The Detrimental Effects of Cyber Bullying
The Detrimental Effects of Cyber Bullying
The Detrimental Effects of Cyber Bullying
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” This popular saying is echoed throughout playgrounds all over the United States. If only every victim of bullying could adapt to this attitude. Bullying is a frequent experience for a large number of children and adolescents. In today’s society, victims of bullying are subject to traditional forms of bullying as well as cyber bullying. Even though a higher number of adolescents are bullied in traditional ways, cyber bullying can have a more detrimental effect because victims can be attacked from anywhere at any time, bullies tend to send harsher messages since it is not face-to-face, and victims are bullied by a large audience.
Background
In Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film Gran Torino, Thao, a Hmong teenage boy living in Detroit, is bullied by a variety of gangs in his neighborhood. Throughout the film, Thao experiences verbal bullying as well as physical bullying. In one scene, Thao is verbally harassed by a gang of Latinos while walking down the street. The gang insults Thao’s masculinity by asking him if he is a boy or a girl. They continue harassing him calling him a “gook” and a “slope.” In a later scene, Thao is physically bullied by the Hmong gang on his way home from work. Like Thao, adolescents today are continuously faced with various forms of bullying.
Traditional forms of bullying such as being hit, intimidated, and excluded, seem to be less apparent in recent years and cyber bullying has become a more prevalent issue. Cyber bullying occurs when technologies such as computers, social networking sites, and cell phones are used to harass or bully someone (University of Gothenburg, 2010). Being cyber bullied can have consequences for a victim’s mental health, developmental well-being, and academic achievement (University of British
The Detrimental Effects of Cyber Bullying
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” This popular saying is echoed throughout playgrounds all over the United States. If only every victim of bullying could adapt to this attitude. Bullying is a frequent experience for a large number of children and adolescents. In today’s society, victims of bullying are subject to traditional forms of bullying as well as cyber bullying. Even though a higher number of adolescents are bullied in traditional ways, cyber bullying can have a more detrimental effect because victims can be attacked from anywhere at any time, bullies tend to send harsher messages since it is not face-to-face, and victims are bullied by a large audience.
Background
In Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film Gran Torino, Thao, a Hmong teenage boy living in Detroit, is bullied by a variety of gangs in his neighborhood. Throughout the film, Thao experiences verbal bullying as well as physical bullying. In one scene, Thao is verbally harassed by a gang of Latinos while walking down the street. The gang insults Thao’s masculinity by asking him if he is a boy or a girl. They continue harassing him calling him a “gook” and a “slope.” In a later scene, Thao is physically bullied by the Hmong gang on his way home from work. Like Thao, adolescents today are continuously faced with various forms of bullying.
Traditional forms of bullying such as being hit, intimidated, and excluded, seem to be less apparent in recent years and cyber bullying has become a more prevalent issue. Cyber bullying occurs when technologies such as computers, social networking sites, and cell phones are used to harass or bully someone (University of Gothenburg, 2010). Being cyber bullied can have consequences for a victim’s mental health, developmental well-being, and academic achievement (University of British
References: Bluestein, G. & Turner, D. (2012, April 26). School cyberbullying victims fight back in lawsuits CBC news online. (2005, March). Cyber-bullying. In CBC news. Retrieved June 6, 2012, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bullying/cyber_bullying.html Cyber bullying statistics Facebook is not a children’s toy. (2012, June 6). The Australian. Retrieved from LexisNexis. Gran Torino. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Clint Eastwood. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008. Film. Hoffman, J. (2010, June 27). Online bullies pull schools into the fray. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/style/28bully .html?pagewanted=all Meech, S Swearer, S. M. (2012). Traditional forms of bullying remain a more prevalent and serious problem. Cyberbullying. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/KZv0Fa Tyler Clementi .nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/tyler_clementi/index.html University of British Columbia (2012, April 13) University of Gothenburg (2010, February 22). Cyberbullying: A growing problem.