Blog Post 7: Cyberbullying & Creating a Better Generation of Digital Citizens

Though I’ve always known that cyberbullying was an issue, I don’t think I was aware of the scope until reading Faucher, Cassidy, & Jackson’s 2015 study, “From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace.” I was disturbed to learn that the researchers discovered the issue of cyberbullying is much larger than I thought. Lots of different studies were referenced in this article, but somewhere around 40% of K-12 students are victims of cyberbullying (p. 115), around 25-62% of university students are victims (p. 116), and around 37-52% of adults in the workplace have experienced cyberbullying (p. 116). As an adult who’s experienced workplace bullying, I wasn’t surprised that it exists, but I was by the extent. I thoroughly concur with the authors of the study that a more concerted approach to cyberbullying prevention is needed (p. 120). 

So, how can this be done? I was very interested and encouraged by the Digital Citizenship Project discussed in Jon Orech’s 2012 article on incorporating digital citizenship into everyday curriculum. I like the idea of older students serving as mentors to younger students; I think a lot of people underestimate the impact and influence that high school students have on middle and elementary students. I loved seeing the example responses from students and how they talked to each other, and I think this is a great way to help combat cyberbullying.

I would love to implement some kind of Digital Citizenship Project in my own school; ideally, it would be a district-wide project that includes middle and high schoolers like the one in Illinois (Orech, 2012). Students are much more likely actually improve their behavior online if they have a high school mentor helping them rather than a teacher. At the very least, it could be implemented at just a singular school by having older students in the school mentor younger ones. 

I think it’s hard for students to meaningfully learn about cyberbullying from teachers because they perceive us as being out of touch and not understanding what it’s like to be young and online. In actuality, as more and more members of Gen Z enter the educational profession, students are surrounded by more and more people who actually have experienced being online as a kid. I was born in 1995, and I got my first social media account when I was 13. I remember rolling my eyes when teachers talked about online etiquette. It’s not that I was unaware to the dangers of the Internet, but I cringed to hear teachers lecture me and my classmates about using something they didn’t have at our age. My middle school students likely don’t realize that I and their other young Millennial/older Gen Z teachers actually do know what it’s like to be online at their age. I think this is something that I and other educators my age should capitalize on when we talk about cyberbullying and Internet safety.

Reading and engaging with the sources this week really opened my eyes to just how massive the issue of cyberbullying is. I want to educate students about it, but I worry that they won’t take an adult seriously, just like I didn’t when I was their age. I hope that some combination of peer mentoring and educator-led instruction can help create a more responsible generation of digital citizens.

References

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in k-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal Of Education And Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125.

Orech, J. (2012, July 25). How it's done: Incorporating Digital Citizenship into your everyday curriculum. TechLearningMagazine. https://www.techlearning.com/news/how-its-done-incorporating-digital-citizenship-into-your-everyday-curriculum