‘Want to know the effects of cyberbullying and what it does to victims? Here are all the harmful impacts so that you can take steps to protect yourself from cyberbullies.
Cyberbullying can be more devastating than face-to-face bullying. Why? Because the bullying posts are seen by a much wider audience. Moreover, cyberbullying is much harder to get away from than in-person bullying.
Therefore, in this post, you will learn all the effects of cyberbullying and the damage it does to your mental health.
Once you learn all about these negative impacts, you will take steps to protect yourself against this sinister form of bullying.
In this post, you will learn all the effects of cyberbullying. Moreover, this information will motivate you to take the appropriate measures to guard yourself against it.
Effects of Cyberbullying
I’m fortunate enough to have grown up in a time when cyber-bullying was unheard of. Therefore, when I was in school, “Street Bullying” or “Playground Bullying” was the type of bullying my generation endured.
“Street Bullying” happens face to face. It happens on the playground, in the hallways, the bathrooms, and locker rooms at school.
Years ago, a student could escape it and have some form of refuge once the dismissal bell rang, and school was over for the day. Moreover, when it got too much to endure, the target simply changed schools, and the problem was solved.
Sadly, those days are long gone. With today’s technology, bullies have unlimited access to their targets by way of “Cyber-bullying.”
During the last twenty-five years, technology’s advancement has introduced email, text, and social media. These new vehicles of communication have their benefits. However, they also have their pitfalls.
Consequently, a bully can nowadays get online and torment their targets for as long as they want. And they can do it without ceasing nor accountability.
They can, in essence, reach into the victim’s own home and torment them from afar.
Cyber-bullying, or online bullying, is bullying of another person using social media, text messages, voice mail, email, and instant messages. It is, in my opinion, the worst kind of bullying there has ever been.
So, lets get right into it.
What are all the negative effects of cyberbullying on victims and what can they do to overcome?
1. Fear
Cyberbullying causes intense fear. Victims fear that their good name will be tarnished. They may be afraid that the online vitriol may cause loss of business, job opportunities, or destruction of their marriage.
Moreover, they may fear that the cyberbully might show up at their house to do bodily harm to them. There are so many reasons this kind of harassment causes fear.
2. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Social Isolation
Cyberbullying has brought about loss of friendships and social standing in a community. It’s too easy for online trolls to get online and spread false rumors and lies about a victim.
Therefore, many people suffer social isolation and it doesn’t matter whether the persecution is undeserved or not.
3. Shame
Cyberbullying can cause toxic shame. And this shame is mostly misplaced. However, we’re all human. Therefore, we often fall into the psychological traps of cyberbullies.
4. Anxiety
Being cyberbullied can make you anxious and rightfully so. Again, this insidious type of bullying has been the downfall of many good marriages and highly successful businesses. Therefore, is it any wonder that victims suffer anxiety?
Online bullying has destroyed entire livelihoods. Moreover, it has even caused many physical attacks and murders.
5. Loss of confidence and self-esteem
As with any form of bullying, cyberbullying can wreck your confidence and obliterate your self-esteem. Therefore, it takes dogged determination not to let it destroy you.
The best you can do is to constantly remind yourself that you aren’t the person your cyberbully is trying to paint you as. Moreover, tell yourself that you aren’t guilty of whatever lies they’ve posted about you.
It won’t be easy. However, it will give you the drive to move forward even if you have to crawl through each day until things improve.
6. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Emotional and physical harm
On the emotional side, the target may experience feelings of shock, bewilderment, anger, sadness, despair, depression, hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide.
Traditional bullying is terrible and causes those feelings as well. However, it is something that you can get away from.
On the other hand, you can never escape cyber-bullying. This alone is what makes this type of bullying so devastating!
What’s even worse is what this kind of bullying does to children! In fact, cyber-bullying can be stressful enough for adults but devastating for minors.
Adults are emotionally better equipped and more adept at handling themselves in bullying situations. Whereas, children and teens have yet to fully develop good coping mechanisms.
Moreover, children do not have the cognitive thinking skills nor the processing ability that adults possess. Adults can be hurt by online bullying because they are human and have feelings also.
However, any well-rounded adult can look at the situation and see the lies posted online for what they are. Also, they have the ability to analyze the bully and see the person as they are- useless trash who needs to get a life.
That in itself can actually boost the bullied adult’s self-esteem. Just the knowing what a bottom-of-the-barrel, miserable piece of garbage the bully really is can be a huge buffer.
