suicide

Posted by Winnie Melda on October 2nd, 2018

Introduction

Cyberbullying refers to the use of the internet or the mobile technology to intimidate, harass, or cause harm to another person. Cyber bullying is very traumatizing and through the social media, it is possible for the victim’s friends, family, and acquaintances to view the bullying. In this paper, I review suicide as being a result of cyber bullying and use the case of bullying in Rebecca Sedwick’s suicide.

Elements of cyber bullying

There are three elements in cyber bullying. The first element in cyber bullying is the act is done willful and repeated. The second element involves the act causing harm as perceived by the target. The third elements are the incident being perpetrated through the cell phone, computer, or another electronic device. The repetitive nature of the bullying tends to cause a dynamic where the victim will have continuous worries on what the bully will do next. Cyberbullying does not usually require physical strength, but the power in a person’s ability to use technology. In the case of Rebecca Sedwick, it was right to charge Katlyn Roman and Guadalupe Shaw with a cyberbullying crime. The three elements of cyberbullying were evident in this situation. In the case, the act was done willful and repeated as Shaw agreed to bully Sedwick willful. It was also repetitive since Sedwick was constantly worried about what the girls would do next and she always tried avoiding personal contact with the girls. In the case, the deputies did find mean social media messages and texts telling her that she should die and that she should drink bleach and die (Wallace, 2014). The messages that the victim received were terrorizing which lead to her suicide, and it is important that Shaw and Roman should be charged with the cyberbullying crime.

People who die by suicide experience undiagnosed depression

I support the statement that those people who die of suicide are usually experiencing undiagnosed depression. However, this may not be entirely true. Suicide does not always mean depression. There are some people who may commit suicide who may have undiagnosed depression. That does not always mean that a person who commits suicide had depression. According to (AFSP, 2016), depression tends to be the most common condition that associates with suicide. Suicide usually occurs when stressors tend to exceed a person’s current coping abilities of a person who is suffering from a mental health condition. Conditions such as anxiety, depression, and even substance abused when unaddressed tend to increase the risk for suicide. Therefore, undiagnosed depression associates with suicide; however, there are other factors that can play a role in a person who die by suicide. 

Suicide and social media use

Suicide is becoming a prevalent area of interest because of the use of social media. The teenagers are using different social media platforms to bully others. With the increase in the use of social media platforms, cyber bullying is becoming very common and mostly among the teenagers (Simpson et al. 2010). When using social media, it is easy for the users to inflict pain or cause embarrassment to others because it is all through online. Therefore, people can hide behind this online platform and cause as much pain as they want. With the social media such as Facebook and Twitter, teenagers can damage the reputation of another person through the use of words and pictures about the victim. Suicide will remain to be a focal point for the agencies to continue working so as to get the support to those people considering suicide. The social media use growing and with this, it tends to be creating a place where people continue using social media in negative ways such as bullying. Therefore, different agencies should continue focusing attention on this area so as to help provide the teenagers with support and education regarding cyber bullying.

Suicide rates

The suicide rates tend to vary around the world. The cause of the difference in the world includes cultural, religious, and social impact. In some countries, they tend to condemn the suicidal act and also disapprove the action. Individuals such as Christians and Jewish normally consider the human life as being sacred; thus, a person cannot take their life. Christians normally consider suicide as a sin, and it is also a crime.  Another reason for the difference is that some countries normally favor suicide in some situation; thus, there is an increasing rate of suicide. The social factors can also lead to the difference in suicide rates. The social aspects such as the increased use of bullying in a country may cause an increase in the rates of suicide. Suicide should be considered a deviant behavior. Suicide is a behavior that is contrary to the norms; thus, deviant (Clinard & Meier 2011).  Egoistic suicide happens when an individual has a low level of integration into society. Egoistic suicide is an excellent example of a person asserting his interest above the social interest; thus, is deviant behavior.

Reference

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in research paper services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for cheap research paper services.