Cyberbullying vs. Traditional Bullying: A Comprehensive Comparison

This essay delves into the comparison between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, focusing on their prevalence and impact on school children. It argues that cyberbullying has become a more significant issue due to technological advancements and increased access to social media. The paper explores the differences in how bullying occurs, the psychological and emotional effects on victims, and the challenges parents and teachers face in addressing cyberbullying. The essay references various studies and research papers to support its claims, highlighting the unique characteristics of cyberbullying, such as its constant availability and the anonymity it can provide, which contribute to its potentially greater harm. It concludes that, based on current trends and research, cyberbullying poses a more critical social problem than traditional bullying.

Is Cyberbullying a larger social problem than more traditional forms of bullying?

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
In this paper, we will study about the cyberbullying a major problem in school children. This has
been studied under the light of certain facts and concepts published in research papers and other
articles. Cyberbullying is generally known as a popular issue. It is known as the use of electronic
communication medium to bully a person, typically by sending messages of threatening and
intimidating nature. According to me, it is true that cyberbullying is a major problem in school
children of today generation than other social issues. It is because the growing trend of
technology advancement has been attracted the attention of a large number of youngsters as well
as adults. Therefore, the probability of cyberbullying is greater of that nature. Nowadays, a large
number of school children have access to technological mediums such as social networking sites
than ever before. Therefore, the occurrence of cyberbullying increased with the use of
technological mediums. Cyberbullying among school children is challenging because most of the
cyberbullying activities take place on school grounds. This cyberbullying further influences the
environment of school which further put a negative influence on other children. That's why it
can be said that cyberbullying among school children is a big problem than the other social
problems like school bullying. This has been supported by studying the extent of the
cyberbullying problem, differences between traditional social problems and cyberbullying, or
some characteristics that have been identified in the victims of cyberbullying.
Discussion
Cyberbullying among school children is a big problem than other social issues like school
bullying and various others. The reason behind this is several. The first and the foremost reason
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for the great popularity of cyberbullying among children is advancement in technology
(Beckman, 2013). The technological advancements become the foremost reason of cyberbullying
among children. It is because technological advancement attracts the children to use the
advanced features or social media applications that give them higher connectivity with their
friends and various other members. Cyberbullying is not only a single problem in children, but
they are also influenced by other social issues like school shootings, fighting, terrorism, and
many other violent crimes. But these issues are not as big and common as cyberbullying. It has
been concluded by Gunthet (2015) that every single child faced cyberbullying problem
nowadays. It is because they get connected with cyber from a young age which further becomes
addiction among them. Therefore, this addiction further comes with more probability of
cyberbullying than other traditional and social issues.
According to the report of Cyberbullying research center 2016, it has been stated that 33.7% of
students between 2012 and 2017 were victims of cyberbullying in their lifetime. Moreover,
11.5% of students during 2012 and 2017 represented that they had engaged in cyberbullying in
their lifetime (Kowalski, 2013). So, it can be said that cyberbullying is different and critical from
other traditional social issues that happen 24/7. As and when the school children come in contact
with the social media then there is not any single option of going offline. The most critical
outcome of cyberbullying among school children is their exploitation in terms of physically as
well as emotionally. Cyberbullying is a combination of four different elements. The first element
is the deliberate behavior, not merely accidental. It means that cyberbullying is not an accident,
but it happens deliberately (Waasdorp, 2015). It is because of greater connectivity of today
children with technological advancements and social networking channels. Apart of this, the
other elements are repeated behavior, harm occurred and executed through a technological
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medium. Therefore, all these elements collectively form the extent of cyberbullying among
school children.
A large number of studies represents that the traditional bullying among school children is less
dangerous than cyber bullies. Most of the school students think what they are texting and posing
is just a joke, but the individuals who are receiving end it may not be all that funny. It could
become the bullying factor for them. As per the study of the University of British Columbia, it
