Running head: SOCIAL ACTION PROJECT 1

Cyberbullying

Carolyn Vieyra

Pacific Oaks College

SOCIAL ACTION PROJECT 2

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is bullying that is done through electronic technology. Cyberbullies use

electronic technology such as “cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication

tools including social media sites, text messages, chat and websites” (stopbullying.gov, n.d.).

According to the website stopbullying.gov, some examples of cyberbullying include “mean texts

messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing

pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.” Cyberbullying is also the “intention to embarrass,

hurt, humiliate, offend, get revenge, have fun, and/or exert power over others. It encompasses

different subcategories as mentioned above (texting, email, social media) and modalities

(flaming, denigration and defaming, using offensive symbols, sexual harassment, slandering)”

(Carter, 2013).

In recent years, Cyberbullying has become more prevalent and is a serious matter. In the

stop bullying website they mentioned that “kids who are being cyberbullied are often bullied in

person as well. Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even

when he or she is alone” (stopbullying.gov, n.d.). “Cyberbullying messages and images can be

posted anonymously and distributed quickly to a very wide audience. It can be difficult and

sometimes impossible to trace the source,” according to the site stopbullying.gov. The stop

bullying website also states that, it is very difficult for pictures, harassing messages and texts to

be deleted once they have been sent or posted. Cyberbullying has led kids/adolescents to

become truant from school, use alcohol and/or drugs, have lower self-esteem and could lead to

suicide.

I want to focus on Cyberbullying for my Social Action project because I have worked

with kids/adolescents who have been victims of cyberbullying and I have seen how it’s affected
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their lives and the lives of their families and those who are close to them because the

kids/adolescents tend to isolate themselves and become withdrawn. I feel it’s important for

parents, teachers, and adults to be aware of the most common places where cyberbullying can

occur so that they can intervene, assist, and provide support to the victims of cyberbullying. The

areas where we need to keep a close eye on are social media such as Instagram, Facebook,

Twitter, and Snapchat, text messages, instant messages such as email provider services, phone

applications such as Whatsapp, and social media messaging features, and last but not least,

emails. If these areas were closely monitored by parents and adults, there would be less

cyberbullying in our world. According to the article and research by Elledge et al, “parents and

community leaders, in addition to teachers and students, must be involved in cyberbullying

prevention. Parents may be especially effective if they encourage the direct monitoring of

children’s online activities to decrease the probability that they will make harmful choices while

online” (2013, p. 707-708).

When I was younger (school-aged) social media was not around, but I do remember

being bullied a couple times by one of my classmates in elementary school and I also remember

some of my friends being bullied as well throughout my years in school (Elementary, Middle

School and High School). The couple times that I was bullied by a classmate, I can recall feeling

sad, not wanting to come to school because I was afraid she was going to bother me, and I felt

self-conscious about the way I looked. Speaking to my friends who were also bullied, they also

shared feeling the same way I did when I was bullied in elementary school. I remember

speaking to my parents about how a girl in my class was bothering me during recess and lunch

and my mother coming to my school to speak with the teacher and the principal so that “the

bully” could stop bothering me. I was thankful for my mom having come to the school, because
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my classmate apologized to me and stopped bothering me after the teacher and principal talked

with her and her parents.

The way I opened spaces for others to share their story around this inequity was by,

creating a Facebook page called Empathetic Advocates Against Cyberbullying/Bullying. In this

page I posted a few images regarding cyberbullying and bullying, and I also posted a couple

videos to the page as well. I will continue to add more information regarding cyberbullying and

bullying and will continue to invite friends and family to like the page. I am encouraging friends

and family that know of victims of cyberbulling/bullying to have them like my page and to feel

free to share their stories so that others who are victims could relate to them, share their stories

too and provide support to one another. By creating this page, I will be able to post information

on bi-weekly support groups in the community where victims of cyberbullying can share their

feelings and talk about their experiences of being bullied. These groups will also have

professionals (mental health counselors, psychologists, etc.) and victims of cyberbullying who

have overcome the negative and awful experience of being bullied and can share strategies and

coping skills that can assist those who are currently victims of cyberbullying. I have contacted

friends of mine who are therapists and work in the mental health setting to see if they would be

willing and have time to volunteer in providing counseling to the kids and adolescents who have

been victims of cyberbullying/bullying. When I contacted my friends about my Social Action

