Argument 1: Overreactions

My first argument discusses how many people blow cyberbullying out of proportion because they might not truly understand what bullying means, but also shows that some times the reactions are justifiable.

First Argument

    Although cyberbullying is a harmful act, bullying seems to get blown out of proportion. One of the main reasons for this thought is that many people have a misconception of  what cyberbullying is. Some victims are not truly being bullied, yet a parent will blow a hateful word out of proportion and try to contact authorities or schools. Isabeau Doucet  in her article "Cyberbullying Among Students Is a Dangerous Epidemic," it is said that ” more than half of cyber-stalkers know their victims personally, but the Internet has opened up myriad of sophisticated ways of hiding your identity, or stealing that of others, and the police's investigative capabilities are lagging woefully behind” (par. 6). This can also show that some people will hide behind a virtual mask and friends can pretend to be bullying when in reality they are joking. On the other hand, this does allow for real bullies to hide and write their hurtful statements without worrying about being caught. When giving a description of cyberbullying, in the article “Cyberbullying is Dangerous” author Suzanne Phillips says, “Cyberbullying is the use of internet or other digital devices such as E-mail, instant messaging, text messages, social networking sites, web pages, blogs, chat rooms or interactive game sites to send negative and harmful messages and images” (Phillips par. 5). Most people agree with the description of what cyberbullying given in Phillip’s article, but the term bullying should include the person being bullied actually being a target multiple times. There are a very large amount of people in the world who are sensitive, and people do not realize that. When getting into arguments online the other person might feel as if they are being victimized. Cyberbullying is often meant to make the victim have feelings of humiliation, fear, and hopelessness, which can lead to suicide of people from anywhere due to the easy access to bullying through internet (Phillips par. 16). Some people take the words someone will say to them one time that might lead to similar feelings as described as bullying. Sometimes in an argument or when talking to a friend people can say words that seem hurtful, but have no actual intent of bringing such terrible feelings to the other person. A very large number of people also think that normal forms of bullying are still more common than cyberbullying. The article "Cyberbullying Has a Broader Impact than Traditional Bullying" states, “A recent study which separated different types of bullying was completed in 2005 in a survey of 7200 US 6-10th grade students; this study found that over a 2 month period, 13.3% of the students reported that they had bullied others at least once physically, 37.4% verbally, 27.2% socially, and 8.3% electronically” (Uhls par. 7). These statistics show that forms of bullying that need face to face interaction are still more prevalent than electronically based forms. Many people assume that cyberbullying is the epidemic, when in reality, bullying occurs in multiple ways, and trying so hard to control the online versions is not going to stop bullying. On the other hand, sometimes the person is meaning to intend feelings of extreme hurtfulness and will defend themselves saying they “didn’t mean it that way.” Some people can take the arguments too far, but still think online bullying is not an epidemic. An example of people taking arguments or ridicule too far is described in an article saying, "Reported in Cyber Bully: Bullying in a Digital Age, David Knight, a high school student who found that a web page of negative, sexual accusations and negative descriptions about him had reached as far as Thailand" (Phillips par. 20). The evidence shows that the example used is most definitely a form of cyberbullying, but these cases are not extremely common. It would be expected for David Knight to contact authorities because that is a form of bullying that is extremely hurtful and meant to cause harm. People rarely hear cases of people being cyberbullied in such extreme ways; students most commonly hear of people considering to be victims of cyberbullying when they get in arguments with former friends or other students and think if they contact teachers or authorities they will get the upper hand. This is why Phillips would say cyberbullying is not truly an epidemic, but usually cases of parents or kids exaggerating an argument and trying to punish the other person.