Cyber Bullying Identity

Language and Identity in Cyberbullying
The newest epidemic sweeping across the country negatively impacting children. Poisoning the minds of our younger generation with demoralizing thoughts leading to a multitude of suicides, depressions, and lost friends. These details are not meant to be taken lightly. The horrible thing that I am describing is not a disease, nor a completely new phenomena to this earth. What I am describing is cyber bullying, the newest and most common form of bullying that has adapted with the advancements to technology. Cyber bullying affects millions of kids all over the world. I personally have been touched by this epidemic. When I was in Middle School people on Facebook made a fake account of me and my friend group
The only problem with this is it also gives access to millions of kids to taunt, mock, and bully other kids online. It gives bullies a whole new way to go about dismaying others. Bullying “has been around … for as long as there’s been people on the earth… (although) it seems to be getting worse. It’s happening more frequently and it seems to be happening with greater intensity.” (Flott) The uptick in the intensity of bullying aspects is most likely because of the platforms that they are on. On Facebook, bullies have a wide variety of tactics to attack such as creating a fake page, or a harmful post towards their victim. “(A) bully will use whatever means they can to get to the person they want to get to.” (Flott) The question is are there any parallels that can be made about how these bullies use language to tear down their victims? Bullies obviously do not have a set word bank that they choose from, yet there are many consistencies in the language they use. “You see a lot of comments against someone’s appearance, race, intelligence, or sexual preferences. Words like “dumbass” and “f*ggot” really stand out to me.” (Collier). The majority of cyber bullying incidents involve 3 categories, sexual, racial, and attributal. (Notar) Bullies will search for the most hurtful way to undermine the victim through cyber bullying. “Kids can hide behind their
Although, there is a large amount of evidence that support the notion that the majority of attacks language fall into a few categories. At the end of the day there are not any exact language consistencies between cyberbullying cases, rather each is arbitrary to its situation. (Notar) The one thing that can be made definite is that language in these attacks have gotten increasingly violent. “People are really mean.” (Collier) It is evident that bullies are extremely creative with the way that they demoralize their victims over the internet. With no immediate repercussions of the language you use on the internet there is an increased sense of confidence to what you can say. 94% of people in a Massachusetts high school say that they have the confidence to use worse language behind a screen than what they can use in public. (Notar) It is evident that technology has led to bullies ability to use the most harmful and degrading language without any fear. There can be an argument that there are no exact consistencies between cyberbullying cases because each case is unique to its situation. Likewise, there is a multitude of evidence supporting that there are some similarities in the way bullies degrade victims with