Project they were interested and agreed that cyberbullying and bullying has become more

prevalent and recently there have been more stories of kids and adolescents who are being

bullied and have committed suicide because of it. I have also been researching where I could

have the bi-weekly community support meetings for the victims of cyberbullying/bullying. One

of my friends who works at a mental health agency in the community mentioned she was going
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to talk to her supervisor at work to see if I could utilize on of their meeting rooms to host the bi-

weekly support group. I will continue to research other locations where I might be able to have

the support group and once I have a location I will also create flyers to pass out and post at

schools in the community so that word could be spread around regarding this supportive group.

As Myles Horton stated in the book The Long Haul, he wanted to deal with some of the

problems he was becoming aware of, so he decided to pass the word that he wanted all the

parents and adults to come to a meeting. Myles Horton said he did know the answers and he

didn’t have any technical competence, so he told a story of when he was growing up, “we used to

sit around in our house or other peoples’ houses and people would talk about their problems just

like this. Somebody would say, “Try this…” or “I heard about this…” and a lot of ideas and

knowledge would come out when people talked to each other” (Horton, 1998, p. 23). I like how

Myles Horton started his advocacy through meetings/discussions he would have at his house or

other peoples’ houses where they could discuss their problems. This is exactly what I envision

for my Social Action project. Having a space in the community for victims of cyberbullying and

bullying to share their stories, their concerns, their frustrations and their encouragement to others

on how they overcame the social injustice or how they are working towards overcoming the

social injustice.

The changes that this project has brought about in me, my values and perspectives is that

I have learned that without involvement, social change can’t happen. I have realized that this

inequity needs more attention and more people need to become involved in helping victims of

cyberbullying/bullying to prevent kids and adolescents from doing extreme actions like

committing suicide. There needs to be more prevention, advocacy and parent involvement to

closely monitor their kids/adolescent’s technology use. I feel I have grown in knowing that I
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have the power to create change and utilizing my voice to address this issue to seek for

assistance in having the community support group going.

In conclusion, I feel that change can start with one person’s ideas being put into action. I

believe that many kids and adolescents would benefit from this support group and then they

could become social change agents by continuing to attend the meetings, invite their friends to

the meetings and reach out to peers that are going through and are being affected by

cyberbullying/bullying. As I have mentioned throughout this semester, Myles Horton has made

an impact on my views of being a social change agent and has empowered me to speak up

regarding this inequity and other inequities that I may encounter. I feel that the Cyberbullying

support groups would have similarities to Horton’s meetings he held. Just as Horton stated, “I

wanted and still want to see a world in which people can be equal, where people give their

property to be held in common if they can’t make personal use of it. I’d like to see a world

where you could really love your enemies, where you could really care for people, a humane

world. I don’t live in that kind of world, but I want to help create one like it” (Horton, 1998, p.

27), I too want to see a change in our world and I would like to hear less of cyberbullying

incidents and of suicides due to cyberbullying/bullying.

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References

Carter, M.A. (2013). Protecting Oneself from Cyber Bullying on Social Media Sites- a Study of

Undergraduate Students. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93, 1229-1235

Elledge, L. C., Williford, A., Boulton, A. J., DePaolis, K. J., Little, T. D., & Salmivalli, C.

(2013). Individual and Contextual Predictors of Cyberbullying: The Influence of

Chilren's Provictim Attitudes and Teachers' Ability to Intervene. J Youth Adolescence,

42: 698-710. doi: 10.10.1007/s10964-013-9920-x

Horton, M. (1998). The Long Haul. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

StopBullying.gov. (n.d.). Cyberbullying. Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov