A social issue - not a problem with technology

I believe bullying in itself is a social issue and not a problem to be blamed on technology.  The increase of technology and the influx of mobile devices and the internet have however provided a new platform for bullying.  The following link is to an article that highlights reasons why cyber bullying and bullying in general have been and continue to be issues of social origin and not ones that have come about with the introduction of technology: http://ipa.org.au/portal/uploads/submission_V6.pdf.  The article discuses many excellent points around the topic of cyber bullying and how it is a social issue that has received a lot of discussion in recent years.  It acknowledges different perceptions and opinions in regards to cyber bullying and attempts to define its components in an objective manner.  One main point being, although both traditional bullying (face-to-face) and cyber bullying are similar, in that they intend to cause harm, embarrassment or humiliation to another individual, the process differs greatly.  As stated in the article, some people would say cyber bullying is “more pervasive and insidious” in the sense that an individual cannot escape it; technology is everywhere and can be accessed by anyone.  I agree with this statement, although some could argue face-to-face bullying may have more impact on an individual, because it is a real life experience, cyber bullying unleashes the power of the internet and technology.  I believe cyber bullying is more threatening in the sense that there could be a potentially larger audience, no means of escaping it, and the possibility of recurrent incidences lasting a great deal of time.  The article also discusses ways to deal with and/or put an end to cyber bullying.  The first thing we think of when dealing with an issue we believe is wrong or unjust is to create laws that prohibit it, however in the case of cyber bullying, laws against it become contradicting to other laws or acts, such as freedom of speech, or they become easy to break, as the internet allows us to hide our identities fairly well.  A better means of combating cyber bullying is the implementation of tools on social networking sites in which protect individuals against others who may be targeting them.  Facebook and Twitter for example, allow individuals to delete, block and or report others for things they say or pictures that they post.  These tools help to avoid the cases of cyber bullying or at least remove them before they can occur again. It is evident that bullying is still prevalent regardless of the endless attempt to combat it; it is difficult to control something that is so out of our hands, as technology has really become, but that does not mean we should give up!  Bullying is a social issue, therefore if we fix the issue from its origin in society we won’t give the internet the ability to help progress it.