In most cases, an adult can usually laugh it off and go on about their business, provided it doesn’t affect their family, marriage, business, opportunities, or way of life. Moreover, an adult can refuse to accept another bullying adult’s lies and tell them to go blow it out their ear.
Children, however, are still developing and don’t have the capacity yet to do that.
7. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Loss of concentration
Who can concentrate on schoolwork or job projects when cyberbullies have libeled and slandered them, their families, or businesses? When you’re constantly having to think up ways to repair the damage cyberbullies have caused you, it doesn’t leave room for you to think about your work.
This can cause loss of productivity and is only another way that cyberbullying causes your job or studies to suffer.
8. Loss of sleep
The stress that results from cyberbullying can be overwhelming. Moreover, it can disrupt your sleep cycle if you don’t know the right relaxation techniques.
Any time you’re under enormous stress, your adrenaline is working overtime. Therefore, your body is in survival mode. And when you’re in survival mode, you won’t be able to sleep. Why?
Because, back in prehistoric times, those survival hormones helped humans escape lions, tigers, and bears with their lives. And when you’re running from a ferocious animal, the last thing you want to do is fall asleep. Therefore, your body secretes these hormones to keep you awake, aware, and alert.
It’s the same today, only we’re not running from wild animals. We’re trying to maintain our jobs and businesses so that we can feed our families. Also, we’re trying to maintain our good reputations so that we’ll have job and educational opportunities in other to feed ourselves and our families.
Therefore, this is how we survive today.
9. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Learning difficulties
This is a close sister to number 7, loss of concentration. In fact, it is a direct result of it. Who can learn anytime when they can’t concentrate on their lessons?
Somewhere, a cyberbully is stressing them out and causing them to have to concentrate more on keeping their reputation intact. Consequently, victims of cyberbullying often have grades that plummet or poor work performance.
10. Reputational harm
This goes without saying. Victims of cyberbullying suffer much reputational damage. As a result, they suffer loss of business, friendships, marriages, even family!
Cyberbullying can strip you of everything you’ve worked hard for years to build. Moreover, the mere prospect of that is terrifying!
11. Lose of job, career or business
Victims of cyberbullying have been unjustly fired from their jobs and have even lost their entire careers because some creep behind a computer screen spread lies and rumors about them.
Moreover, cyberbullying has also been the downfall of many thriving and successful businesses. This is why you must take steps to manage your reputation if you ever fall victim to such evil.
Fortunately, there are many reputation management companies you can contact. However, be ready to pay a pretty penny for their services. Reputation management isn’t cheap!
12. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Destruction of marriage
Many marriages and families have been destroyed by cyberbullies. In most cases, cyberbullies get online and claim to have seen you stepping out with another partner behind your spouse’s back.
Your spouse gets online and runs across the post. And the next thing you know, you’ve landed in divorce court. Even worse, you’re battling for custody of your children.
Understand that this has happened to many people. Cyberbullies are the most evil monsters there is. Why? Because they don’t have to kill you physically. They can kill your home life and public life. Therefore, killing you emotionally and psychologically.
13. Discord in the family
Along with destruction of marriage comes family discord. Thus, cyberbullying sets off a vicious chain reaction that devastates the lives of innocent victims every day!
14. Thoughts of suicide
The effects of cyberbullying are so severe that many victims have contemplated suicide. However, many have recovered and rebuilt their lives.
Therefore, if a cyberbully has put a dent in your life, don’t take it lying down. Know that, though it may take a while, you can recover and rebuild what you’ve lost.
15. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Suicide
Cyberbullies have completely ruined the lives of many victims. In other words, people have lost their marriages, families, businesses, their entire livelihoods.
Therefore, cyberbullies have driven many people to suicide. Because these victims feel they’ve lost everything, they don’t feel they can go on living.
Moreover, these are people who would otherwise still be here if the online bullying hadn’t happened.
Why is cyberbullying the worst kind of bullying?
1.It gives online bullies anonymity.
Bullies are COWARDS! Therefore, your attackers may hide behind a fake screen name. Moreover, they often create fake social media accounts to conceal their identities.
Understand that they do this to avoid detection and the risk of accountability for their evil actions.
Nevertheless, with a cyberbully, you do not know who is attacking you. They often use several different screen names to make it look like many people are attacking you.
However, it might be only one poster doing the bullying online.
