The Importance Of Cyber Bullying

Within recent years, social media has become a big part of everyday life. People commonly use social media to express themselves, connect with others, and share ideas. However, for many users, social media can be a traumatizing experience. Nearly half of social media users claimed to have experienced cyber bullying at least once while using social media. Cyber bullying is the intentional and repeated verbal harassment meant to hassle, shame, intimidate, humiliate, embarrass, and threaten others via texting, email, and the internet, more specifically social media. Despite it being a rising concern, cyber bullying is often overlooked because the victim is not being bullied directly. Due to the anonymity that social media provides, the online

A prospective user is only required to verify an email, and even email addresses can be created with faulty information. With this being said, users can hide behind false and/or fictitious identities. On the internet, people can pretend to be anyone. There are even people who create fake accounts simply to cyberbully, more specifically harass, fellow users. The option to make accounts private also allow bullies to feel invisible. Cyberbullies can easily bully strangers and engage in complete verbal disputes without having to worry about their actions. The anonymity of social media can provide a mask for those who want to conceal their true identity. They can be free to spread hate without any fear of repercussions. And with social media apps like SnapChat, posts are deleted within a matter of seconds, leaving no trace of evidence. Cyberbullies tend to feel bigger behind screen. Due to the lack of personal interaction with their victims, cyberbullies aren’t necessarily aware of the victim’s reaction to the bullying, therefor show less guilt for their actions and are more inclined to continue. In my own experience as a social media user, I have witnessed cyber bullying myself. Someone had anonymously created an Instagram account to merely intimidate and verbally attack a classmate of mine. The cyberbully followed a large amount of the students at the school and would tag them in the cruel posts so that everyone would see the posts. The bully cursed at her, called her names, exposed some of her secrets, and would repeatedly tell her to kill herself. Eventually, a few of her friends began to engage in arguments with the bully and many began reporting the account to Instagram. The bullying lasted for a couple of days. However, the account was never taken down, despite it being created about four or five years ago now. About a