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Cyberbullying doesn't exist
At some point in the last few years the concept of cyberbullying has become existant popular consciousness, and I'd like to do my best to deny its existence and debase any claims that it is either a useful concept in itself, or that it has parallels with bullying in school or the workplace. I see this argument as important because I think that this idea has been unchallenged for too long, and if left unchallenged poses a threat to various freedoms. I'm not going to say too much here, as I'd like the arguments to come out in debate, but here are a few initial points.
Firstly, we must accept the internet as a social space, and for that reason treat it as closely related to physical reality, but bullying as it tends to happen outside the internet exists in those social spaces one can't just leave (i.e. work or school). Imagine, for example, a park. You would never get parents saying "be careful the park because there might be bullies there" or "If someone says something nasty to you in the park you should take it really seriously rather than just moving away". In fact, I think it would be fair to compare the internet to a park of massive proportions in which people who have nasty things said to them insist on hanging around those who say nasty things rather than moving away to another space or even exiting the park. That's not meant as an appeasement of those who are nasty, but rather as an explanation of why this sort of action doesn't have the dire social consequences normally associated with bullying.
I think that if we are to take the concept of bullying seriously then it is our duty to demand that we generally exclude "cyberbullying" from this definition, and if people don't have the good sense not to chat to people who are nasty to them then we probably shouldn't feel massively sympathetic toward them either. Yes, there may be an occasional problem, someone might take something too seriously, but the demand to be treated with universal respect regardless of how one presents oneself is clearly too broad a demand to deal effectively with the real problems of bullying within institutions, and the lines between very real criticism on the basis of what someone writes is often confused with nastiness. In general it is my view that those situations described as "cyberbullying" are in fact real criticisms based on people's actions (normally what they write.) This too undermines the analogy to bullying in real life. It would be good to hear some views.
Firstly, we must accept the internet as a social space, and for that reason treat it as closely related to physical reality, but bullying as it tends to happen outside the internet exists in those social spaces one can't just leave (i.e. work or school). Imagine, for example, a park. You would never get parents saying "be careful the park because there might be bullies there" or "If someone says something nasty to you in the park you should take it really seriously rather than just moving away". In fact, I think it would be fair to compare the internet to a park of massive proportions in which people who have nasty things said to them insist on hanging around those who say nasty things rather than moving away to another space or even exiting the park. That's not meant as an appeasement of those who are nasty, but rather as an explanation of why this sort of action doesn't have the dire social consequences normally associated with bullying.
I think that if we are to take the concept of bullying seriously then it is our duty to demand that we generally exclude "cyberbullying" from this definition, and if people don't have the good sense not to chat to people who are nasty to them then we probably shouldn't feel massively sympathetic toward them either. Yes, there may be an occasional problem, someone might take something too seriously, but the demand to be treated with universal respect regardless of how one presents oneself is clearly too broad a demand to deal effectively with the real problems of bullying within institutions, and the lines between very real criticism on the basis of what someone writes is often confused with nastiness. In general it is my view that those situations described as "cyberbullying" are in fact real criticisms based on people's actions (normally what they write.) This too undermines the analogy to bullying in real life. It would be good to hear some views.
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Reply 1
You are ugly and have a small willy.
QED Cyber bullying exists?
I'm sure you are very attractive and have ample girth and length BTW
QED Cyber bullying exists?
I'm sure you are very attractive and have ample girth and length BTW
Reply 2
I think you are missing the point - bullies are using the internet as an additional weapon to verbal and physical attacks in school/work etc....
Reply 4
But they've still read the message, it's had it's affect....(effect?
)
)
Aack
I think you are missing the point - bullies are using the internet as an additional weapon to verbal and physical attacks in school/work etc....
Fair point, but there are more than enough measures in place to block such messages...if the bullied don't bother to utilise such facilities, then surely they're just leaving themselves open to attack. They don't have to let anyone they don't like have their email address, facebook, myspace...whatever. I think a lot of these situations could easily have been sorted out by clicking on the "block" button...
Reply 6
pinkpont
Fair point, but there are more than enough measures in place to block such messages...if the bullied don't bother to utilise such facilities, then surely they're just leaving themselves open to attack. They don't have to let anyone they don't like have their email address, facebook, myspace...whatever. I think a lot of these situations could easily have been sorted out by clicking on the "block" button...
Yeah, and in real life, if they never went to the park, school or work, they would never get bullied....
As far as I know, you cannot block emails on most providers, so once a bully has it, they can just use different addresses to send them from.
Reply 8
pinkpont
Fair point, but there are more than enough measures in place to block such messages...if the bullied don't bother to utilise such facilities, then surely they're just leaving themselves open to attack. They don't have to let anyone they don't like have their email address, facebook, myspace...whatever. I think a lot of these situations could easily have been sorted out by clicking on the "block" button...
And as for MSN Messenger, "So and so has added you: Accept or Block?" - most people out of curiosity would accept, and why should a victim of a bully have their right to curiosity taken away???
My point being that once a bully is into their contact list - bullying can commence. And again, different email addresses.
Reply 9
Personally I think that because people live their whole live their entire E-social-life through one page, their profile pages, and these are open to nasty messages etc, that same 'not being able to get away from it' applies to cyber bullying as well.
Reply 10
coszcatl
get a new email address
Why should a victim be forced to do that??
My house keeps getting robbed - should I move house? No, the police should sort out the issue.
Reply 11
Aack
Why should a victim be forced to do that??
My house keeps getting robbed - should I move house? No, the police should sort out the issue.
My house keeps getting robbed - should I move house? No, the police should sort out the issue.
Buy a gun. Simple.
Reply 12
Thread Fail.
Reply 14
InvoluntarySlacker
Buy a gun. Simple.
**** it.
Let's give all helpless kids guns.....
/sarcasm
Reply 15
Pah. Have you ever been around here for longer than a day?
Reply 16
Aack
**** it.
Let's give all helpless kids guns.....
/sarcasm
Let's give all helpless kids guns.....
/sarcasm
That's the American way.
Aack
Why should a victim be forced to do that??
My house keeps getting robbed - should I move house? No, the police should sort out the issue.
My house keeps getting robbed - should I move house? No, the police should sort out the issue.
real world =/= t'internets (in most cases)
If it happens continuously and the victim has done all they can to prevent it then yes teh bizzies can do their stuff
Reply 18
bullies use it as an additional weapon - therefore even inflicting fear etc when they are not - making in a constant fear
Reply 19
Well, one anecdote springs to mind wherein one person has died. I'm not sure if her family would say it doesn't exist, but hey ho.
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