Bullying in the Age of Technology
Cyberbullying is a common form of harassment that young adults face, with limited resources offered to help them, which can have an adverse effect on their mental health.
The longer a student is abused, the greater the probability that they will develop significant wounds that can last a lifetime.
Bullying can be devastating to young adults. Students often experience stomach aches, headaches, panic attacks, and nightmares as a result.
Young adults often find their school performance negatively impacted due to loss of focus and even erratic attendance. Bullying at its most extreme can lead children to take their own lives.
SAIT student Kelsie Sprague was bullied throughout High school, both online and in person.
“It didn't really affect me academically. It just made me scared,” said Sprague.
“I told my parents, they just told me to stand my ground.”
Sprague talks about how it helped shape her response to others being bullied and what she hopes to teach her future children.
“Going through that definitely made me more empathetic towards other people who go through bullying,” said Sprague.
“In the future when I have kids, I would make sure I've raised them to know to stand up for others when we see it happening. Don't just be a bystander.”
Bretton Evans is a SAIT student and also a survivor of bullying.
“I was cyber and social bullied, like people would post things about me and say rude things, but they would also say it to my face,” said Evans.
“I had meetings with the principal and counselors. Usually things would stop for a little while, but then it would just happen again, and the school didn't really care to be honest. I just learned how to deal with it myself.”
Currently, students experience most cyberbullying instances outside of school hours. Many victims do not notify adults about incidences, usually due to embarrassment.
Aiofe Freeman-Cruz is a counsellor at SAIT, and she talks about the ramifications of cyberbullying.
“There are long-term effects of cyberbullying, but they're very similar to other forms of bullying as well. The difference is, that with cyberbullying, it's one of those things that you can't escape from, because we're so connected to our devices,” said Freemen-Cruz
“It's a lot harder to actually take a break from the harassment, there's not as much of a safe place. So, some of the long-term effects tend to include a general sense of not feeling safe, low self-esteem, low confidence and difficulties forming relationships.”
Freeman-Cruz also talks about the support that students can get in schools, including who they can reach out to if they are being bullied.
“So, there's different ways that we do support students. What we do is we work together to try and help that person feel more empowered to face that situation,” said Freeman- Cruz.
“We also work really hard on helping a person develop coping strategies and ways to manage that doubt and that self-doubt and help them not internalize all of the things that they might be being told by the outside world.”
Studies have shown similarities between cyberbullying and social bullying; notably, a lack of friendship and a sense of isolation.
Differences in social self-efficacy and public credibility have been identified as factors. Ideal social integrity and lack of emotional self-efficacy are connected to participating in online harassment.
The Alberta bullying prevention plan aims to assess extent of the harassment before agreeing to an action plan.
The plan draws on the latest research to support people in healthy relationships and mitigate risk factors to prevent bullying and create safer environments for Canadian youth.