Bullying is a continuous aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. This type of behavior generally happens among school-age children. However, in just recent years, bullying has raised great concern among people of all ages. Bullying is happening in classrooms, locker rooms, board rooms, and on the internet.
No matter what the age, bullying can cause serious lasting psychological and sociological problems. Victims of bullying often suffer from depression, fear, and anxiety. Other symptoms may include changes in sleep habits, eating patterns, as well as loss of interest in activities they enjoy doing.
There are several types of bullying. Some of these include physical, verbal, and relationship bullying. Physical bullying involves hitting, kicking, and/or pushing. It can also involve intimidation of threatening to do physical harm, stealing and ruining the victims’ belongings, and making someone do things they do not want to do (PBS & CastleWorks, Inc., 2005).
Verbal bullying is targeted more towards females. However, young or old, male or female, the purpose of bullying someone verbally is to degrade and demean the victim while making the aggressor look dominant and powerful (Bullying Statistics, 2013).
Despite often going un-noticed, relationship bullying may be the most harmful due to today’s social media craze. It reportedly goes un-noticed because there are no visible physical harm, no cuts, and no bruises. Relationship bullying involves stonewalling which means giving someone the silent treatment, excluding them from the group, and/or making friendships conditional. This type of bullying can also include spreading rumors, gossiping, and taunting (Families Forever, n.d.).
The later type of bullying is one mostly associated with the internet or what’s called cyber-bullying. This fairly new discovered form of bullying occurs on the internet via any social media. It is making headlining news due to the serious recourse the victims of cyber-bulling have taken to escape the abuse, so serious that it deserves a blog topic of its own.
Whatever the form, bullying is unhealthy, damaging and can become very dangerous. It is happening more and more to people of all ages, from all walks of life. One important thing to remember about bullying is if you witness someone being bullied and you don’t do anything about, you are allowing the abuse to happen.
