Just as in the real world, interactions between people are not always friendly. There is a growing reportage of occurrences of online harassment and bullying. Due to the freedoms allowed by the internet and other forms of electronic communication (relatively uncensored and anonymous), there are some people who abuse the new technologies to harass others.
The downside of lives being further integrated with communication technology is that people cannot escape the reach of cyber bullies. One such case was of year eight girl Amanda Marcuson in Birmingham in the United States. Some classmates accused her of stealing a pencil case and she was teased at school. Later the aggressors sent a multitude of abusive emails to Amanda flooding her inbox. This act was compounded by the fact that Amanda had her email set so that all incoming mail was sent to her mobile phone (Harmon, 2005:21). Things could have escalated much further. Many people have web logs (blogs) where they can upload almost anything they desire without worrying about regulatory bodies and the girls could have posted a number of abusive messages about Amanda here too. While Amanda could not avoid this confrontation, there are occasions where the person sending the inflammatory document quickly regrets doing so.
Some psychologists argue that the electronic medium makes emails seem less real to users. The intangibility of mail in its electronic form means that once it is sent, it can disappear from the composer’s computer and almost be forgotten about. A young student at a high school in New York wrote a racist message to a friend about a man who has slighted her. The friend in turn sent it to the boy who made copies and handed them out at school (Harmon, 2005:21). Despite using an electronic medium, people need to be aware that what is said in cyberspace has exactly the same ramifications as it would if it were hand written in a letter or said directly two the person.
Harmon, Amy. 2004. Cyberbullies. New York Times Upfront, 137(5):20-21 (accessed 2 October 2005)
