Everyone has experienced some form of bullying because it is more prevalent among the children. At one point in life, one might have been pushed by a fellow classmate, or insulted. Nevertheless, one may have also have heard his or her rumors spread in the school. These are some forms of traditional bullying. Traditional bullying refers to bullying that is carried out without the use of electronic sources. Traditional bullying lies under three broad categories. That is physical, verbal, and social bullying. The three types of bullying always involve a person who is harassed by someone else with an aim of causing harm to the victim. Verbal bullying refers to mocking a victim verbally by use of either direct or indirect methods. Direct verbal harassment occurs when there is a face to face interaction of the two parties and the person being bullied threatened and called names by the harasser. Physical bullying has to do with a bodily attack on the victim. It includes all forms of physical aggression such as kicking, pushing, and so on. Social bullying is an indirect form of meaning whereby the bully spreads propaganda and rumors about the victim to his or her peers. The victim is always not aware of this kind of bullying. With the emergence of the internet and the current technology, another form of bullying, cyberbullying has emerged. It is not physical as compared to traditional bullying but despite that, it is causing long lasting effects on the victims. Many instances of cyber bullying are on the rise hence posing serious problems to individuals. It refers to a personal attack that is carried out through the use of the internet. Numerous differences occur between cyberbullying and the traditional one.
Despite the similarities shared between cyber and traditional bullying, they are somewhat different. The first difference that is worth notable is that cyberbullying gives the culprit some degree of protection. In the traditional bullying, it is clearly evident that the victim can identify his or her tormentor whether it is the direct or indirect form of bullying. With the current technology that is highly advanced, the electronic mediums that are used in cyber bullying can hide a person’s identity (Wang et al., 2011). Therefore, the tormentors can bully the victims anonymously. The victims often do not identify the individual who is harassing them hence brings difficulties in coping with that kind of harassment. Also, the tormentors may not know the person they are bullying.
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The fact that the identities of the harassers are hidden, the bullies feel empowered to continue with their act of harassing the victims. The bullies know that the victims are unable to identify them, and this further accelerates their aggressive behavior since there is no face to face interaction with the victim. Cyber bullying does not allow the bullies to witness how their deeds have impacts on the victims hence making the bullies not to experience a sense of guilt. The cyber bullies tend to become more and more aggressive since they do not experience guilt. For the traditional form of bullying, the bully cannot hide his or her identity since they are interacting physically with the victim. This may make the bully develop a sense of guilt and may cease his bullying actions (Dooley et al., 2009).
Secondly, cyber bullying varies from traditional bullying regarding the scope of the attacks. Cyberbullying attacks are usually unique. Traditional bullying mostly occurs in schools or other areas where the victim and the bully are physically together whereas cyberspace bullying can happen at any time since the bully and victim do not have to be physically present. Therefore, in the traditional form of bullying, the victim cannot avoid his or her attacker. In cyberspace bullying, the bully often posts information online against the victims at any time they choose to do so (Slonje & Smith, 2008). The victims of cyberbullying are exposed to the harassment on a regular basis.
Thirdly, the other difference lies in the issue of reporting. The victims of traditional bullying are more likely to report the incidences to parents, other adults or the teachers since the victim, and the bully interacts face to face. This means that they clearly know the identity of the bully. This is not the case with cyberbullying (Dooley et al., 2009). The Cyber bullies often hide their identity when bullying the victims. Therefore, the victims of cyber bullying cannot report the incidents since they are not aware of the person who is harassing them. Therefore, due to the aspect of anonymity, it has been very hard to prevent cyber bullying. Again, such victims feel reluctant to report the incidences of harassment because they may fear to lose their computers and other personal gadgets such as mobile phones.
Research shows that victims of cyber bullying are less likely to be concerned about their harassment as compared to the traditional one (Gradinger et al., 2009). Such victims of cyberbullying report few negative emotions as compared to traditional one. Some of the people view cyber bullying to be less harmful when compared to traditional bullying. The reason as to why it is not regarded as a dangerous form is that it can be ignored. Traditional bullying cannot be overlooked because the face to face interaction. The issue of the kind of bullying that is more severe is a controversial one because some other scholars will state that cyberbullying is more pressing than the traditional form of bullying. Further, the victims of cyber bullying have a means of escaping the harassment as opposed to traditional bullying. The cyber bullying victims can escape from such acts of violence by deleting the emails, ignoring the messages, or shutting down their mobile phones. When a victim ignores emails from the bully, the attacker may stop posting embarrassing videos or pictures. The victims of traditional bullying cannot escape violence since they are interacting with the tormentor's face by face.
