how rebecca black put the spotlight on cyberbullying
a video of her song 'friday' in 2011 started a storm of cyberbullying, pushing the american youtuber and singer into a deep depression.
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a few years ago, when the huffington post decided to end anonymous commenting, former managing editor jimmy soni called the comment sections on websites “some of the darkest places on the internet.” a year later, a pew research center study found that roughly one-in-five internet users who have been victims of online harassment reported that their last experience happened in the comments section of a website.
what you type says a lot about you
also known as trolling, posting offensive and unpleasant comments online has been a thing for just about as long as the internet has been around. and just like those bullies in the schoolyard, the deliverers of virtual nastiness
get their kicks
from hurting and upsetting others, plus a boost of self-worth and importance if they garner support from other trolls.
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online hate and overall maliciousness are also pretty accurate indicators of the kind of person you are. ohio-based software developer gregory park, who has spent years exploring people’s personalities based on the language they use on social media, told the globe and mail that the use of words like “hate,” swearing and references to violence “tend to be good indicators of lower emotional stability… higher levels of baseline anger and anxiety and higher levels of depression, higher levels of stress.” in fact, trolling is considered a type of behaviour linked to traits like sadism and psychopathy.
but surely not all online downers are sadists and psychopaths. so what is it about the internet that brings out our mean streak? according to a study done by university of south florida psychologists curtis puryear and joseph vandello, the comfortable proliferation of snark comes down to three things.
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there’s another reason why we post nasty online comments: it feels good. saying something cruel is often caused by a person’s sense of insecurity, family therapist l.gordon brewer told headspace. “lashing out makes them feel more secure in themselves.”
whatever the exact reason people feel compelled to send hate mail and post offensive comments, it’s no secret that there are serious consequences to virtual vitriol. last february, love island star caroline flack committed suicide following months of relentless online hate after being charged with assaulting her boyfriend. in march, prince harry and meaghan markle
announced
they were quitting social media to escape the constant barrage of online attacks that was affecting their mental health.
and you don’t have to be famous to be a victim of negative online attention. a recent study on adult cyberbullying found that of just over 20,000 participants, 15 per cent had been a target of cyberbullying. and while young adults experienced the most cyberbullying, those in other age groups also reported experiencing substantial virtual hate: 24 per cent of those aged 26 to 35 years old, 13 per cent of those aged 46 to 55 years old and 6.5 per cent of those aged 66 years old. these statistics become even more worrying in light of the fact that that people who are bullied online are twice as likely to commit suicide.
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