The digital revolution brought many changes in our lives. In the last two decades or so digital technology has changed how people interact with each other, it has revolutionized information generation and information sharing. At the same time, it has also created a parallel universe like our real universe, which is called the cyber or virtual world where many good and bad things happen like they happen in our real world. Cyberbullying is one such ugly phenomenon that is spreading rapidly in this virtual world. Because of the immense popularity of social networking sites and the easy accessibility of the internet and gadgets, many people spend a lot of time in this virtual world. They make many friends in this world and interact with many known and unknown people which is not possible in the real world. Bullying is a common incident even in the real world and in the cyber world, it is even more common due to the option of remaining anonymous. People get bullied for so many things, they get bullied for their appearance, expressing their thoughts, or sometimes bullying is in the form of sharing some derogatory material about them. The point is bullying happens in many forms and they all have detrimental effects to various degrees on people who are the victims of bullying. The major difference between bullying in the cyber and the real world is that in the cyber world, it spreads very rapidly, and mass bullying is very common. It really takes a few minutes or hours to make a video, photo, or post viral. People not at all related to that person or issue can comment and harass that person without revealing their identity. These cyberbullies are more aggressive and brutal as many of them think they cannot be caught, so they can say anything to anyone. It is also very difficult to design any effective laws to curb this behavior which makes it a very complex and difficult problem to handle.
I consider cyberbullying comparatively more dangerous because often it happens in a virtual world where the environment doesn't offer any protection to victims. The victim suffers in isolation as virtual world interactions are through a personal device like a smartphone, there are no physical bystanders who can intervene. It is very difficult to detect this problem, many times by the time people close to the victim know that something like this is going on it is too late as the damage has already been done. People who go through this hesitate to talk about this for the same reasons that people who get bullied in real life don't like to talk about it. But in real life, there is the possibility that some bystanders might inform authorities or even intervene to stop it or the victim might try to relocate to some other place to avoid facing those bullies but in the cyber world, both things are not that easy. It is really easy for bullies to chase the victim and intimidate them in the cyber world. This is why we need to educate our kids about cyberbullying and teach them ways to deal with it. If we don't counter this evil, then it will spread very rapidly. Any form of bullying should not be tolerated and if we all stand together against it then only we can put any brakes to these incidents. I hope no more lives are lost because of bullying, we already have enough pressure and problems in real life, and we should not make it more difficult by adding cyberbullying to that list.
I consider cyberbullying comparatively more dangerous because often it happens in a virtual world where the environment doesn't offer any protection to victims. The victim suffers in isolation as virtual world interactions are through a personal device like a smartphone, there are no physical bystanders who can intervene. It is very difficult to detect this problem, many times by the time people close to the victim know that something like this is going on it is too late as the damage has already been done. People who go through this hesitate to talk about this for the same reasons that people who get bullied in real life don't like to talk about it. But in real life, there is the possibility that some bystanders might inform authorities or even intervene to stop it or the victim might try to relocate to some other place to avoid facing those bullies but in the cyber world, both things are not that easy. It is really easy for bullies to chase the victim and intimidate them in the cyber world. This is why we need to educate our kids about cyberbullying and teach them ways to deal with it. If we don't counter this evil, then it will spread very rapidly. Any form of bullying should not be tolerated and if we all stand together against it then only we can put any brakes to these incidents. I hope no more lives are lost because of bullying, we already have enough pressure and problems in real life, and we should not make it more difficult by adding cyberbullying to that list.
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[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
Cyberbullying: How to stand against it?
ReplyDeleteCyberbullying: How to stand against it? As the internet is become easy to reach, the cases of Cyberbullying is also increasing. But with the proper measures
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