Cyberbullying: The Technologized Aggression

It is a reality that people begin to use technologies (mobile phones, internet, etc.) at an increasingly early age. Whenever I think about this I remember the video of that baby who tries to enlarge a photo on paper with the sole power of her fingers.

Having premature contact with this infinite virtual world full of possibilities does not come with maturity, also necessary, to know the network risks and the appropriate tools to protect itself, as well as the criteria to discriminate fairly reliable information from that which is not it is.

When technological means such as the internet, mobile phones or online video games are used to exercise psychological harassment between equals, we talk about a phenomenon called cyberbullying or cyberbullying.

What is cyberbullying?

It is a particular type of harassment that occurs between colleagues, friends and people of a similar age group and that it can have different manifestations within the ICT environment (offenses, threats, blackmail, humiliation, insults ...).

Cyber ​​goes one step beyond bullying or traditional bullying. They are two forms of aggression between equals that share many characteristics. However, the first has certain peculiarities that make it even more harmful to the victim.

Anonymous on the networks

In the first place, the fact that the aggression is carried out through a virtual space favors the anonymity of the aggressor. This status gives the individual greater freedom to act, since less exposed to getting caught. In other words, compared to what happens in traditional bullying, in cyberbullying the attacker gets “more for less”.

Constant and almost uncontrollable attacks

Second, the cyberbullying victim once chosen, it becomes an “easy target” for the aggressor. It is available 24 hours a day, while in bullying, attacks are usually limited to those moments and spaces where both parties coexist (for example, school), the child being "released" from the pressure when he returns to the safety of his home.

In addition, it must be added that contacts are always initiated at the will of the aggressor, without the victim having any control over them.

It is accessible at all times and cannot avoid, as would happen in bullying, traveling certain sites that you know are dangerous, since the network, in this sense, keeps them continuously connected. This causes the victim to develop a feeling of unpredictability and uncontrollability that generates anxiety and fear.

Lack of empathy in cyberbullying

Another differentiating aspect of this type of harassment has to do with the distance from the victim and the absence of social codes. Failure to see the person's face and suffering who is being insulted, humiliated, threatened, etc. facilitates the development of these behaviors.

This distance makes it difficult to empathy, that is, the ability to put yourself in the victim's shoes and know how he or she is feeling, which could be a brake on the aggression.

Regarding social codes, in cyberbullying there are also no direct bystanders who give negative feedback to the aggressor (disagreement, bad faces, defense of the victim and other elements used in initiatives such as the KiVa method) that allow him to regulate his own behavior. He is alone and free from all feedback to act.

The massive use - and in some cases exclusive - of virtual environments for the development of social relationships has some risks such as the tendency to depersonalization (“I in the network vs. me in reality ”), fantasy-reality confusion (forgetting that this insult is just as real as if I say it in person) or the construction of erroneous moral judgments.

Public humiliation

Two last characteristics make the effect of cyberbullying more powerful. First, thanks to technologies, the stalker can reach a much wider audience, for example, spreading a hoax about the person on one of her social networks. Second, surely you have ever heard that of "what hangs on the network, stays on the network".

Due to this, the effect that aggression has through the environment of technologies and the Internet is much more permanent. It is not limited to the moment in which the person is insulted, but stays in that virtual cloud for a long time.

Cyberbullying cases are growing in a worrying way. The introduction into the world of technologies should come with an "instruction manual", administered by educators, parents, etc., which include a section aimed at raising awareness about the risks and the real impact that cyberbullying can have in a person's life and training in adequate self-protection measures.