has been said that cyberbullying in school children is a big problem, even more, common than
the traditional forms of bullying. More than 30% of young people participated in the research
study conducted by the University (Modecki, 2014). Therefore, the university came to a
conclusion that demonstrated 95% of youth agreed with the statement that cyberbullying is more
critical than another bullying. On the other hand, only 5% participants said that traditional
bullying is more critical than the cyberbullying. There are a large number of factors that
differentiate the cyberbullying criticality than another traditional bullying.
In the traditional bully, school children used a bully with bystander or victim, but that is not the
case of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is rarely pre-meditated such as traditional bullying, where
the bully plans her or his line of attack. On the other hand, in case of cyberbullying, the bully is
done impulsively without making any pre-plan like traditional bullying. Apart of this, it can be
said that the traditional bullying in school children mainly requires power and control which is
not present in case of cyberbullying (Slonje, 2017). Therefore, the absence of power and control
enhancement make the cyberbullying among school children an easy way of bullying than a
traditional bully. It is because cyberbullying does not require the face to face interaction between
school children as in case of traditional bullying. Due to this, it can be said that cyber bully is
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very critical and popular among school children of today’s scenario. Therefore, this enhances the
probability of cyber bully among school children.
Nowadays, it appears that the school children of today's generation equate joking around with
bullying. Therefore, this scene gives birth to a question "who is laughing?" This influences the
emotions and internal feelings of school children in a greater manner. Most of the children
commit suicide due to become the victim of cyberbullying. Generally, it can be said that
cyberbullying has much potential of influencing the emotions of school children than the
traditional bullying. Apart of this, a large number of researchers also conclude that the traditional
form of bullying is more critical than the cyber bully. For example, Schultze-Krumbholz (2015)
said that school children have a better chance of getting bullied by traditional bullies than cyber
bullies. It is because the cyberbullying can only conduct with the help of internet and presence of
computers. On the other hand, traditional bullies can see almost everywhere by using the face to
face interaction. In favor of this, Sticca (2013) said that the 23% of students in grades 4 to 6 had
been bullied different times. On the other hand, 20% of students had bullied by other means.
Therefore, this statistic has demonstrated that school children generally do not utilize the internet
until they get into high school.
Therefore, there are different perspectives of every researcher on traditional and cyber bully
among school children. Some are in favor of cyber bully, and some are in the traditional bully.
But, the facts and the culture of today's scenario indicate that cyber bully is a more critical social
issue than the traditional bully. It is because the parents and teachers do not have any control
over it.
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Conclusion
On the basis of the study of facts and concepts mentioned in above section, it can clearly state
that cyberbullying in school children is more common and dangerous social issue than another
traditional bullying. The reasons behind this decision are several such as advancement of
technology, and lack of control of parents and teachers. Next, the cyberbullying is more critical
to stop than the traditional bullying. Therefore, it can be demonstrated that cyber bully comes
with more psychological and emotional influences among school children than traditional
bullying.
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References
Beckman, L., Hagquist, C. and Hellström, L., 2013. Discrepant gender patterns for cyberbullying
and traditional bullying–An analysis of Swedish adolescent data. Computers in Human
Behavior, 29(5), pp.1896-1903.
Gunther, N., DeSmet, A., Jacobs, N. and De Bourdeaudhuij, I., 2015. Comparing outcomes of
cyberbullying and traditional bullying: a narrative systematic review of mental, physical and
behavioural negative outcomes. In Cyberbullying: From theory to interventions (pp. 54-81).
Psychology Press.
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.
Modecki, K.L., Minchin, J., Harbaugh, A.G., Guerra, N.G. and Runions, K.C., 2014. Bullying
prevalence across contexts: A meta-analysis measuring cyber and traditional bullying. Journal of
Adolescent Health, 55(5), pp.602-611.
Slonje, R., Smith, P.K. and Frisén, A., 2017. Perceived reasons for the negative impact of
cyberbullying and traditional bullying. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14(3),
pp.295-310.
Schultze-Krumbholz, A., Göbel, K., Scheithauer, H., Brighi, A., Guarini, A., Tsorbatzoudis, H.,
Barkoukis, V., Pyżalski, J., Plichta, P., Del Rey, R. and Casas, J.A., 2015. A comparison of
classification approaches for cyberbullying and traditional bullying using data from six European
countries. Journal of School Violence, 14(1), pp.47-65.
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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.
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