The Student Room Group

Reasons Behind Bullying

As it is coming up to Anti-Bullying week, I thought I'd do a thread on what you may believe what the most common reasons behind bullying?

They can be the reasons why you were bullied, don't forget that anon is always there if you don't feel comfortable posting. Or what you personally believe the reason behind the bullying.

Also do you believe that the reasons behind bullying are changing, especially with the rise of cyberbullying?

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First of all, bullies like to bully those who are "weaker" and less able to do something about it. That's why the "weird" kids tend to get targeted. Those who are much more confident and able to stand up for themselves will probably not be bullied for very long.

The bully might be bullied themselves, or perhaps might be abused by parents or other relatives so they take it out on other people. Or maybe they're just poorly disciplined at home and carry into school an attitude that bullying is acceptable. Sometimes though, you get perfectly normal kids doing it if they think they can get away with it. Not all bullies are your stereotypical chav.

Cyberbullying is more of a problem than it used to be and that means the bullying is always there, even outside of school time.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by esjae
As it is coming up to Anti-Bullying week, I thought I'd do a thread on what you may believe what the most common reasons behind bullying?

They can be the reasons why you were bullied, don't forget that anon is always there if you don't feel comfortable posting. Or what you personally believe the reason behind the bullying.

Also do you believe that the reasons behind bullying are changing, especially with the rise of cyberbullying?


I think a lot of it is to do with being accepted in a large group of 'cool' kids. Being unkind to others is often rewarded with popularity, regardless of how wrong it is. As a result they simply continue, in the selfish knowledge that they have been 'validated'.

It could be due to nurture too- whether that be being spoilt your whole life which makes you feel superior, as if you owe nothing to nobody. Or it could be that they were neglected and have difficulties forming relationships and thus resort to abnormal behaviour when addressing others.
Sometimes they do it because the victim is unpopular, and by doing it they can make others laugh and thus make themselves more popular. The solution is to find a friend group, which makes bullies back off as they realise they won't get laughs, or, rather hypocritically, to pick on someone else, thus making yourself more popular and passing the bullying on to them.


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Didn't we just have an anti-bullying week a few months back?


Anyway

I was bullied by a group of girls in primary school as I didn't have any friends. I stood up to them though in the end after they kept spitting at me. I punched two of them in the face at the same time. They never dared to look at me the wrong way again.

Only thing that will stop bullying is violence.
A lot of it can be jealousy too.

Cyber bullying is getting worse because its easily accessible and hidden behind a keyboard. I remember being told to ignore the bullies when I was younger which at the time was easier said than done but imagine it being online too for EVERYONE to see. Ignoring is good advice though I see that now as not giving them a reaction makes them bored and not bother anymore tho it gets worse before it gets better! xx
The bullying I endured was quite mild compared to what others have gone through. For me it was mostly name calling and being made fun of in school. Fairly mild but it did have an impact on me. I would avoid situations that I thought could cause embarrassment and in primary school I often sat out of some PE activities if I thought I might get something wrong and embarrass myself in front of the whole class. Even today I'm still a bit shy around new people.
It can be for various reasons:

- Jealously. A lot of kids are teased for their intelligence or physical appearance. To be honest, a lot of bullies aren't the most attractive of people and very very rarely are they high performers at school, so they pick on others to make themselves feel better about themselves.

- Overconfidence. Conversely, some people think they're better than everyone else and will victimise those who struggle with certain things (especially disabled people or people with speech problems).

- Parenting influence. A lot of parents tell their kids to hit someone if they say bad things about you, or 'get them'. No child starts off as a bully, so their parents must influence them in some way.

- Peer pressure. We've all seen bullying in some form or another, and most of the time we do nothing or sometimes laugh along purely because we don't want to get on the bad side of a friend. I think this causes the 3 against 1 scenarios in particular, where one person is completely frightened of a certain group of people due to this.
Reply 8
Multiple reasons can lead to bullying - it's probably as complex as reasons behind committing murder. For example, mental conditions, jealousy, conditioned from childhood (abusive childhood).

