Ee Yon Ian Cui

Professor Jean-Pierre

English Composition 110

17 Oct 2019

Essay #2: An Inquiry-Based Research Essay (Final draft)

 

Statement of the Problem

The question that I want to focus on is, “should cyberbullying considered as a form of violence? “I want to include debate and argument in this essay to proof that cyberbullying is a form of violence. As technology advances, cyberbullying became a new type of violence, and it is extremely complex to anticipate and predict. Many people who’s older in ages are isolated from the existence of “social media.” Therefore, it does not realize cyberbullying can be a sort of violence. Many people say cyberbullying does not hurt anyone in person, so it shouldn’t count as a form of violence, but I will argue that it does through expository and persuasive genres. First, cyberbullying can lead to the same results as real-life bullying. Second,  according to law, cyberbullying can be considered a crime depend on the circumstances that involved the problem. Third, cyberbullying is causing sexual, violent, and death threats. Therefore, cyberbullying is a form of violence and makes no difference compared to actual bullying; It is the bullying that takes place over digital devices instead of in real life.

 

Effect of Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can cause people to receive psychological, mental, emotional and even physical stress.  Some people even suicide because they couldn’t bear the pain or feelings of being constantly abused or bullied. The victims of cyberbullying are usually experiencing the same effects as victims bullied in person. Examples include low self-esteem, depression, and even suicide. In fact, cyberbullying can be much more severe than actual bullying. Not only cyberbullying can lead to real bullying, which can cause the victim to be bullied both in-person and online. But cyberbullying is inescapable. People will spread ugly rumors all over the place, which causes the victim to feel more insecure than actual bullying, because cyberbullying is hard to prevent and predict. To people who are not receiving as much suffering of being a victim of cyberbullying. They tend to get away from cyberbullying by just getting offline, and lying to themselves, nothing consequential will happen. Pathetically, not only that it is happening and developing, but it also takes away the major opportunity for people to be socialized nowadays, which is why the question of debating cyberbullying as a form of violence is essential. I’m planning on exploring and research this question.

 

Forms of Cyberbullying

Cases Involving Suicide

The spread of cyberbullying is providing a range of potentially harming problems even includes suicide. The issues of cyberbullying are extremely frightful because it’s associating with a matter of life. In the article “Two Florida preteens busted for cyberbullying after student hangs herself” by The Associated Press. It talks about how a girl named Gabriella, suicided hanging herself due to constant threats of exposing her personal and sensitive privacy. The suspects put her thoughts into action by saying:” If you’re going to do it, just do it,’ and ended the call,” The two teenagers were arrested, acknowledged the fact that they know it would result in such emotional distress. Gabriella’s mother, Tanya Green, said she hopes such tragedy will shine light on the issue of cyberbullying, she blames the parents and the school system for such a tragedy. In the article, it says: “It’s going to help others at her school,” Green told the newspaper. “It’s going to start at her school. It’s going to help others around the world.” This shows that even teenagers can result in being arrested for cyberbullying. It is a severe consequential matter that should be taken seriously by people before it is too late. 

Another example of cyberbullying that leads to the same result as bullying in person. “12-year-old’s suicide spotlights cyber-bullying threat” by Don Dahler talks about a girl named Rebecca Sedwick who’s continuously bullied online by abusive verbal language suicided. The articles consist of multiple examples of cyberbullying and how negatively they can affect the mindset of a person. The victim was being abused every day in real life because she was known for being abused on social media, which causes everyone to follow the same action and bully her as well. According to the text it says “‘If you haven’t killed yourself yet, would you please just die?'” Such abusive verbal is considered as pure criticism. Criticism or anything that attacks against a person directly will put people into depression. Humans are categorized as a gregarious species; we are instinctively seeking and using the company of others. When one person starts, all the other people follow it. Being constantly abused in language by people will slowly corrupt a person’s heart, changes to a person’s heart and mindset will hurt a person more than surface pain like cut on the person. A corrupted heart and mindset is what destroys a person and cause suicide. “The Sheriff’s Office is considering filing charges against the juveniles who sent the messages.” Even as a teenager, the action of cyberbullying can lead to consideration of crime. Just like how there’s no escape to cyberbullying, there is no escape of the action that will lead to the result. This source demonstrates how cyberbullying can bring the same effect as actual bullying.

