Bullying, which manifests in various forms on social media platforms, creates large-scale impacts on individuals. Experts state that the most common types of bullying encountered in electronic environments are humiliation, insult, threat, exclusion, and sexism; they add that the anonymity and ease of access on social media encourage exclusion, hate speech, and offensive rhetoric. Emphasizing that everyone can be subjected to bullying, Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural said, “One can start protecting themselves by learning about the types of bullying in electronic environments. The crucial point to note is that individuals should stop contributing to the circulation of bullying content.”
What should be done to prevent social media bullying?
Head of New Media and Communication Department, Faculty of Communication, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural discussed the forms of bullying encountered on social media and the characteristics of individuals who engage in bullying, and shared her recommendations on how to counter social media bullying.
Applied in various forms on social media
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural stated that bullying, generally defined as an aggressive action, behavior, or discourse intentionally carried out by an individual or group against someone who cannot easily defend themselves, manifests in various forms on social media platforms. “Bullying creates large-scale impacts on individuals. The unique structure of social media platforms, the interaction of thoughts that cannot be expressed due to social pressures without internal restrictions, or the intertwining of exposure, lynching, and cancel culture, lead to changes in some social norms and values. Today, in electronic environments, we most frequently encounter types of bullying such as mockery, humiliation, insult, threat, exclusion, harassment, sexism, lynching, opening accounts in someone else's name, defamation, indirect, relational, or social bullying,” she said.
They cannot express their thoughts in front of authority
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural stated that among the most important factors of this bullying, termed cyberbullying, on social media are the platform's characteristics of anonymity, disinhibition (the expression of what is suppressed), and ease of access, and she continued:
“While individuals control their internal inhibitions and carefully choose their expressions when part of a group, when they use fake accounts, they reduce their self-awareness and responsibility, perform actions and express opinions they normally wouldn't, act more freely, and set no boundaries for themselves. On the other hand, unlike in daily life, individuals perform on social media platforms to influence and persuade the other person, creating their virtual identities by turning their profiles into showcases. Individuals who refrain from speaking their true thoughts in the presence of authority in daily life create their virtual identities on social media platforms, where authority is minimized, by expressing whatever they wish without considering the status of the other person, using this form of peer communication. Studies show that the anonymity, disinhibition, and ease of access on social media encourage crude, offensive insults, fewer positive comments, exclusion, and fanatic hate speech content. Other factors include asynchronous communication and cyber-victimization.”
There is a relationship between cyberbullying and cyber-victimization
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural stated that while individuals give instant face-to-face reactions when communicating in daily life, they can provide feedback to a message encountered on social media platforms minutes or hours later. “The lack of a synchronized timeframe in messages, posts, and discourses reduces the bully's chance to empathize, feel remorse, and provide instant responses to feedback. There is an organic relationship between cyberbullying and cyber-victimization. Individuals may tend to inflict the harm they have experienced on others in electronic environments. Especially individuals dominated by hostile feelings and a desire for revenge may try to satisfy their need for superiority by displaying aggressive and manipulative behaviors in the virtual environment. The invisibility of bullying on this platform or the bully's inability to realize the consequences of their actions also increases the disinhibition effect,” she said.
They do not have a homogeneous structure
Emphasizing that social media users do not have a homogeneous structure, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural said, “Social media users ensure that two different features of the platform, positive or negative, become prominent. As a positive feature, shares contribute to the spread of participatory culture, easy reach to people through fast message transmission, creating an area for organization, and fostering a democratic environment. It is particularly effective in transmitting local information, coordination data, warnings, important information, and recommendations during crises and disasters. As a negative feature, confusion regarding the accuracy and reliability of shared information, the widespread adoption of observational selection practices, frequent recourse to defamation techniques, the inactive use of verification or confirmation tools, and the unquestioning acceptance of messages lead to information/message inflation. Although there is a relationship between individuals' behavioral patterns on social media and the five-factor personality model (extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness), explaining all shares with this model is neither accurate nor sufficient,” she stated.
Protection can be achieved by learning about types of bullying
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Derya Birincioğlu Vural stated that one can begin to protect themselves by first learning about the types of bullying in electronic environments. “If the boundaries of bullying are defined, ways of protection can also be determined. It is beneficial to get rid of the idea 'It won't happen around me or to me'. Everyone can be subjected to bullying. The point to note here is that individuals should stop contributing to the circulation of bullying content. As the traffic of shares increases, the audience will also grow, and the act of bullying will normalize and gain legitimacy. It should not be forgotten that bullying carried out in electronic environments is not just a situation developing between the perpetrator and the victim; it has a wide audience and therefore has negative psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, submissive attitude, anger, and loss of self-esteem,” she concluded.