effects of cyberbullying on mental health

Effects of Cyberbullying: 15 Negative Impacts on Victims

February 25, 2025December 28, 202429 Comments

‘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

Cancel Culture vs Calling Out: 7 Must-Know Differences

January 27, 2025January 4, 20254 Comments

‘Want to know the difference in cancel culture vs calling out? Here are the detailed distinctions you need to know about.

Cancel Culture is just the newest and fancier form of bullying and cyber-bullying. People often say that it was intended for the purpose of shaming people in power for wrongdoing. And maybe it was intended that way.

However, bullies have only found ways to abuse it, misuse it, and weaponize it against their victims. Moreover, it’s mostly the people in power who use it to silence those who are less powerful.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn the differences of cancel culture vs calling out so that you can more easily distinguish between the two and call out cancel culture when you see it happening.

Once you learn all about these distinctions, you will be more knowledgeable of them and better prepared to defend yourself against the scourge of cancel culture.

This post is all about the differences of cancel culture vs calling out so that you can protect yourself if bullies try to cancel you or get you cancelled.

Cancel Culture vs calling out

Cancel culture never provides the outcomes it was originally thought to produce. No. What it does is gives cyber-bullies a green light to bully anyone they deem unworthy of living a good life. Moreover, it only breeds cyber-bullies who are more dangerous. It even breeds cyber-criminals!

Cancel culture has negatively effected the lives of many celebrities. However, they were already rich and set for life. Understand that stars already have nest eggs of tens of millions of dollars to fall back on, if cyberbullies ever cancel them.

Therefore, cancel culture won’t affect the rich and famous like it would normal, everyday people with jobs, bills, and families to feed.

Commoners are who suffer the most from cancel culture. And cyber-bullies love to drag them through the mud because they don’t have a financial cushion to rest on. Therefore, cyber-bullies will come after them first.

So, what are the differences?

1. Cancel Culture means to harm and destroy the life of it’s target. Calling out only calls out the wrongdoing of the person.

Cancel culture involves spreading lies, incendiary comments, destructive criticism, public shaming, and threats of physical violence and death. Moreover, cyber-bullies go to extreme lengths to destroy people’s lives and they don’t stop.

On the other hand, calling out only calls out the person for something they did wrong. Calling out only attempts to get the offender to apologize and make things right. And once the transgressor has, people usually leave the person alone.

2. Cancel Culture vs Calling Out:

Cancel culture involves doxxing and publishing private information about it’s target. Calling someone out doesn’t.

Nowadays, if you fall victim to cancel culture, many cyber-bullies will dox you. They will find out where you live. Also, they will discover where you work or go to school.

But wait! It gets worse!

Doxxers will also find out who your friends and family are. Therefore, these kinds of cyber-bullies are the most dangerous because they get access to your information and do evil things with it.

Many victims of cancel culture cyber-bullying have had people call their places of employment and get them fired. Also, cyber-bullies have gotten their targets kicked out of school.

Some have even shown at their prey’s houses, broken in, and beaten the person within an inch of their lives. Furthermore, cyberbullies have even murdered their victims or driven them to suicide.

Many cancel culture bullies have even gone after the target’s families and friends either when they couldn’t find the target, or after they were done with the target.

This kind of cyber-bullying is especially terrifying because it puts people and their loved ones in grave danger!

3. Cancel Culture vs Calling OUt:

Cancel culture is personal and comes from pure, raw hatred. Not so with calling out.

It’s so sad that there are so many people nowadays with this much vileness and hate eating away at their souls. I’ve known of a few people who fell victim to cancel culture and the comments they receive were beyond vile!

“You have such a punchable face,”
“People like you need to hurry up and die off,”
“I want to break into your house and rape your wife and daughter,”
“You don’t belong on our planet,”

And the worst comment I’ve ever seen was directed toward a CEO of a small company:

“We won’t stop at killing you, we’ll kill your family too and destroy your entire bloodline!”

I could actually feel the intense hatred in each comment as I read them. And the people that post this kind of stuff? You can tell that they’re in such a bad place- a horrible place!

This is a place I never want to be in, and I kid you not! Some of the vitriol on that platform will leave you speechless!

Nowadays, no one is safe.

Before the internet, if you stalked someone and threatened to kill them, you went to jail. The law charged you with terrorist threatening. Moreover, back then, if you slandered or libeled someone without any evidence to back up your claims, you got your pants sued off.

Don’t believe that, with the robust cyber-security agencies that we have today, the law can’t arrest these types of bullies. Moreover, don’t think that the law hasn’t caught up with technology and can’t find the criminals who are destroying the lives of innocent people.

They can ping IP addresses. Even if the cyber-bully is hiding behind a VPN, proxy or cloaking their IP address, cyber-security teams can still find ways to track them.

And what should really blow your mind is that you don’t see many pedophiles and child sex traffickers being cancelled. This should be pretty odd (and suspicious) to you. But I’ll save that for a future post.

4. Cancel Culture vs Calling OUt:

Cancel culture happens for the most trivial things. Calling out doesn’t.

