Cyberbullying: A Bigger Social Problem than Traditional Forms of Bullying

This essay critically analyses whether cyberbullying has become a much bigger social problem than that of traditional forms of bullying. The study provides evidence of the extent that cyberbullying causes problems among individuals in recent times. The essay concludes that cyberbullying is a far bigger problem for people as compared to traditional victims.

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Author Note

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Bullying is the aggressive behaviour that one individual shows towards another
individual. Bullying is quite existent in current times, especially in schools and colleges,
where students who perceive themselves as being in power bully those students who are not
popular or not within their liking. Bullying is a repetitive act which happens over time when
there is an imbalance in power between the individuals. Bullying are of three types which are
verbal bullying, social bullying and physical bullying. These are the traditional forms of
bullying which has been in existent for a long time. However, with the emergence of
technology, there appears a new type of bullying which is cyber bullying. This essay will
critically analyse whether cyber bullying has become a much bigger social problem than that
of traditional forms of bullying. The study will provide evidence of the extent that
cyberbullying cause a problems among the individuals in recent times.
According to Kowalski et al. (2014) cyberbullying is a kind of aggressive behaviour
which is carried out in a repetitive manner to intentionally hurt another individual through the
use of an electronic medium such as text messages, e-mails, instant messages or social media
platforms. This kind of bullying is done against people who so not have the power or the
strength to defend themselves. Cyberbullying is a kind of verbal bullying where the
individual in power writes statements that hurts the sentiment or the reputation of another
person. Around 25% of school going children have faced cyberbullying at one point in their
life (Kowalski et al. 2014). There are different forms of cyberbullying which come into view
in recent times which make it difficult to prevent since the bullies find new ways to hurt their
victims. In this world of technological advancements, bullies emerge with new forms of
cyberbullying which are non-exhaustive in nature. Slonje, Smith and FriséN (2013) explains
that the most common type of cyberbullying comes in the forms of harassment or threats,
making fun or jokes about the victim or spreading rumours through different mediums. In the
article, there were certain media forms which have been reported by the victims as been used

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in a regular manner such as chat rooms, instant messaging and online games, whereas, certain
people reported that bullies used bad words and threats to harass the victims.
There have been many researches where the intensity of cyberbullying has been
compared to that of traditional bullying. Kowalski and Limber (2013) argue that
cyberbullying and traditional bullying overlaps each other in almost every context. The
research stated that both of these forms of bullying had resemblance to each other. There
have been evidence which clearly stated that the male population was seen to be more
effected by cyberbullying as compared to the female population. The rate of anxiety and
depression were also higher among the girls who were faced with bullying than those who
were not faced with any kind of bullying. The research also derived that males were most
accustomed to being a part of cyberbullying and also being affected by specific kind of
cyberbullying such as video games than the females. Slonje, Smith and FriséN (2013) also
notices that the overlap between the two forms of bullying is huge and the make population is
more affected by both types of bullying. Thus research furthers sees that some of the
cyberbullies may actually be victims of traditional bullying and their incapability to retaliate
face to face might give them the option of bullying other people or their own bullies through
the internet. Even though there might not be concrete evidence regarding this statement, there
have been other author who have provided evidence so as to support the claim of the growing
trend of traditional victims becoming cyberbullies.
However, Slonje, Smith and FriséN further states that cyberbullying is a bigger
problem than traditional bullying in many ways. Firstly, since it is an indirect form of
bullying and the victim cannot see the face of the bully, therefore it gives them more scope
and chance to harass the victim. Secondly, the bullies can use this medium to spread the
rumours and the harassment to a more public level as compared to traditional bullying which
stays limited to a group of friends, school or college. Thirdly, the victim would find no means

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of escape in cyberbullying as the bully can send messages and threats trough different social
medium. In case of traditional bullying the victim would have to avoid the path of the bully to
escape from them. Waasdrop and Bradshaw (2015) argues that only a small minority of the
population which is less than 5% experienced cyberbullying as compared to a majority of the
population facing traditional bullying. The victims of cyberbullying were more likely to be
victims of traditional bullying at one point of time which made traditional bullying a far
bigger problem than cyber bullying. On the other hand, Sticca and Perren (2013) supports the
claim saying that cyberbullying is a much worse form of bullying as compared to cyber
bullying for the victim. Thus is because the most feared thing is the exploitation of the public
status of a person. Through cyberbullying this exploitation can be widespread and done to a
bigger extent. Therefore, the potential of the bully to harm the victim is much greater in
cyberbullying. Moreover, there is less control in cyberbullying as the pace of the message
spreading to other people is faster than traditional bullying and cannot be erased or removed
once it is present in the media.
It can be concluded from the evidence provided in the study, that cyberbullying was a
far bigger problem for the people as compared to traditional victims. The number of people
who were more affected by cyberbullying was the male population. However, anxiety and
depression were seen to be more prone among the female population. The widespread
characteristic of cyberbullying made it a danger against traditional bullying whole expansion
was limited to a certain number of people. However, one of authors claimed that traditional
cyberbullying was more problematic, but his views were refuted with more evidences from
other authors who supported the fact that cyberbullying has become a much bigger social
problem than that of traditional forms of bullying.

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References
Kowalski, R.M. and Limber, S.P., 2013. Psychological, physical, and academic correlates of
cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(1), pp.S13-S20.
Kowalski, R.M., Giumetti, G.W., Schroeder, A.N. and Lattanner, M.R., 2014. Bullying in the
digital age: A critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among
youth. Psychological bulletin, 140(4), p.1073.
Slonje, R., Smith, P.K. and FriséN, A., 2013. The nature of cyberbullying, and strategies for
prevention. Computers in human behavior, 29(1), pp.26-32.
Sticca, F. and Perren, S., 2013. Is cyberbullying worse than traditional bullying? Examining
the differential roles of medium, publicity, and anonymity for the perceived severity of
bullying. Journal of youth and adolescence, 42(5), pp.739-750.
Waasdorp, T.E. and Bradshaw, C.P., 2015. The overlap between cyberbullying and
traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(5), pp.483-488.