Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 3

Research Paper Example The most recent statistics related to cyber bullying have pointed to a very worrying social trend that is associated with the social media usage. According to the 2014 cyber bullying statistics, 70% of the youths globally are being bullied through social media, while 37% of them are experiencing highly frequent bullying (Bullyingstatistics.org, n.p.). Additionally, according to a recent report released by the joint task force of the Department of Education and Skills (DES) and the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP), the victims of social media bullying are increasingly showing signs of poor peer relationships, increased anxiety, poor academic performance, psychological instabilities, self-harm tendencies and suicidal thoughts (Gleeson, 5). Nevertheless, it is not only the victims who are negatively affected, since the cyber bullies are increasingly showing behavioral anomalies. The statistics on the effects of social media bullying are even running from alarming to totally terrifying. For example, the recent data on the implications of social media bullying, such as the one reported by the Megan Meier Foundation, indicated that 29% of the social media bullying victims, and 38% of the frequently cyber-bullied victims reported either suicidal thoughts or suicidal attempts (Megan Meier Foundation, n.p.). The stroke that breaks the camel’s back is the evidence that suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death for young people between the age of 15-24 years (Megan Meier Foundation, n.p.). It is when such realities start to dawn on the society that the society finally realizes that a tool that was first meant to enhance social welfare, can turn into a destructive social weapon, which eats the society from within , in a manner that cannot be easily mitigated. At this point it becomes necessary to pause and ask; why is social media bullying such and pandemic for the modern society? The answer to this question is that statistics