 

Language and Sexualized Violence

There has been a long argues that women have been experiencing gender inequality in different forms. Apart from sexualized bullying and gender bullying, cyberbullying also comes to expect of females.” eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy into Dialogue with Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices” by Jane Bailey. It addresses how cyberbullying is being presented through sexualized violence among youth. This article makes clear on how cyberbullying through language can put a girl in a severe risk of being harass, abused, and cursed.” It is not merely a question of her privacy, but of her privacy from the relentlessly intrusive humiliation of sexualized online bullying” (307). The author uses a somber and judgmental tone to describe that bullying can be uttered persistently and will continue if there’s no compelling to it. Also in the text, it says “she was deeply affected by both the aggressive cyberbullying and bullying conducted at the hands of her peers, and the deliberate sexual extortion, or “sextortion,” by unknown online predators “(308). The author’s clarifying sexual extortion as sextortion to present the language constructions in a repulsive idea. The wording and language show the phenomenon that is created from the constant events of sexual conduct. The book uses non-fiction as a genre to present the severity of sexualized online bullying towards female audiences. The author developed her stance in the article mostly by using a feminist lens to describe how cyberbullying can profoundly affect a person through constant degradation, which they employ shame and harassment on you to put you in a difficult situation. Gender inequality has been an issue for an extremely long time. The deeper issue is that as cyberbullying grows and becomes more aware in society, the females tend to be trapped again inside this complexity. “Integrating Gender into Canadian Internet Policy: From the Information Highway to the Digital Economy” by Leslie Regan Shade reinvigorates the discussion to cyberbullying through evidence-based policies that promote justice and equality towards the issues of online bullying. The articles discuss the community’s feelings and thoughts towards cyberbullying as sexual offense online and how it should be prevented. “Community responses to cyber and sexual violence is another SWC funding priority, with the goal to support women and community partners in working together to develop and implement appropriate strategies that prevent and eliminate cyberviolence” (350)  This shows that there’s still a lot of people that’s opposing with the development of cyberbullying. Not just merely a thought that hate cyberbullying, but an action composed with thoughts to stop and prevent cyberbullying.

  

Phenomenon of Cyberbullying

As technology advances, everyone’s using social media and websites online. But yet, not everyone’s aware of the issues that exist in the field of the online world. The article “Digital Environments Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global Online and Offline Spaces” by Samantha Fox and Mike Terry discuss how digital device has permeated the society. Digital tools like cell phones, laptops, and tablets are being used every day directly affect the phenomenon of cyberbullying. According to the article it says”phenomena of cyberbullying, the initial invisibility of my own “remoteness” cushioned antagonistic sentiments that may have been directed towards me as I sifted through a plethora of online material.” (84) The text is saying that cyberbullying grows and becomes a phenomenon of society. Some people have to erase their existence online and building themselves a bridge to isolate themselves from social media to avoid being bullied online.

 

Prevention and Interventions

There have been many obstacles in solving the issue of cyberbullying ever since it started. The article “A Restorative Approach to Address Cyber Bullying” brought a different point of view towards the issue of cyberbullying and how it should be prevented. With detail and evidence explains the negative influence that cyberbullying can deliver to the victims to solid the argument more. It also formulates the composition of punishment and consequences that should give to the bully. To prevent bullying from further occurring and cyberbullying are receiving punishment as a crime. The article also brought up many details associated with cyberbullying. “heightened concerns about cyberbullying brought about by widespread media attention to several tragic teen suicides” (352) It delivers a heavy use of language that shows the sorrows of multiple teens suicided due to cyberbullying. The article also includes a debate on the impact of the government’s law on cyberbullying between the members. “The term cyberbullying, has, to a certain extent, facilitated co-optation of tragic suicide cases and protection of ‘innocent’ children as a guide for a long-standing agenda to expand state surveillance, while offering no comprehensive plan for addressing the relational and systemic issues and responses repeatedly highlighted within the debates themselves” (pg355) reveals the complicated process of forming a law ; that is often the crux of the argument for innovation.