However, as to cyber bullying - it's more easily done as people can be anonymous on the internet and thus have no ramifications to it. It's also more easily done as it's not face to face so people have more confidence.
Original post by RFowler
The bullying I endured was quite mild compared to what others have gone through. For me it was mostly name calling and being made fun of in school. Fairly mild but it did have an impact on me. I would avoid situations that I thought could cause embarrassment and in primary school I often sat out of some PE activities if I thought I might get something wrong and embarrass myself in front of the whole class. Even today I'm still a bit shy around new people.


This was the same with me. I was never physically or violently bullied but what I experienced was mostly teasing, verbal abuse and generally people going out of their way to try and make me feel upset. I would say it's had a long-lasting impact on me as I still lack confidence in certain areas.

Anyway, reasons why people might want to bully others:

- Trying to fit in with a group of people who feel that bullying others is acceptable
- Coming from a broken home where they are themselves on the receiving end of bullying from their parents and siblings, so they bully others at school to take it out on others.
- Being brought up with a lack of sense of morals or respect for others.
- Being adversely influenced by media depictions of people dealing with conflict.
- Being a fecking eejit (yes, that'll probably be it.)
Reply 10
Also do you believe that there is a thin line between trolling and cyberbulling?
Original post by esjae
Also do you believe that there is a thin line between trolling and cyberbulling?


A thin line, but not as thin as some people seem to think. Trolling would be making provocative posts to try and get a lot of angry responses, like with quite a few threads on here. Cyberbullying would be targeting someone or a specific group of people persistently.

e.g. Making a thread about how it's "such a shame Hitler didn't finish the job" - obviously trolling, and would no doubt get quite a few angry replies.

Frequently targeting a Jewish member with anti-semitic insults - bullying.
tut tut, nobody appreciating the art of tasteful trolling.
Being jealous is the main reason. I was targeted at school by bullies because I had good grades and bullies were failing at majority of the subjects. It would reach a point where bullies would ask for my notes to copy whilst we were on exam and would blame me if they got a low grade because apparently it was my fault.

Gone through a lot of things from getting spat in the face, called various names to kicking into various body parts.. Bullies probably feel some sort of mental satisfaction when they see someone else suffering :erm:

One of the worst was probably getting dragged into a classroom by older students and put around girls, then my trousers pulled down and making fun out of me to the point where I've got into tears and ran out.

I did experience some cyber bullying but that did not have so much impact as actual bullying.
Original post by ForgetMe

One of the worst was probably getting dragged into a classroom by older students and put around girls, then my trousers pulled down and making fun out of me to the point where I've got into tears and ran out.


What year were you in when that happened?
Original post by RFowler
What year were you in when that happened?


I don't know the exact year because we have different education structure, but then I was about 13 years old.
(edited 9 years ago)
Maybe they see someone with more potential for the future so they try to tear them down, only they don't know that it makes you stronger in the end


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Original post by esjae
As it is coming up to Anti-Bullying week, I thought I'd do a thread on what you may believe what the most common reasons behind bullying?

They can be the reasons why you were bullied, don't forget that anon is always there if you don't feel comfortable posting. Or what you personally believe the reason behind the bullying.

Also do you believe that the reasons behind bullying are changing, especially with the rise of cyberbullying?


PRSOM!
It's never been clear to me the reasons why I have been bullied at certain points in my life... the worst was during secondary school which was all girls and I do feel that there needs to be a serious shake-down on how girls treat each other, too often it is with suspicion and jealousy and come to think of it I haven't ever been bullied by a boy...
Original post by esjae
As it is coming up to Anti-Bullying week, I thought I'd do a thread on what you may believe what the most common reasons behind bullying?



It's an open book. However, you could say the bully hasn't been shown right from wrong. But there are many, many different reasons why someone would become a bully.
I was bullied in high school. I admit that I became a bit of a bully in my final year, but it's probably different from what most bullies do. Instead of going after weaker kids, I gained confidence and I actually started making the lives of the people who bullied me hell, so it was very much about revenge. I probably took it too far a lot of the time, but I don't really regret it.

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