Cyber bullying and the traditional one also differ in the nature of humiliation. The victims of cyberbullying suffer public humiliation because it involves millions of audience. Apart from enduring the hostility of the cyberspace attacks, the harassed victims suffer humiliation from a larger audience. The traditional form of bullying occurs in the presence of a small audience. To worsen the matter, the witnesses of cyberbullying are involved in the spread of the actions of the cyber bully either by liking the embarrassing photos or sharing them. Besides, they may also share some embarrassing emails or videos. They victims of cyber bullying suffer from long-term distress because when information is posted online, it is hard to delete it. Using technology to humiliate people has long-term effects, and that is why some other people view it to be worse as compared to the traditional one (Slonje & Smith, 2008). Traditional bullying does not have long lasting effects. Its effects are not as extreme as those of cyberbullying; they include physical, social, and emotional effects that last for a short period. Therefore, cyber bullying causes both psychological and emotional harm as opposed to traditional bullying. The emotional damage occurs because the tormentor is not known. Some of the psychological problems that may arise to a victim of cyber bullying include anxiety, depression and other forms of stress. There have been some cases of cyber bullying where some youths end their life just because they cannot tolerate it. It has become very hard to differentiate between a cyber-bully to traditional ones because any person is capable of creating fake social networking accounts or emails.
The children have been known to be the most victims of traditional bullying. Cyber bullying cannot occur without the use of the computer or internet. It only occurs through the use social networking sites such as Facebook, or through emails. Traditional bullying can occur anywhere because it does not require the utilization of a computer or internet to happen. It can be found in schools, parks, and other places (Gradinger et al., 2009). Besides, the traditional bullies start their acts at a very young age. One cannot be a cyber-bully at a young age because young children are not exposed to internet use until they go to high school. Research has shown that the traditional bullying is easy to stop especially when one changes the environment or physical location.
Various strategies can be employed to deal with cyber and traditional bullying. For the case of traditional bullying that mostly occurs in schools, awareness should be created to the students on how to address such situations whenever they arise. The youths are the people who are more prone to cyber bullying because of the frequent use of the internet. They should be taught on how to protect themselves whenever they are confronted with cyber bullying. The poor use of the web has been the primary source of cyber bullying (Wang et al., 2011). Therefore, the youth should be taught how to use technology appropriately. For instance, they should be prepared to ignore rude messages, not to share personal information, among other things.
In conclusion, cyber bullying is becoming more and more prevalent as compared to traditional bullying because it is hard to stop it. The changing nature of technology has further catalyzed cyber bullying. Both forms of bullying are severe and have serious effects on the victims. As discussed above, they result in public humiliation, loss of an individual’s reputation and emotional distress as it is the case with cyberspace bullying. Traditional bullying causes injury to the victim or emotional distress that is short lasting. Since cyberbullying cannot be escaped, it has been known to put the young people at a higher risk of being harassed as compared to traditional bullying. Both traditional and cyber bullying should be taken as serious issues and be addressed properly. If the problem of bullying is not well addressed, many people will continue suffering serious forms of violence. Traditional bullying can also lead to the death of individuals especially if it involves physical activities. Spreading awareness to the society and the schools can be used to fight traditional and cyber bullying. As long as there will be advancements in technology, cyber bullying will not cease.
References
Dooley, J. J., Pyżalski, J., & Cross, D. (2009). Cyberbullying versus face-to-face bullying: A theoretical and conceptual review. Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology , 217 (4), 182-188.
Gradinger, P., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. (2009). Traditional bullying and cyberbullying: Identification of risk groups for adjustment problems. Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology , 217 (4), 205-213.
Slonje, R., & Smith, P. K. (2008). Cyberbullying: Another main type of bullying?. Scandinavian journal of psychology , 49 (2), 147-154.
Wang, J., Nansel, T. R., & Iannotti, R. J. (2011). Cyber and traditional bullying: Differential association with depression. Journal of Adolescent Health , 48 (4), 415-417.
