Onsite Bullying Vs. Cyberbullying Research Paper

Onsite Bullying Vs. Cyberbullying - Research Paper Example In this regard, process involving such violent or unethical acts that cause harm or embarrassment to other person is referred as bullying (Macfarlane & McPherson, pp.10-15). It has been an observation that gender, religion, social background, physical appearance, and culture are some of the common aspects that become the reason of bullying for strong individuals resulting in usage of verbal and non-verbal pressures by such individuals. Bullying is not a very simple phenomenon, as it exists in different types and forms that make it easier to handle and prevent. Some of the most common types and forms of bullying are physical bullying, verbal bullying, on-site bullying, and cyber-bullying. For instance, any bullying that results in a physical injury or harm is considered as physical bullying, whereas, any act of bullying that involves passing of verbal comments that cause embarrassment and/or harassment comes under verbal bullying. This form usually involves comments related to physica l appearances, color, creed, or race of a person, as well as socio-economic status of the individuals. Although bullying occurs in almost all the social settings where individuals interact with one another, however, schools are the most common places where bullying occurs in all its forms, and thus, students are the easiest preys that become the targets for bullies in the schools while other students witness the incidents as bystanders (McGraw, pp. 9-12). Particularly, this paper will include discussion on two types of bullying that are on-site bullying and cyber bullying. Discussion Analysis of studies has identified bullying as a very devastating issue that affects thousands of students every year globally. For instance, in the year 2009, bullying affected approximately six hundred thousand students in different parts of the world, and â€Å"American schools alone have approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million students, who are their victims† (Rooney, pp. 171). Acco rding to Mattern (pg. 165), 56% of students in schools admit that they have observed someone bullying an individual in their schools. Moreover, studies have indicated that bullying has become so common that in every eight minutes, a child suffers from the acts of bullying at elementary level that results in adverse effects on his/her life (Lines, pp. 19-20). Unfortunately, these statistics include only those children and/or students that report the acts of bullying to their parents, siblings, or school management, and educators believe that a large number is still missing due to non-reporting of bullying in schools (McGraw, pp. 39-43). All these statistics include all forms of bullying; however, on-site bullying dominates in these reports. Particularly, â€Å"on-site bullying usually happens in classrooms, hallways, playground, bathrooms, and school buses. The bullies start with verbal harassment such as teasing before they get physical with their target, and peer abuse is another term given to bullying when it occurs in school† (Sanders & Phye, pp. 159-161). On the other hand, the other form is cyber-bullying, which has become very common after expansion and introduction of internet at every home, and especially after involvement of children in social networking websites, such as Facebook that allows anyone