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Kathryn Myers
Professor Grant
University Writing 1102
April 8th, 2015
The Victims of Cyberbullying
In an age where children grow up with a mouse or a phone in their hands, the internet is
unavoidable. It is something that most people in America and other first world countries have
access to and can use. However, with the creation and widespread use of the internet, like all
things, there is a problem.
The internet spreads a disease. It is a dormant disease that finds its home inside the
human brain. It dwells inside our minds, and feeds us thoughts. It controls our tongue, and our
fingers. Its unavoidable, and unescapable, as it finds its home in all humans.
We call it by many names but it is much more than a simple word. Easily put, it is our
tendency to create a good guy and a bad guy. Theres us, and then theres them. And, of course, a
person is always right in their own mind. It is the tendency within ourselves to create a weak one,
or a prey. It is the tendency to say bad things, and to do bad things. Sigmund Freud called it Id
[simplypsychology].
But how does the internet glorify this Id? How can the online world culture such a thing?
This too has a simple name: Cyberbullying. Merriam-Webster describes it as the electronic
posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (as a student) often done anonymously
[source]. More colloquially, it is the hateful messages that people post online, targeted towards a
person or their work. Anonymous messages such as, go kill yourself, youre gay, and no
one loves you are good examples, but cyberbullying can be less obvious than that.

Cyberbullying has another, more sinister name: online harassment. Saying sexist remarks toward
a person, taking someones work and making fun of it, anonymous confession blogs that post
juicy gossip about particular people: these are all negative ways that cyberbullying persists
[sourse bullystatistics; paragraph]
These comments all have more of a negative impact than one might imagine. The scope
of online harassment is as enormous as the internet is. Bullyingstatistics.org is a good place to go
to realize some of the impacts that this has, especially on young people. Over half of all teens are
bullied online, and of those, over half dont tell anybody (only one in ten tell their parents).
Similarly, about half of all teens also participate in cyberbullying.
However, it is not the bully that I am interested init is the victim. Why are there
victims? What compels people to target them? Is it random, or are there patterns that exist that
can explain who becomes a victim, and the likelihood that they will become one? To help try
and find answers, first I further explored the concept of cyberbullying, and how it came to be.
As mentioned before, cyberbullying has existed practically as long as technology with
internet became accessible to a large range of people. Its predecessor, bullying, under various
names, has existed as long as civilization has existed.
With the rise of agriculture, hunter-gatherer groups became sedentary to tend to crops. As
a result, populations grew. As populations grew, caste systems and hierarchy started to form.
There were the people on the bottom, and the people on the topthe beggars and the kings, so to
speak [].
This has never gone away. Even today, there are the McDonalds workers, and then there
is the president. Minimum wage paying food service jobs like those offered by McDonalds are
often looked down upon and treated with disrespect. Drop out of school and McDonalds are

phrases often heard together, usually with a negative connotation. No one works there if they
dont have to. No one proudly says, I work at McDonalds unless they are the CEO of the
franchise. But why? Why is it such a negative thing? They become victims of prejudice and
where society places its worth, even though without the minimum wage workers of America,
there would be no America (we cant all be neurosurgeons). The garbage men, sewage cleaners,
butchers, farmers, and food service employees do all the so called dirty jobs that allow for
others to live comfortable lives, but compared to NBA basketball players (who make $5.15
million on average a year versus the minimum wage per hour, $7.25) are treated with downright
disrespect and ingratitude [businessinsider.com].
The point of all this is simple. The underdog and the alpha dog are always going to
exist in society and in civilization. There will always be prejudice, discrimination, and bullying
as long as there are enough people to carry on with the human race. But how can this be applied
to the online world?
The same can be true of the online world in that there will always be an underdog and
an alpha dog. Prejudices carried over from the impact of social stratification will still hold their
weight through text-based anonymous harassment. The key here is anonymous. This makes it
very easy to get away with things. This is how the internet brings out the Id in us. Those who are
too cautious, smart, or afraid to say something in person can feel secure enough in anonymity to
say it online.
Therefore, it makes sense that the internet would become to be the perfect place to
express frustration and to take out hatred. For all the good that the internet brings, it also
encourages the expression of ones inner thoughts, which just might indeed be something that the

