Adolescence is a period of identity development, marked by changes in the way individuals view themselves (Encyclopedia of Children’s Health). The time adolescents spend in school and with friends and family plays such a crucial role in their development of a healthy self-esteem. Unfortunately, this critical time has been exposed to the dangers that the social environment has created for the world. Between texting, social media, and easy access to the internet, our younger generation is spending more time engaging with people online than they do in person. It is almost impossible to separate the online community from a teenager in high school or college because it has been integrated so deep into their personal lives. It has even been estimated that the average person spends a total of 5 years and 4 months of their lifetime on social media; this beats the time people spend eating and drinking, socializing, and grooming (Asano)!  Due to major advances in technology, cyberbullying has dominated the headlines as a major current-day adolescent challenge (Sabella, et al.). Although cyberbullying doesn’t pose immediate physical harm such as traditional face-to-face bullying, it puts victims at a higher risk of developing a very low self-esteem. 

Unlike traditional face-to-face bullying, cyberbullying can be done from any location, at any time. Bullies on the internet are even able to hide their identity and choose whether or not they want to reveal who they are. No person should be afraid of logging onto a website and worry that a hurtful message is hiding somewhere in their electronic device. Instead of using the internet as a valuable tool for schoolwork, adolescents choose to abuse their access to the internet and verbally harm anyone they please. An example of anonymous cyberbullying would be comments found under YouTube videos. In an interview held by Good Morning America with Rebecca Black (singer of infamous song ‘Friday’), she admitted that after reading all of the hurtful comments under her video from thousands of anonymous YouTube users, she felt that her video went viral for all of the wrong reasons. When asked by the interviewer what the meanest thing Black read and hurt her the most most, she answered with, “I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you’ll look pretty, and I hope you go cut and die.” She admitted that she began to cry when she saw that people were capable of saying such harsh things without even knowing her personally (Black). There are so many cases reported on the news that discuss adolescents who weren’t capable of being as strong as Rebecca Black was and would listen to what the cyberbullies had to say. Anonymous cyberbullying has made it very difficult to track the bully responsible for their victim’s self-harm, or even death. 

People having the ability to remain anonymous and attack from anywhere at any time while committing these acts of hate has played a huge factor in the increase of cyberbullying. Due to the fact that insulting a person indirectly takes less courage than insulting them face-to-face, cyberbullies feel empowered to say and do more destructive things than they would in person. This not only makes the victim feel helpless and lowers their self-esteem, but also takes away their home as a safe-zone. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullies enter into the home of the victim and can remain with them at all times as long as there is some form of technology. Greg Toppo, a national K-12 education reporter for USA Today, wrote in an article that, "Vulnerable children have virtually no refuge from [online] harassment. It's a non-stop type of harassment and it creates a sense of helplessness" (Toppo). Although it may seem that the easiest solution for a victim of cyberbullying would be to log off when being harassed, but nowadays it is very difficult for adolescents to stay away from technology. In a survey of 16 to 24 year olds, an astonishing 75% of them felt that they “couldn’t live” without the internet (Hulme). 

The more a bully taunts a child, the more their self-esteem suffers and the more they begin to believe that what their bully says is true. For example, if the cyberbully tells someone they’re stupid and worthless on a regular basis, the victim’s self-esteem will begin to suffer tremendously because being constantly picked on doesn’t boost a person’s confidence or self-worth (Patchin ). Singer Rebecca Black experienced a very common case of cyberbullying that many adolescents experience almost every day.  Technology makes it so easy for cyberbullies to simply press a few buttons and possibly ruin/end someone’s life without the victim knowing who the bully is. This makes the consequences for bullying a person online seem minimal, or even non-existent. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a child who is bullied enough can lose any sort of self-esteem or confidence they might have had. If a person believes they are worthless so early in their years of development, it can cause major damage in their ability to socialize or even carry out simple everyday tasks. It has been proven through many experiments, and shown in data, that excessive use of social media and the internet in general, can cause lower self-esteem. Just as acts of violence jeopardizes the intent of the school to be free of aggression against persons or property disruptions, and disorder (Center for the Prevention of School Violence), cyber bullying and textual harassment are just as disruptive and threatening (Will & Clayburn). 24 hours a day, victims of cyberbullying can be humiliated in a worldwide venue. It is virtually impossible to get everything removed from cyber space after it has been posted or shared by millions of users. Although violence cases reported in schools are still prevailing and continue to receive media attention, cyberbullying has taken over more and more headlines and has received more media attention over the past few years than ever before (Will & Clayburn). This information proves that cyberbullying is a very serious issue, and will continue to worsen if people don’t find a way to put a stop to it. 

