Cyber bullying: Lurking behind the Screens.
Mark Twain once said that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”. This means that while one is preparing to tell the truth, lies can invade both the conscientious and oblivious mind, and become impossible to uproot. A lie is at times more believable than the truth and under varying circumstances people are more willing to believe a lie. Cyber communications is the Millennia’s new mode of ‘travel’ so it is not surprising that negative correspondence would also develop via the online world. Today once a lie is uploaded, it is near impossible to take it back, and ‘the truth’ even if it is able to find its ‘shoes’ will forever share the same cyber space as the lie. With the advent of cyber technology, a bully can destroy an individual and their self-esteem along with families, relationships, and in extreme cases entire communities within seconds, with the click of a button.
“Cyber bullying is the use of…electronic communication to [terrorize] a person or persons” (“Bullying in a Cyber World”), using messages of intimidation or aggression. These messages are transmitted through mediums such as computers, cell phones and, web-cams, and can be disseminated to the maximum amount of persons desired through cyber channels like chat rooms, emails and social media. They are meant to torment, threaten, harass, humiliate, embarrass, or otherwise target a person or group of persons (Shariff & Johnny, 2007; Shariff, 2009) that are perceived as weaker or different from ‘mainstream’ society.
Groups that are commonly seen as weaker or different and therefore targeted by bullies are those of a different race, social status, physical likeness, intellectual ability, physical ability, sexual orientation, and or religious affiliation (“Bullying in a Cyber World”). Ironically persons can also be