14 DAY TRIAL // A study presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association indicates that people are much more stressed and traumatized by online harassment and cyberbullying than they are when subjected to the same treatment in real-life.
Investigators behind the new study say that it makes more sense for victimized individuals to feel this way, considering that online behaviors are permanent in a way. Verbal insults disappear when a confrontation is over, but online ones remain written for years.
At the same time, there is nowadays no way for victims to distance themselves from their bullies, since the latter use message boards, social media, cell phone texts and email to reach their targets. This pervasive type of bullying is responsible for producing a lot more damage than previously possible.
The only alternative a victim has is terminating their social lives, and renouncing computers and emails, as well as cell phones. Since this is very unlikely to happen, they continue to suffer at the hand of cyberbullies, experts say.
“Increasingly, stalkers use modern technology to monitor and torment their victims, and one in four victims report some form of cyberstalking, such as threatening emails or instant messaging,” study researcher Elizabeth Carll, PhD, explains.
“It is my observation that the symptoms related to cyberstalking and e-harassment may be more intense than in-person harassment, as the impact is more devastating due to the 24/7 nature of online communication, inability to escape to a safe place, and global access of the information,” she adds.
Some of the most common effects of online harassment include changes in eating patterns, difficulties sleeping, hypervigilence, nightmares, feelings of helplessness, anxiety, fear and ongoing stress.
Carll says that official statistics supplies by the US Department of Justice indicate as many as 850,000 adults suffering from this type of behavior in the country alone. The vast majority of these victims are women, the report adds.
“The same technologies used to harass can also be used to intervene and prevent harassment,” Carll explains. One possible use could be to force offenders to carry GPS transponders, that allow their victims to keep tabs on them.
“Imagine a cell phone application that can tell you if someone threatening you is nearby. That could be life-saving,” the team leader explains. “The results revealed that cyberbullying makes students socially anxious, lonely, frustrated, sad and helpless,” says YeoJu Chung, PhD, who presented the study.
One of the things that makes cyberbullying so dangerous is the fact that those who have been subjected to harassment are very likely to begin harassing others in return. This is where public policy and counselors need to intervene, Carll explains, quoted by PsychCentral.