Cyberbullying has become such a popular topic of discussion that people have created documentaries and videos related to cyberbullying. Daniel Fraser created a YouTube video called, “Cyber Bullying Virus,” which regards to cyberbullying as a “virus” that causes disease-like effects. It illustrates how fast the virus spreads and infects others and how it can ruin the lives of its victims. Once the carrier of the “virus” chooses a target, it can be transmitted through any social media website or source of internet. This was produced by STRUTT Central's social awareness program, which is linked to a website that is focused on building self-esteem and confidence. Many videos, such as the one that Fraser created, are being used in order educate adolescents about how dangerous cyberbullying can be. 

The availability of affordable or free internet access with little to no adult supervision makes it very easy for anyone to hide behind the screen of a laptop and harass someone to the point where the victim perceives themselves as invaluable. An ABC News article, written by Mike Marusarz, Seni Tienabeso, and Jessica Small, targets parents who don’t monitor their children enough. Dr. Joseph Wright, a professor and vice chairman of pediatrics at George Washington School of Medicine explained that, “Parents need not hesitate about intervening and being aware of who their children communicate with online” (Marusarz et al.).  Parents need to realize that cyberbullying can be prevented by keeping track of what their child does. If parents monitor what their child does on the internet, they can possibly save many lives of innocent victims who are cyberbullied to the point where their self-esteem becomes so low that they don’t want to live anymore. 

Due to the fact that technology is evolving at an accelerated rate, cyberbullying is a very popular topic being discussed and researched. There are many articles that discuss cases of cyberbullying compared to face-to-face bullying and which type of bullying inflicts more harm on the victim and lowers their self-esteem more. There is also research that has been done in order to compare which type of bullying is considered worse according to children who have experienced both. Robin Kowalski and Susan Limber published an article that discussed their examination of the relationship between children’s and adolescents’ experiences with cyberbullying and traditional bullying, along with the effects of psychological health, physical health, and academic performance. They conducted an experiment that involved 930 students in grades 6 through 12 completing an anonymous survey. The participants first answered questions about their experiences with bullying at school by completing several items drawn from the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire. Bullying was defined as aggressive acts that are meant to hurt another person, that happen repeatedly, and that involve an imbalance of power. After responding to these questions, the participants completed a series of questions about their experiences of cyberbullying (defined as being bullied through e-mail, instant messaging, chat room, on website, or through a text message sent through a cell phone). The results indicated that a significant amount of students reported that the effects of cyberbullying were by far more damaging than the effects brought upon by traditional bullying. Advances in technology has modernized bullies’ process of harassing and making fun of their victims. 

