Cyberbullying in HE
The rapid growth of social media usage has led to an increase in cyberbullying. Research with university students has demonstrated that around quarter of them have had a private video or photo shared without their permission or had been sent angry, vulgar, threatening or intimating messages (Mishna et al., 2018). In most cases, the people sending this were likely to be a friend or another student. Other forms of cyberbullying were also reported; these included having false rumours spread about them, others impersonating them or publicly posting hurtful comments (Mishna et al., 2018). Importantly, distress was not only caused by active aggressions – it could also result from ostracism (being purposely left out of activities) which was reported by students in multiple studies (Mishna et al., 2018, Smith et al., 2017). The experience of cyberbullying, harassment and ostracism was not the same for all students with, for example, students with disabilities and female students, at a greater risk (Mishna et al., 2018)
The impact of this kind of behaviour can be considerable on the recipient with research stating that students who experience cyberbullying are more likely to:
- Experience depression, anxiety, and paranoia (Aricak, 2009, Schenk and Fremouw, 2012).
- Have lower levels of commitment to their studies and difficulties in their personal relationships (Faucher et al., 2014; Kokkinos et al., 2014).
- Have more thoughts about suicide and suicide attempts (Schenk and Fremouw, 2012).
Research has shown that being victim to cyberbullying can result in psychological problems. It has also shown that those who are victim to cyberbullying can be less motivated to study. As you can see from the list above these bullying and aggressive behaviours can have devastating effects on individuals.
Depending on where the content is posted, serious incidents are likely to be covered by the rules associated with the group. For example, many Facebook groups have rules governing what can be posted – you will learn more about these in a later section. However, the links between social media and mental health are not just through cyberbullying as you will see in the next section.