Influence Cyber and School Bullying on The Mental and Physical Health

Introduction

Bullying has become very popular in our society, bullying comes in different types, physical, and the cyber-attack from the internet, bullying can be defined/ referred to as negative and insulting words of confrontation that come directly from another person, however, to be more specific, cyberbullying is the attack that originates primarily by the use of the internet, cyberbullying can be divided into categories, social media trolls, web article trolling. People including myself have experienced the trauma of cyberbullying, I know what it’s like to experience cyberbullying, I have read harsh comments in Facebook, and Instagram, where trolls comment with harsh words including death threats. This makes me wonder why rich people are more of a target to experience cyberbullying than the poor, a record number of research has indicated that rich people who post photos of their luxurious lifestyle are more prone to be victims of cyberbullying. The study indicated that rich people may be insulted on social media because they have a better life and may possibly draw more attention to trolls.

The technology today has advanced and therefore more cyberbullying has been reported. The report has shown that 93% of teens are active users of the internet compared to just 45% in 2004. The difference between school bullying and cyberbullying is anonymity, it is much easier to control trolls on the internet than in physical, you can block or change your profile on the internet, while you have to endure it in school numerous studies have shown that boys are more likely to be victims of school bullying, while girls are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying with over 18.3% as compared to 13% for boys. Age and school grade levels are determinants of victims that undergo bullying, some research and studies have shown that school bullying may occur as a result of low academic performance, and discrimination of race.

The effects of cyberbullying could lead to psychological harm, depression, suicide, and emotional distress. Researchers believe that people who are not happy with their lives are most likely to be involved in bullying others, either physically or online.

The student survey was conducted in three different categories, such as psychological distress survey such as [school performance], sociodemographic survey, such as [gender, age, race], and individual level school survey, these categories of the survey will help researchers to identify where the problem lies the most.

Research Questions

I have conducted some research questions, in which the answers will assist me in finding the reasons to Bullying in general, I have found the answers to my research some based on written articles.

1. How many people lose their lives each year due to physical bullying? 

According to CDC, statistics have shown that over 14% of high school students have attempted suicide, and 7% of those high school students have actually attempted, which amounts to 4,400 deaths caused by school physical bullying each year. In general, regardless of either school, or cyberbullying, it has affected people, and unfortunately, there are victims who have lost their lives to bullying, in my research I have found out that victims go through certain stages before it kills them, they first fall into depression, then it affects their mental health, from there it develops some kind of sickness to the brain/ physical health eventually leading to their deaths,

2. Cyberbullying or high school bullying which is worse? 

based on my personal observations, cyberbullying is more worse as compared to physical bullying, cyberbullying can be torturous, and cyberbullying is by far the worst because the internet connects us to millions of people around the world, whereas in school, you have to be physically there or by encountering someone face to face to be physically bullied, trolls on social media, have poured out harsh comments to people they don’t even know, comments are easy to make, nowadays people specifically teenagers, have access to smartphones and the internet, which makes it easy for them to attack other people, they can do that by sharing false information about something or someone on the internet, victims has shared their experiences and they believe that they cannot hide from cyberbullying, unless if they deactivate their social media account or permanently stay off social media, which seems impossible due to addiction. cyberbullying may have more impact than physical bullying in many ways, cyber-attacks can come in form of threats, insults, and derogatory comments, and as technology advances, more people are becoming more vulnerable to cyberbullying

3. What are the major causes of bullying in general? 

Based on article research, one of the main reasons of bullying is poor upbringing, it is the parent's responsibility to teach their children good manners and behaviors, and parents should always make efforts to identify the kinds of friends their children make in school, friends can be influential, another reason of why bullying is common maybe because of the violent games and movies that kids watch at home, which will make them want to try the same act in real life, another reason is being different from other people in your school, or your community, this has a lot to do with race, gender discrimination, or even religion, some people may attack you only because you come from a different ethnicity.

Data Collection Methods and Research Findings

1. Online Survey

One of the methods used in this research is the conduction of a survey, researchers have used an online survey to conduct this research. The survey generally helps to collect necessary data and information from the people in which the specified topic was referring to, it helps researchers to know and understand the nature and character of the people that have been victimized by bullying. The results of this survey indicated as follows, for the sociodemographic survey: results indicated that 75.2% of the youths were non-Hispanic white and about 6% of the victims reported that they were either bisexual or mixed genders who faced cyberbullying. In 2008, using regional census data of high school students, students of metro west Massachusetts had written surveys with regards to bullying and psychological distress. Students' surveys reported more school bullying than cyberbullying. Around 59.7% of those students were victims of school bullying, while 36.3% of those students were victims of cyberbullying most of which attempted suicide, Individual school level report: the survey indicated that over 70% of students with lower performance tend to be victims of school bullying while higher-performing students are less likely to be bullied. Psychological distress survey report: this preliminary report indicated that more than 47% of victims have fallen into a state of depression while 30% of the victims may have at one point attempted suicide due to bullying.

2. Interviews

This is an important tool for data collection methods and I have used it to gather the information I need during this research. I have personally conducted an interview in a high school, {Nigerian Turkish international college] and I have been successful in compiling enough data to signify the reasons to why bullying is becoming more frequent. The interview conducted proved that too much bullying causes depression and even suicidal thoughts in the minds of the victims, now the main goal is to prevent it. Most schools are now putting in efforts to address cyber and physical bullying in their rule books, but the problem is that most of the bullying activities take place outside school., that way the students will learn and accept one another and be united instead of being enemies.

3. Observations:

I have personally observed the rate of cyberbullying attacks by trolls on the internet, the rate is very high and disturbing, I have observed that people make more negative comments than positive about a certain post, under a specific web article, or photos from social media accounts, trolls in social media will try to downgrade any kind of post, even if it is not necessary, some find it is entertaining.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the findings necessitate the need to address and prevent both cyber and school bullying, as it affects mental and physical health, The school management should make an effort to increase student engagement, and schools should also provide protection, especially to mixed genders, and bisexual students, in regards to cyber bullying, community guidelines most be imposed, such as blocking accounts of trolls that way it reduces the number of people engaged in such activity, cyberbullying is as bad as physical bullying or even worse. This school-based study has included and suggested schools to engage in the cultural diversity of students most states have protocols set in place with regards to cyberbullying, schools are now making it mandatory to teach students about the general effects of bullying.

References

1. Shari kessel Schneider, MSPH, Lydia O’Donnell, EdD, Robert W.S. Coulter, BS, 2012 January, Cyberbullying, school bullying, and psychological distress: A Regional census of High school students retrieved from https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490574/
2. Bullying statistics, the statistics on bullying and suicide are alarming, http://www.statistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html
3. Mary Harding, Hayley Willacy, (‘24th june, 2016’,) why do people bully others, retrieved: https://patient.info/childrens-health/bullying-leaflet