Digital Media and Cyberbullying.

Emilia Roberts, Very Well

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying via digital media such as social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones (UNICEF n.d.). There are many forms of cyberbullying, and the most common one includes sending hate messages, making fun of someone's picture or other forms of digital objects, and spread lies on behalf of someone else (ibid.). Adults often underestimate cyberbullying's effects among their children, when cyberbullying can affect them even worse than the typical bullying. Cyberbullying is conducted online, which means it can happen anytime, anywhere from anyone, unseen by the others, and mostly they aim to destroy someones mentally. 

According to research held from two academics, approximately 20 per cent of students admitted that they were being cyberbullied (Adams n.d.). The closest person they can talk about this issue if their parents are not available is their teacher. As teachers, they have to take this issue seriously and learn and recognize the signs of students being bullied. Being rush is not the right action to take in the first place. Listen and understand the student is what teachers should to students being bullied before it is too late.

In the digital society, It has occurred to many people that even with social media's positive effect, there are still people who become victims of aggression and cyberbullying due to social media. Social media has altered the way of bullying and using knowledge from social media to combat cyberbullying. People who tend to hate and have strong opinions regarding a specific topic can take their actions and opinions too far, to the extent that it will negatively impact others in the process. Cyberbullying today has no borders; people lose trust in each other and create a toxic environment. Issues like cyberbullying often appear due to certain aspects like culture, social context, politics and history. 

In facing issues like cyberbullying, there should be boundaries like regulations that should be followed. Besides regulation, action should be made in education and outreach activities about social media and cyberbullying. Many teenagers and pre-teen have become victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying. There are three different causes of this issue: the type of data, the privacy concerns and perceived benefits of data disclosure, and the parental mediation. (Turow and Nir 2000; Youn 2005; Walrave and Heirman 2011). Privacy is paramount in issues like cyberbullying. Teenagers often publish content without consent, leading to severe damage to a person's state of mind. Action should be taken not only by parents and teachers but also students, people who are victims should be brave enough to speak up or at least people who know this issue should have the courage to stand up.

The primary purpose of Gamification is to combine work with fun. Any non-game context can be made more appealing by applying Gamification to it. In simple words 'Gamification' means integration of the existing environment with the game mechanics. Gamification techniques are intended to leverage people's natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism or closure. Gamification strategies use rewards for players who accomplish desired tasks or competition to engage players. According to the e-learning industry, 80% of learners claimed that learning would be more productive if it is game-oriented, and 67% of them reported that gamified course is better than a traditional course.