 

Law that Restrict Cyberbully

Cyberbullying is a new form of phenomenon introduced to the society. Not all actions are being listed in law, but there’s still “New York Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It states that anything related to bullying, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination, regardless of online or real life, it should be considered as a form of violence, which will be protected under regulation. According to the policies, it says “New York anti-bullying laws prohibit acts of harassment and bullying that include, but are not limited to, acts based on a person’s actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender or sex.” This shows anything relates to the act of harassment and bullying will be penalized, regardless of whether or not it is cyberbullying or bullying in real life. The government will try to implement laws for the act of cyberbullying to prevent further issues and mistreatment of innocent civilians. The regulations allow the bullies to realize the more power you possess on something, the more responsibilities you would be taking, which ensures people take appropriate and lawful action.

 

Interview Section

It’s a typical day at the internet cafe located in Flushing, New York, where people are spamming their keyboards and talking loudly with each other trying to win games online. Jacky is my friend who had worked in an internet cafe for years,so he’s able to open his own internet cafe right now. By communicating with people who uses internet everyday in the cafe, he’s very familiar with online environment nowadays. The contents of the interview is asking for his personal opinion about cyberbullying as he have seen multiple cases of it even around New York. 

Since he’s working in an internet cafe, he communicated to people mostly about online related topics including bullying. To start with the basic, his personal opinion about cyberbullying is that it can be a serious issue, especially when talking with people who’ve experienced it. Looking at the situation from a first person perspective allows us to see how traumatic he can be. To him, there is a difference between cyberbullying and actual bullying, but both can deal equal amounts of damage through mental illness that leads to physical damage. He said cyberbullying should be considered a form of violence because he knows people that actually cut themselves for being bullied online, it’s damaging a person emotionally and mentally which can lead to extreme mental illnesses and even death situations. The reasons why that cyberbullying isn’t weight as severely as actual bullying is because internet generation is still relatively new, and many people do not yet understand the influence of cyberbullying compared to traditional bullying. Overall, Cyberbullying can be a greater issue than bullying because most people are refraining from bullying because of fear of punishment, but cyberbullying, people of all shapes and sizes can act tough behind the screen.

 

Summary

Cyberbullying has been a concern ever since the internet was created. It is the bullying that takes place over digital devices instead of in real life; A pure subdivision of actual bullying. It can be more harmful than bullying in real life because it crosses more lines into unlawful or criminal behaviors. Effects of cyberbullying cause people to get psychological, emotional, mental, and even physical stresses, such as low self-esteem, negative thoughts, as well as low performance in school, which leads to the same result as actual bullying. Therefore, cyberbullying is a growing concern, an inescapable form of violence that needs to stop.

 

Works Cited

 

Bailey Jane. “ eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy into Dialogue with

 Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices”  published by University of Ottawa Press, 2019. 

114. 93–114. JSTOR, 

 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15nmj7f.16?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

 Don Dahler. “12-year-old’s suicide spotlights cyber-bullying threat” published by New York 

Times.  September 14, 2013

CBS News. September 14, 2013

Leslie Regan Shade. “Journal of Information Policy” published by Penn State University Press, 

2011.

Pp. 338-370. JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.6.2016.0338#metadata_info_tab_contents

Mike Terry and Samantha Fox. “Digital Environments: Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global 

Online and Offline Spaces” published by Transcript Verlag, 2017.

Pp. 211-226. JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1xxrxw.17?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Roelof Petrus Reyneke. “Rethinking Teacher Education for the 21st Century: Trends, Challenges 

and New Directions” published by Verlag Barbara Budrich July 12, 2019

Pp. 307-336. JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpb3xhh.26?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

 

“Two Florida preteens busted for cyberbullying after student hangs herself” published by The 

Associated Press.  Jan. 23, 2019

The New York Daily News. Jan. 23, 2019

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “New York Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies”. 

June 22, 2017

https://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/new-york/index.html?fbclid=IwAR10soyKa6g4dMi3rAFvFK7J2cT0Wk_W3tNqovEVOzzh_glKbOwWBqhYVNI