While looking for some articles on deviance I came across one that really struck me and is becoming more controversial as well and is something that needs our immediate attention. While hearing about death of college students by means of cyber bulling on facebook, I feel that as technology advances and this world shrinks, deviant behavior takes on a new form, cyber bullying is becoming a bigger issue each day.
The article that I came across puts emphasis on this growing concern. Technological advances no longer keep bulling in the school yards and lunch room it occurs on the internet as kids bully each other; often ruining lives, to the point where it is tragic like the student who killed himself atRutgersUniversity. It comes to a point where this issue must be taken more seriously. The internet is becoming a new campus for criminal activity and it needs to be policed.
Technological advancement in today’s society is great, however the continuous advancement lead to new doors opening up for this technological deviance to occur. Sure we police our cities, schools, but are we really doing enough to handle what is going on the internet. It’s a breeding ground to allow a new birth of deviant behavior. It’s a deviant behavior that takes place behind closed doors so when you may think your child may be okay, safe in his/her room, it may not be as safe as you think. Deviance is taking a on different form and we should be aware now more than ever.
http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/guy-weaver/cyber-bullying-the-digital-age-and-deviance/
I agree that cyber bullying has taken over as a huge part of adolescent deviant behavior. I think that one of the main problems that has caused this is that children as young as 4 or 5 years old are now interacting on the internet. I think parents need to regulate what their children are doing on the internet and maybe they shouldnt be on the internet at all at that young age.
As far as college students such as the Rutgers University student who committed suicide, that was an unfortunate event, but im not sure how something like that could have been prevented. The only way a college student can stop that is by standing up for themselves and maybe speaking with a counselor on campus explaining whats going on. Im sure immediate precautions would be taken.
In order to stop cyber bullying for future generations, parents need to regulate and monitor their children at a very young age and know what their child is doing on the internet on a regular basis. Bullies are usually cowards, so they talk about people on the internet because to them the computer is a shield between them and the public and they write whatever they want to write because truthfully they cant stand up for themselves in public.
This is a big issue that many parents have no idea that has been going on. They are the first step to stopping this form of bullying. It seems though that discipline towards your child has been extinct and thats a reason why children as young as 8 or 9 years old are doing what they do. They are maturing much faster and dont have that mother daughter relationship anymore and arent being disciplined to the point where they think twice about what they are doing. Parents need to keep their child in check and instill good morals in them because at this rate unnecessary suicides and violence can expand.
It is the problem that needs immediate attention. After school suicide wave last year, many schools implement anti-bulling programs. There are special organizations that are dedicated to inform school staff and parents on how to detect and deal with bulling, like “Trevor Project” organization that works with LGBT youth that faces harsh discrimination of peers.
However, most of this projects and organizations work on the level of physical reality, whether many teenagers spend hours per day in virtual reality. Logically, anti-bulling efforts should be extended in internet world. It is hard to do. Mostly because of ANONYMITY that comes with cyber-bulling. It makes it a way easier to make hateful comment when one don’t have to look into victim’s eyes. It has no consequences of social judgment on bully. No adult can pass by to witness and stop harmful acts. And it makes it almost impossible for victim to fight back, moreover to bring charges.
I’m in no way advocating for internet surveillance! But I do think that parents should have better communication with their children to be able to see signs that their child is bullied or may be making hateful remarks.
I think the idea of digital deviance is an interesting one. With the case of cyber-bullying, I think, this phenomena occurs because of the anonymity that the internet provides with a small chance of getting caught. Texting, IMing, chatting, etc, has replaced the person to person interaction–taking away the human from the equation, although there are real people on the sending and receiving ends. So this separation, I think, is what causes a lot of people to say things they wouldn’t normally say and/or do things they wouldn’t normally do. Even looking at the porn industry, for example: people can engage in what would normally be considered sexually deviant behavior by watching and engaging in various porn websites that have all sorts of disturbing categories. Things people would never dare do with a partner, significant other, random hook-up, etc. but feel completely comfortable taking pleasure from, over the internet. People become more bold on the internet because no one can physically see and judge them. You can create an entire new personality, name, and life on the web, which is something scary, but also something people find exciting. People also think, just because I’m talking to this stranger on my computer, no harm can come to me, when in fact the internet can be a dangerous place where manipulating someone’s thoughts and actions is/can be a lot easier than if the conversation was a person-to-person interaction.