The trick is to see through this. Therefore, realize that your bully is doing this to further intimidate you. Why? Because bullies in large numbers is scarier than only one bully.
2. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Online bullying is harder to get away from than bullying that is face-to-face.
Gone are the days when bullying only occurred on the playground or in the locker room. Before technology took off, you could finally escape your tormentors with the ringing of the dismissal bell at school or after punching out at work..
Moreover, back then, you could go home to your family and not have to worry about being bullied again until the next school day. You could, at least, get a break from the torment.
However, not so anymore. Technology has a lot of good qualities, one of which is convenience. Unfortunately, nothing is 100% foolproof.
With the rise of social media, text, voice mail, and email, bullies can now pursue their targets 24-7. There is no longer an escape!
3. Cyberbullying has a much farther audience-reach.
In other words, a much wider audience can read the taunts, insults, threats, rumors, and lies. This is why this form of bullying causes loss of relationships, family, friends, businesses, finances, and opportunities.
Effects of Cyberbullying:
What can you do if you fall victim to a cyberbully?
If you are a cyber-bullying victim, you mustn’t respond to the incendiary posts of cyber-bullies, no matter how tempting it may be. However, I realize that some attacks, especially those, which hit you in the jugular, can cause you to respond out of emotion.
Know that this does not mean that you are a bad person for responding to attacks. It does not mean that you are foolish It only means that you are a human being with feelings.
Our first instinct is always to defend ourselves and our loved ones when threatened. Therefore, it’s completely understandable.
However, cyberbullies want to kick you while you are already down and inflict even more pain. Moreover, if you respond in any way, shape, or form, they will know that they have reached their goal. Also, they’ll only gaslight you.
On the other hand, if they never hear from you, it’s going to disappoint them. As a result, they just might give up and move on to someone else.
So, again, no matter our circumstances, we must try to never respond to the ignorance and stupidity of bullies or cyber-bullies. As difficult as this may be, it is better to never give internet trolls what they want.
And what they want is a response, any response.
4. Effects of Cyberbullying:
Instead of responding, out them! Take screenshots and expose them!
Cyber-bullying can happen to people of any age. Not only children and teens, but adults can also be cyber-bullied.
Although I have gotten along with mostly everyone as an adult, there have been a few times I crossed paths with a cyberbully. Once instance occurred right after the death of my late husband.
Therefore, I can tell you that after refusing to respond to any of it, the harassment died, and the thread was eventually removed.
Moreover, in their weak attempts to put me down, my cyber-bullies unwittingly made me so many new friends. I received so much support from all over the country.
It is amazing how the actions of a bully can sometimes turn into something wonderful. However, this, sadly, isn’t the outcome that most victims of cyberbullying end up with.
I will be forever grateful to the people (even strangers) who stood beside me during this tragic time. I hope this helps you if you are cyber-attacked. And I want to assure you that there is always hope, no matter how hopeless things may look.
What can you do if your child or grandchild falls victim to a cyberbully?
Children and teenagers have totally different values than adults. While most “mature” adults place the most value on family, career, and home and less value on popularity, children and teens place the most value on popularity.
In other words, they most value their friends and being accepted. Most children and teens place emphasis on how others (mainly their peers) see them.
They want to fit in, be liked, and be “cool.” And when those things are threatened, as they always are when they’re cyber-attacked, it can have devastating effects on self-esteem.
Therefore, as parents and grandparents, we need to teach our children confidence. Why? Because confidence is the best weapon against a bully. In fact, it’s your first line of defense against bullying.
In my opinion, teaching confidence is the most effective way to protect them. Understand taht bullies are cowards, and they always seek out kids who are insecure, self-conscious and have low self-esteem.
Moreover, they do this because they know that a child with low self-esteem is less likely to stand up to them.
So, teach the children in your life confidence. It will be the best thing you ever do for them!
This post was all about the effects of cyberbullying so that you’ll be prompted to take steps not only to protect your family, job, business and reputation, but also your confidence and self-esteem.
Related posts you’ll enjoy:
1. Cyberbullying Tactics: 9 Common Tricks of Cyber-Bullies and Trolls
2. Bullying on Social Media: 5 Reasons Why People Do It
3. Smear Campaigns: 4 Tactics Bullies Use to Sully Your Reputation
4. The Effects of Bullying: 17 Negative Results on Victims
5. Bullying and Self Confidence: 7 Steps to Keeping Your Confidence Up When People Bully You
