The studies in the book I feel didn't really cover much of anything relating to cyberbullying. I think that the research didn't prove hardly anything and the results were extremely vague, not to mention confusing.
The study was confusing because while reading the yes argument their data didn't really seem to strengthen their viewpoint, in fact it seemed that their research strengthened the no side. For example the question, "do male and female adolescents have different cyberbullying experiences?" and it was found that no significant difference between the proportion of male and female adolescents who reported being bullied, as well as the question "how often did cyberbullying occur?" and again no significant gender difference was found in frequencies of cyberbullying. So when reading these results I wondered what exactly they were trying to prove. I think it comes down to the construction of the study, first it was only conducted in three middle schools in Canada, also it only included adolescents in grades 7-9, so this study to me already excludes a lot of useful information. I think to make it more successful in discovering gender differences they should of conducted the experiment in other places, not just Canada, and also include more than just grades 7-9.
Moving on I think their definitions of cyberbullying were too vague, I mean how easy is it to offend someone? Everyone's different so not everything will affect people the same. I think that with this definition of cyberbullying, you really have to pinpoint what you are looking for or you're not going to get good results.
Furthermore, it's difficult to say that cyberbullying isn't related to gender, I mean what isn't related to gender these days anyway? Each gender has different methods for doing things and cyberbullying is one of them, but I think it stems out from that. Yes gender may influence and add into cyberbullying patterns but there are so many other factors that can lead to findings of cyberbullying that to say gender is the sole reason would be ignorant.
Proving that gender isn't related to cyberbullying can mean you have to prove that both bullies and victims are equal, that they're methods are the same, however there are other factors that need to be considered when saying that they are related, for example you should look into their school climate, what kind of rules are enforced to keep students from bullying one another, also the adolescents self-esteem, are they already suffering from problems with their self-esteem, are they having thoughts of suicide? I think that gender is related, but there are a ton of factors that play into these differences and since there is not a lot of research out in this field we can't prove a strong correlation between gender and cyberbullying.
Q1) How can we conduct research that can directly address gender and cyberbullying issues?
Q2) What factors beyond what the book says contribute to why adolescents choose to cyberbully?
I think factors such as how outgoing someone is contributes to their desire to use cyberbullying. Someone who is seen as shy I think is more likely to use this tactic than someone who enjoys confrontation.
ReplyDeleteQ2) i believe it is because most kids now turn to non face communication with all of the technology that is available today, and are losing social skills and are insecure because of it.
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