For the final concepual essay, Saira and I are going to continue the topic of bullying, but focus on how technology has made bullying and teasing more accessible and has seeped its way from the playground to homes after school hours. The old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is obsolete in this media filled world. Purposeful and repeated bullying behaviors occur behind screens, where the bully no longer has to see the immediate reaction of his/her victim. Cyberbullying can take form through text messages, e-mails, and social networking sites. If messages are sent through a form of technology, the words meant to hurt just one person can now be seen by the public.
In addition to the increase of bullying through electronic communication, we want to research how technology has also changed the way peer interactions and relationships are formed. It is a rare scene to see children running around the neighborhood with friends, instead many children are meeting friends by playing games online or through game consoles that require multiple players. We want to see how these peer relationships differ and whether or not it affects students in their learning evironment.
-Christine & Saira
Those are two big topics. They are related, but you will really have to focus on one. For example, is it possible that changes in peer interactions have impact the dynamics of bullying? Are young people more or less likely to stick up for people that they have not physically shared time and space with? Are they more or less likely to stand up to bullies in cyberspace if they don't share physical space with them? This would be interesting. It would move the conversation beyond simply the modality of the bullying and into how responses may be shaped by larger changes in interpersonal dynamics.
ReplyDelete- Erik Jacobson
Thank you for the suggestion. I like that direction of focusing on the effects of peer interactions as opposed to just stating statistics on cyberbullying.
ReplyDelete-Christine
I think that cyber bullying occurs not only in school grades, but also beyond. People are all too familiar with blog hecklers and in the professional workforce, email can be abusive. Email ediquitee is a part of HR training for many companies. The bully profile seems to extend to the electronic relm, where people that would not say anything to you face to face, use abusive language when they can hide behind the screen -- just as the playground bullies appear in groups of support(not often alone). This might be interesting to examine, since you can look at the origins of bullying and some possible commonalities between the playground and the keyboard; between the actions of youth and adolescents and adults. -Paul
ReplyDeleteGreat topic! I'm interested to hear what you find. Personally, I've experienced students using FB to confront bullies and support bullied students through the creation of a FB page and an ongoing FB group. If details about either of these would be helpful, just let me know. - Shannon
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic that we can all always learn from! Bullying is something that happens so often and it is important that we become educated and informed of all the possible ways this can happen. Unfortunately cyber bullying happens more and more these days, sometimes even without our knowledge within our own students. I am very interested to learn more about the information you have found. - Tania
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really interesting topic. I know that bullying can be seen even past grade school and as time goes by it seems to be an an never ending increase. I wonder what the increase of cyber bullying has been over the past five years.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to post my name to the last comment. Daisy
ReplyDelete