms. Sanchez

ERWC

2 February 2017

Social Media Affecting Cyber Bullying

Social media is a quick and easy way to chat or share things with your friends.

Unfortunately social media can and is being used as a way to negatively affect others. Though it

may not be on purpose it can have serious consequences. Cyberbullying can be very dangerous,

is different from traditional bullying, and can not be stopped the same way, but banning the

internet is not a good choice either.

Cyber bullying is a dangerous thing. And there is no reason to start cyberbullying because

there was not as much cyber bullying back then as there is now. It wasn't long ago that most

people didn't even have a computer in their own homes(social media bullying has become a

serious problem). This is important because back then it couldn't even happen meaning there was

a large increase in cyber bullying when social media started to come out. The amount of teens

that access the internet daily is a huge number which means a lot of those teens could either be

cyberbullying, victims of cyberbullying, or both. According to research by the Pew Research

Center, 92 per cent of American teens go online every day(social media bullying has become a

serious problem). Kowalski finds that the number of students not being bullied is high. In a

study involving 3767 students in grades 6-8 Kowalski and limber found although 78% of the

students surveyed had no experience with cyberbullying, 11% were victims of cyberbullying, 7%

were bully/victims, and 4% were bullies(Kowalski 137).

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In many ways cyber bullying can be worse than traditional bullying. A table from Scully

Alison shows the differences between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. For example cyber

bullying might occur more often than traditional bullying because it can occur anywhere

meanwhile traditional bullying only can occur in some places(Scully Allison). Traditional

bullying is more of a general kind of bullying with different ways to bully.Traditional bullying

has three different main types of bullying verbal, physical, and social.(Gale) Cyber bullying can

also be more dangerous than traditional bullying in a few ways. While bullying bullies remain

anonymous and victims tend to not report the incident as much.(Gale) Reporting the incident is

very important because they might be able to help the victim.

Bullying on social media is dangerous and needs to be stopped. Bullying can be stopped

by saving evidence of the incident. The only good news about digital bullying is that the

harassing messages can usually be captured, saved, and shown to someone who can help. You

need to do this even if its minor stuff, in case things escalate(Connect Safely). Cyber bullying

victims can be targeted because the bully might not like the things the victim posts. Do not post

anything unless you think about it first. Do not post personal information or things that might

offend others(Delete CyberBullying). Bullying can also occur if they know how to access

profile for your things. Safeguard your password and all private information from inquisitive

peers(Brook Lench) If people would get in your account they could post things you would

never post or even delete your account.

Social media is being used to bully others and affect their lives negatively. Even though

cyber bullying is occurring on social media we don't need to ban it. Cyber bullying can lead to

extreme cases such as self harm and suicide(Nailah Coleman).Just ignoring the person and not

responding is a great way to be left alone. In some cases turning off the device or ignoring the
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person is an easy way to stop being cyber bullied(Milo). Responding makes the person want to

do it more so just don't respond. Getting schools involved will not help out much because they

can not do much. Schools will leave you little to no privacy if they were allowed to freely search

your private life. Just because bullying happens online doesn't mean the school can do anything

about it, schools should not be aloud to go into the social life of their student unless asked to (Jan

Hoffman). A good way to allow schools to intervene with a student being cyber bullied is if the

student were to ask the school for help.

Cyber bullying is dangerous and social media is helping cyber bullies bully their victims

easier and in a different way from traditional bullying. Although Cyberbullying is dangerous we

should not ban social media we should just learn ways to stop and prevent it.

Work Cited

"Tips to Stop Cyberbullying." SafeTeenscom. ConnectSafetly.org, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Scully, Allison. "Traditional Bullying vs. Cyberbullying." Google Sites. Google Sites, 8 Aug.

2011. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Agatston, Patricia W., Robin Kowalski, and Susan Limber. "Students' Perspective on Cyber
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Bullying."

"Social Media Bullying Has Become a Serious Problem." Bullying CyberBullying Resources.

www.nobullying.com, 13 Oct. 2016. Web. 02 Feb. 2017