Monday, May 7, 2007

Cyber bullies- tactics worthy of guerilla warfare

The Sunday Times, May 6 2007
Title of article: Armed, online and dangerous

Today, there are more and more cyber bullies in the society. They are mainly teenagers and make use of their blog to bully someone whom they loathe. This is a worrying trend as there are many undesirable impacts on the cyber-bullying victim and it reflects the character of today’s teenagers,

In my opinion, the main reason why teenagers resort to bulling online rather than the traditional way is that they will not be responsible for their actions and thus will not receive any form of punishment. Teenagers can be anonymous online and thus, it will not be easy to punish the cyber bullies. As such, they become bolder and find it easier to vent their frustration or criticizing their victims online.

Moreover, these cyber bullies have a sense of satisfaction when they bully someone. Though they feel remorseful after that, ironically, bullying also made them feel ‘positive and powerful’, with reference to the article. Perhaps, such feelings prompted them to start bullying online.

A study has shown that cyber-bullying victims feel more overwhelmed and helpless as compared to being bullied face-to-face. It makes them feel demoralized and often stripped them out of their self-esteem. Many teenagers do not care how others will react to what they have written online. Some even feel that it is not wrong to bully someone online. As a result, they will post anything that they want to say online even though other people have access to their blog. Any criticism or remark that is kept in their hearts will be shown online. Using their digital tools, cyber platform has ever since been an easy means of exacting revenge. This not only applies to teenagers but adults as well, when there was once three adults sent to jail for posting racial-discriminating remarks online.

Technology advancement is a double-edged sword. It has brought countless benefits to people around the world and yet, will affect people negatively. One should always be conscious to what they have written online and be sensitive to other people’s feelings.

1 comment:

munchee said...

I totally agree with you on that technology advancement is a double-edged sword as it has benefited and harmed many. One of such example is the internet. The virtual world of the internet has granted its users a special feature: anonymity. Because of their cowardy, these cyber-bullys made use of the special ability to be anonymous to voice out their unhappiness with the victims, even at the expense of others' feelings. For such, i truly sympathise with the victims.

I believe that another reason for the cyber-bullys for doing so is that they may not have the courage to do what they have claimed online in reality. They may be afraid to voice out their unpleasantness with the victims and thus resorted to do it on the internet. Sometimes, these cyber-bullys could be victims in the real world themselves. Thus they are doing these online so as to vent their anger or hatred on those who had bullied them.

Bullying is an act of cowardy. It is to inflict harm on those whom you deem weaker than you. Thus, one should not resort to such acts and not cause to harm to others' feelings.