How has social media impacted school bullying and violence? Identify any direct actions/social justi

2. How has social media impacted school bullying and violence? Identify any direct actions/social justice campaigns that address this issue. Explain their work to the group and discuss your perspective on their efforts.

In today's society, it is too easy to present a fake profile online and pretend to be someone that the individual is not. This can extend into bullying when troublemakers feel the freedom to hide behind anonymity and fake confidence. Because the one being bullied is not directly in front of the one bullying, social media has made it too easy to send an offense and then run from the weight of seeing a human struggle with the emotional wreckage that was shamelessly created. It is the hands and responsibility-to-respect-others-free environment in today's society that detaches the human from face-to-face interactions that would have potentially otherwise made the bully second-guess the shame they would face by hurting another individual with a visibly broken consciousness. It is all too easy. There were some disturbing statistics about the reach cyberbullying and violence in social media. Per Larosiliere,

According to the Pew Research Center, '95% of social media-using teens who have witnessed cruel behavior on social networking sites say they have seen others ignoring the mean behavior; 55% witness this frequently.' Another national bullying survey, shows 91% of people who reported cyber bullying said that no action was taken...One research showed 21 percent of students said adults at school discuss cyberbullying with the students, but don’t try to prevent it. According to The Annual Bullying Survey 2017, Ditch the Label – UK Study, '71% of participants said that social media platforms do not do enough to prevent cyberbullying.'" (2022).

These are shamefully high for such a large issue. Because of these numbers, it is not surprising that there is so many issues with feeling insecure and vulnerable when using social media platforms. This only encourages malicious users to use social media as their playgrounds for victim-fishing.

One movement that is currently fighting bullying is that of the IN-Tech Academy's anti-bullying program. This specific movement was formed by Larosiliere. As stated by Brendlen, "'It’s helping them to understand each other,' Ansah said. 'How to handle a situation, fighting back, and understanding where the other party is coming from.'" (2019). This is what the program is designed to do in how to emotionally handle bullying situations. The large focus is to control quick defensive reactions and to rather understand that the bully is in a mental state of hurt and that the one receiving the bullying does not need to think badly about themselves. To not give in to what the bully wants to invoke in the feelings of the victim is the mission of the program/movement.

I believe that bringing more recognition about the issue as well as create a safe environment in which individuals can confide in others who may be going through something similar is powerful and effective. This will encourage others to stand up for themselves as well as others when bullying is spotted. If there is comfort in numbers, the bullying will not have such a strong impact for those who would have otherwise had to face it alone.

Question for the Class: If you have either been a victim or witness of bullying, what would you say could be implemented better within social media platforms that might further stop the "trend" of bullying?

Roschel

References: Brendlen, Kirstyn. (2019). Inside a new anti-bullying program at in-tech. The Riverdale Press. Retrieved from Inside a new anti-bullying program at IN-Tech | The Riverdale Press | www.riverdalepress.com (Links to an external site.).

Larosilier, Antoine. (2022). How does social media contribute to bullying? (parents need to know). The Bully Experience Movement. Retrieved from How Does Social Media Contribute To Bullying? Parents need to know. (thebullyexperiencemovement.com) (Links to an external site.).