SLIS 761 Post #7 - Cyberbullying
I will be honest, before exploring the resources in the current course module on cyberbullying, I had a very narrow concept of what cyberbullying entailed. I thought that it was mostly just people being persistently mean on social media, in comments sections, or on discussion forums. I thought that you could just avoid it by not engaging with it. Like on social media, for instance, you could just block the negative people or set your account to private. After learning more about it though, I see how simplistic that view was and how pervasive cyberbullying can be.
Dan Olweus (1993) defined bullying as, “repeated aggressive behaviours that are intended to cause harm to a victim with relatively less power to defend themselves” (as cited in Faucher et al., 2015, p. 112). Those are three key components of bullying, repetitive, harmful actions, against people with less power. I think what makes cyberbullying so insidious though is the way that it can exacerbate those components. Before the internet, bullying required a certain level of presence of the person being bullied. So, if for instance, a child was being bullied face to face at school, they were at least granted a reprieve when they went home. Now with smartphones and social media, daily repetitive harassment at school can become more frequent and take place at any hour of the day.
Faucher et al. (2015) point out in their report, "From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace," that the permanent nature of online messages adds to the repetition, but I think that it also adds to the power imbalance, as the person being targeted is unable to delete or remove the harmful content. That lack of control over publicly posted messages and how widespread they can become is unsettling to me. The internet is such a great tool for communication and collaboration, but it also enables bullying to be crowdsourced. Everyone can be anonymous, so anyone can join in, which again shifts the balance of power away from the person being targeted.
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| (Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W., 2015) |
It seems that the best way to prevent students from participating in this kind of behavior is, as Faucher et al. (2015) state, by “Creating positive self-esteem in students… as well as modeling appropriate behaviour in the home and school” (p. 118). As someone who likes to randomly tell their coworkers about how much I appreciate them, I feel like I have gotten a lot of practice building up self-esteem. I also believe that people should be treated how you would like to be treated, so I try to always listen and understand other people’s points of view. Faucher et al. (2015) mentions that a lot of bullying goes unreported by students, for reasons including, “fear of repercussions such as retaliation or having restrictions imposed on their access to technology, as well as the belief that adults will not understand, will not believe, or will not be able to help” (p. 115). I feel like by showing that you are willing to listen and understand, that it helps to create an atmosphere where students feel like they can talk to you and perhaps be more inclined to report bullying behavior.
Faucher et al. (2015), also pointed out that some studies have looked to address the problem by focusing, “on the importance of educating students in digital media literacy and digital citizenship as well as developing curriculum that fosters empathy” (p. 118). Digital media literacy and digital citizenship place this sort of education within the purview of the library. Thankfully, websites like the Cyberbullying Research Center and Common Sense Education have compiled a lot of resources on the subject. Common Sense Education in particular offers free digital citizenship lesson plans that I will definitely be using in the future.
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| (Common Sense Media, n.d.) |
Lastly, I wanted to share this spoken word poem that was compiled along with other videos on the “Cyberbullying Videos to Use in Presentations” page of the Cyberbullying Research Center website. It is titled “To This Day,” by Shane Koyczan, and while it is just under 8 minutes, I found it to be very moving and think that it is worth your time.
References
Common Sense Media. (n.d.). All digital citizens [Infographic]. https://www.commonsense.org/education/system/files/all-digital-citizens_24x36.pdf?x=1
ESET. (2016, December 15). What is cyberbullying and how to defend against it? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5wjKb4DAhI4
Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in K-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v3i6.1033
Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Cyberbullying warning signs [Infographic]. Cyberbullying Research Center. https://cyberbullying.org/cyberbullying-warning-signs.pdf
Koyczan, S. (2013, February 19). To this day project - Shane Koyczan [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ltun92DfnPY
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up an interesting point: Can't you just avoid cyberbullying by not having much of a digital presence or by blocking the haters? As you said, I wish that were true. Faucher, et. al.'s point of the permanence of cyberbullying is a notable one. It's a bell that can never be un-rung. It is part of why I constantly warn my kids, especially my girls, of the dangers of sending nude selfies. It will never end well! But much like our cautions against bullying, our warnings of sexting have also gone unheeded. In my blog, I referenced the Hinduja and Patchin information, especially the warning signs that your child may be confronting cyberbullying. My concern when I read these signs, though, was that so many of those mirror the behaviors of most teenagers (sleeping too much, moodiness, and spending too much time on their phones), so I can see how parents can miss some of the signs. However, teachers and parents can benefit by a positive rapport, as you mentioned. I love the video you included, too. Great post!
Cindy Hingle