In other words, cancel culture cyberbullies publicly shame people for the most absurd, ludicrous, and ridiculous reasons. All it takes is for a person to say something, anything that someone else takes the wrong way.

Moreover, the wrong person can see an old high school photograph of a guy who dressed in drag at a Halloween party back in the 70’s. Back then, many men dressed as women on Halloween, and no one thought anything of it.

It was just a Halloween costume and some kids having fun. Yet people cancel the guy over it 40 years later. It’s ridiculous!

For example, three years ago, people attacked me online for “walking on the wrong side of the street” during my power walk. Walking with traffic has always seemed like a death wish to me. I’ve always walked toward traffic just in case a distracted driver comes along.

And if a driver is going to veer off the road toward me, I want to see them coming so I can get the hell out of the way and avoid them hitting me.

Granted, I never got cancelled for it, but I was told that I was the most despicable person in the world- for walking toward traffic instead of with it. Sadly, I’ve heard of many other people getting cancelled over silly stuff like that.

Cyberbullies cancel people over something foolish they may have said while drunk at a kegger thirty years ago. Or because they worked at a company or for a person that is now on the cancel culture hit list twenty year ago, ten years ago, or five years ago?

5. Cancel Culture vs Calling Out:

the former searches for things to cancel people over. the latter doesn’t need to search for anything.

It seems that cancel culture cyber-bullies must search, and search far and wide for something. Moreover they will look for anything, even the tiniest little social infraction to get the pleasure of cancelling someone.

And if they can’t find anything, they will invent something.

It only shows that the cyber-bullies who do these kinds of things have entirely too much time on their hands. Cancel culture does nothing to make people better or teach them a lesson. What it does is embolden cyber-bullies to commit more dangerous cyber crimes.

It further empowers these bullies to completely obliterate the lives of innocent people. People who are just trying to make a living, take care of their families, and live in peace!

And these targets mind their own business, go about their lives, and just want to be left alone.

WE should make cancel culture a serious crime.

You may disagree with me and you have every right to do so. But our leaders should outlaw cancel culture. Moreover, they should make it a Class A Felony. The law should give no one carte blanche to screw around with someone else’s livelihood and personal life.

They may dislike and even hate them. They may not like what the person says. Also, they may not agree with how they do things, the way they live their lives, nor who they associate with. None of that matters.

Therefore, if that person isn’t committing a crime, their livelihoods and personal life is off limits!

5. Cancel culture seeks to destroy. Calling out only wants to teach a lesson.

These cyber-bullies go to great lengths to destroy their targets. Moreover, they may say that they want to “teach them a thing or two.”

However, they’re not trying to teach any lessons here. They’re only using that as an excuse to deliberately ruin someone’s life.

6. Cancel Culture vs Calling out:

The Former is all about power. The Latter is about justice.

They only do it for the satisfaction of having the power to do so. Therefore, understand that this is how they get the rush of power they so crave.

Because they certainly can’t get it any other way. Understand that these people are life-losers. They’re zeroes trying to look like heroes. And the sad part of it is, they know they’re zeroes.

They can’t achieve self-actualization, power, respect, nor notoriety through creativity and hard work. Why? Because they’ve got no skills nor redeemable qualities to survive on merit.

Engaging in cyber-bullying and cancel culture is the only way these people can achieve these things. Moreover, they will attain them even if it means destroying many lives and breaking laws to do so.

And the power that cancel culture gives these bullies is dangerous and should strike terror in any law-abiding citizen. Those who only want to work, come home, enjoy the love of our families, deserve to live their lives in peace.

They do not deserve to have their lives ruined and others accuse them of blackface just because they dressed like Michael Jackson on Halloween back in 1983.

7. C.C. infringes on the rights of everyone. C.O. only holds the wrongdoer accountable.

Cancel culture is bad not only because it can destroy a person’s life, but it negatively effects everyone else as well. How?

It does so by robbing everyone of their rights to decide and choose for themselves. For example, let’s talk about book burning and banning.

Disclaimer: And no. I’m not talking about books with pornography that are intended for children. Children absolutely have NO business seeing pornography! So, these cases don’t qualify as book banning! And, ooooo! I just know I’m going to get a ton of backlash for this. Bring it on!

When people burn or ban books and their authors, not only are they violating the rights of the authors, but they’re also robbing others of the right to order them, read them, and choose for themselves whether they like them.

If I find a book in a bookstore and like the title, cover, and the synopsis on the back jacket, then I’m going to read it. You may not like the book or its author but it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t.

Therefore, you must realize that cancel culture only infringes on everyone’s rights to choose what they want to read, watch, buy, or consume. Who is anyone else to try and choose for us? Who do they think they are?

Not only am I speaking for myself, but also for every single person that values their right to decide and to choose.

It’s high time that more people rise up and push back against this senseless, moronic scourge. It’s also high time we push back against anyone who participates in it and condones it. The sooner we begin protesting this epidemic, the sooner we restore our freedoms of choice and self-determination.

This post was all about the differences in cancel culture vs calling out so that you can better distinguish between the two.