rest of us would consider bullying or harassment. And, as the use of technology spreads, so does
this cyberbullying.
As cyberbullying grows, so does the number of victims. The severity of online
harassment cannot be contended with, either. Unlike bullying that occurs in school hallways,
victims of cyberbullying dont see their bullies. They dont know the people that are attacking
them. And if someone that the victim doesnt even know can point out all their flaws, then they
really must be flawed indeed.
The anonymous interaction is truly what makes cyberbullying soquite literally
deadly. As one participant in a study about the factors of cyberbullying reflected, I felt
victimized and scared because I didnt know whod done it. And another, So the anonymous
side of it when people dont actually show who they arethat can hurt a lot because it could be
close friends and you dont actually know who sent it. [source].
Though one message will most likely not have an impact, it adds to existing problems.
Teenagers are at the most emotional and hormonal part of their lives, meaning that the emotions
they feel then are stronger than they will ever feel through their lifetime. There is pressure from
school that adds a straw to the camels back. Maybe an uncertain household adds another straw.
An uncertain future adds another. Perhaps a lack of friends, or becoming ostracized at school
adds another straw. A flood of anonymous hate, ridicule, or rumor can be the straw that breaks
the camels back. More than one teenager has been charged of causing the suicide of their
classmates through cyberbullying, such as in the case of Rebecca Sedwick, a twelve year old
who just couldnt take it anymore. [source usatoday]
With such dire possible consequences, it make sense that the next step would be try to
understand who becomes a victim in an effort of learn how to prevent it. This is the hard part.

There are so many factors to consider that it is nearly impossible. Additionally, people of all
backgrounds can become victims, so is there truly any one thing that increases the likelihood. Is
that factor sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status?
After reading the stories of dozens of victims of online harassment, there was very few
that struck out to me. There was nothing in particular that each victim shared, except a link to a
corporeal bully known to the victim outside of the virtual world. This isnt surprising. In all the
sources that Ive looked that specifically provide insight on commonalities victims share, such as
nobullying.com, and bullyingstatistics.org, one phrase was repeated: Bullying shows no
prejudice. Instead, there are other factors the bullies focus on to help them choose a target they
view as weaker and unworthy [nobullying].
Whereas age and gender seem to be minimal factors, (though most of the victims seem to
be from the ages of thirteen to sixteen), factors such as disabilities and social difficulties tend to
attract bullies the most. Additionally, there is a combined number of things that make up these
factors. The overarching commonalties that Ive found are a lack of self-confidence or something
that differs from the normality, examples of these being individuals who are socially awkward or
disabled.
Another factor is sexuality and gender. People who express themselves as a gender other
than one in which they were assigned at birthnon-cisor individuals who are attracted to
those other than their opposite gender are more likely to be targets. [nobullying] This makes
sense, as these concepts are still new within society. Theyre not widely accepted, and thus they
are met with opposition. Its an easy thing to latch onto and condemn. Therefore, its an easy
thing to harass a person about.

It then stands to be reasoned that other things of a similar nature are good factors for
victimization. Other people who fall into the category of not accepted by common society are
much more likely to become targets. Feminists are a great example of this. Though the actual
intent of Feminism is pure (the equal treatment of men and women), feminists themselves are
still not accepted in society, though the concept goes back way before the 19th amendment.
Women are too afraid to call themselves feminists for fear of violent backlash and ridicule. The
sexist and misogynistic comments that major feminist icons receive are sickening. It is a label
that earns an instant target over ones head. In that way similar to that of the gender factor,
Feminism as a factor of becoming a victim depends upon how accepted Feminism is in culture at
the time. Hopefully with time, factors such as these will cease to exist.
Overall, the characteristics that victims of cyberbullying share are hard to pinpoint. There
are just too many factors that could be involved. Bullying has no prejudice. Anyone can become
a victim, so narrowing it down to one overarching factor is nearly impossible. However, there are
some substantial factors that impact the likelihood of becoming a victim. The main two is how
much self-confidence one has in themselves, and the other is how they differ from the normal in
things such as how accepted are their ideologies.

Works Cited
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cyberbullying
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/15/florida-bullying-arrest-lakelandsuicide/2986079
www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
www.businessinsider.com/charts-expose-how-badly-nfl-players-get-paid-2013-9