One of the main reasons that cyberbullying is considered worse than traditional face-to-face bullying is because when someone is being attacked constantly, it can reach a point where the cyberbully gets so deep into the victim’s head and harm their mental health. Another article that discusses the impact that cyberbullying has on adolescents’ health was written by Charisse Nixon, who is an associate professor of psychology. Her primary research interest focusses on all forms of peer mistreatment, including both relational and physical mistreatment. In this source, the author includes many different types of research that has been used in order to prove that cyberbullying victimization and perpetration has a huge impact on an adolescents’ health. For example, researchers from recent studies conducted in the US revealed that targets of cyberbullying reported more feelings of loneliness from their parents and peers, along with increased feelings of isolation and helplessness. They also reported fewer friendships, more emotional and peer relationship problems, lower school attachment, and decreased levels of self-esteem. Victims of cyberbullying can obtain such a low self-esteem to the point where they truly believe that they are worthless and don’t want to live anymore. Nixon explains that several researchers surveyed American middle school students and examined the relationship between involvement in cyberbullying and suicidality. The results revealed that the targets are more likely to think about and attempt suicide when compared to their classmates who were not involved in cyberbullying. The victims were almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to their uninvolved peers. These studies prove that there is a cogent relationship between cyberbullying and negative adolescent outcomes (Nixon).  The author also discusses study findings that suggest a strong need for discussions related to cyberbullying in schools. This research proves that cyberbullying can be very dangerous when it comes to a victim’s emotional and physical health.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology gave out a survey to victims of both traditional bullying and cyberbullying in order to indicate which type of bullying the victims thought were harsher. 156 students participated in this study and described their perceptions of being bullied. The research, led and supervised by Professor Marilyn Campbell from QUT's Faculty of Education, investigated the students' responses to both cyber and face-to-face bullying and asked which was more hurtful. The study showed that fifty-nine of the participants felt that face-to-face bullying was worse than being cyberbullied. Twenty-six percent reported that both forms of bullying were equally hurtful and the remaining fifteen percent perceived cyberbullying to be worse. Professor Campbell said, "Children reported being scared and very worried by the attacks but it was interesting to find a majority of them were embarrassed that others were witnessing their victimization as it occurred." (Queensland University of Technology). Just because some adolescents believe that confrontation is harsher and more embarrassing because their peers are around, doesn’t put the victims at a higher risk of developing a low self-esteem as opposed to cyberbullying. Of course it is embarrassing to be humiliated in a school yard or public area, but being humiliated with the possibility of the entire online community witnessing, which is about 3.2 billion people (Davidson), seems to be a lot more socially damaging and cause a higher decrease in self-esteem. 

Although traditional bullying may cause physical, social, and emotional effects, the victim has the ability to leave the situation behind them and even get help or support from people around them. What separates traditional bullying from cyberbullying is that if the bullying is being done at a school, a child is able to retreat to the society of their home. Whether it be online threats, or attacking someone physically or verbally, bullying in itself can cause numerous deleterious effects. The harm inflicted upon victims of cyberbullying only spreads more once it becomes accessible to thousands of internet users. Nowadays, teenagers are more prone to being cyberbullied because social media has become such a central part of their life. The openness of cyberbullying makes it much worse than traditional forms of bullying because it is very difficult for schools, authorities, and even parents to monitor and control bullying.

Aside from cyberbullies having the capability of being able to hide or lie about who they are, one of the main reasons that cyberbullying exists is because many parents don’t keep track of their child’s school/social life. Unfortunately, many parents who aren’t very familiar with new social media sites or have difficulty with using the internet are unable to keep tabs on their children. Sometimes victims of cyberbullying don’t want to tell their parents that they have been harassed because they feel as if their parents just won’t understand how to deal with the situation. If parents are out of touch with the technology their child is using, they may not realize how it can be abused (Smith).

Although cyberbullying and traditional bullying are similar in that the bully’s intention is to hurt another person’s feelings and self-esteem, the victim may not know who the aggressor is or what their intentions are because the bully is hiding behind a technological device. Face-to-face bullying is easier for parents to handle with their child because they have many options when it comes to dealing with the issue, especially if they know who the bully is. Parents feel hopeless and are scared for their children because they didn’t grow up with technology. In face-to-face situations, the child can identify who the bully is and the bully will face the necessary consequences and hopefully learn from their lesson. 

Bullying comes in many different forms, and with each form comes a traumatic problem. Ideally, everyone would agree that to stay from cyberbullies, they need only log off and focus on more important things such as schoolwork and real-life friends and family. However, due to the fact that the social environment plays such a huge role in the lives of adolescents, it is easy to say that they are more prone to being victims of cyberbullying.  Unfortunately, the effects of cyberbullying linger long after a person has logged off, whereas face-to-face bully victims can just walk away from the situation. The different factors that come with cyberbullying, such as anonymity, advanced technology, and openness to the online community puts victims at a higher risk of developing reduced self-esteem and causing stress that can wear on one’s physical and emotional health. Tackling cyberbullying will become more challenging as technology continues to develop, but if people who care enough about the health and self-esteem of others realize that cyberbullying should be taken more seriously, they can take part in finding a solution.  
