𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

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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 spreading 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 others, and mostly they aim to destroy someone mentally. 

According to the research held by two academics, approximately 20 percent 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 rushed is not the right action to take in the first place. Listening and understanding the student is what teachers should do to students being bullied before it is too late.

In the digital society, It has occurred to many people that even with the positive effect of social media, there are still people that become victims of aggression and cyberbullying due to social media. Social media has altered the way of bullying and using the knowledge from social media to combat cyberbullying. People who tend to hate and have strong opinions regarding a certain topic, they have the possibility to 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 the use of social media and cyberbullying. Many teenagers and pre-teen have become victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying. There are 3 different causes of this issue that is the type of data, the privacy concerns, and perceived benefits of data disclosure as well as parental mediation. (Turow & Nir, 2000; Youn, 2005; Walrave & Heirman, 2011). Privacy is really important in issues like cyberbullying, teenagers often publish content without consent and this could lead to serious 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 have knowledge regarding this issue should have the courage to stand up for each other. 

The main 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 a gamified course is better than a traditional course.

References:

Adams C (n.d.) ‘Cyberbullying: What Teachers and Schools Can Do’, Scholastic, accessed 15 January 2021.

Beauchêne, J., (2012), Social Networking and Cyberbullying Workshop on Social Network and Cyberbullying in the teenage population, accessed, 15 January  2021. 

E-Learning Industry (6 October 2015), 6 Killer Examples Of Gamification In eLearning, eLearning industry, accessed 15 January 2021.

UNICEF (n.d.) ‘Cyberbullying: What is it and how to stop it’, UNICEF for every child, accessed 15 January 2021.