ECOMP 6012: What Does The Research Tell Us?

Directions: Post a summary and general commentary on one academic source and one popular source on a topic of your choice relating to cyberbullying, Your popular and academic source should be on the same topic and focus on a group that is often targeted. 

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Academic: Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: The Role of Affective and Cognitive Empathy, and Gender

I was searching for information on Cyberbullying and Gender when I came across this academic article by Rebecca P. Ang and Dion H. Goh. While they do discuss the differences in gender an underlying theme emerged from their research: that of affective and cognitive empathy. As they look at how boys and girls were able to experience the emotions of others (affective) and also their ability to understand the emotions of others (cognitive) they noticed that these two variables did not behave the same between the two genders with respect to likelihood of perpetrating or being victims of cyberbullying. In their results, Ang and Goh stressed the need for students to undergo empathy training in addition to discussions about Internet etiquette and social behavior online. It would appear that the age old adage of taking the time to “walk in another man (or woman)’s shoes” hasn’t diminished in importance with the advent of the Internet. In fact, it may be more important now then ever considering how easy the Internet makes it for us to see others online as just a screen name, avatar, or profile picture instead of a real person.

[for access to the full article on EBSCO Host, click on Google Scholar Search, find the fifth item listed from the top, and click on the Full-Text @ My Library link.]

Popular: Empathy in the Information Age: Catalyst For Cyber-Bullying?

From Change.org, this article asks the question as to whether the Internet itself is a possible cause for anti-social behavior and the “diminishing a key component of our humanity: empathy.” The article continues by looking at how the Internet affects, for better or worse, the development of the human brain and in particular the anterior cingulate, a region believed to be where empathy and decision-making skills develop. Because the Internet makes it easier for us to dehumanize others based on interactions with usernames, avatars, and digital communication then we are also reducing our empathy “muscle” to spending out energy in other areas of the brain.

I think the big question being asked here is how do we use the Internet to communicate and interact while maintaining the part of ourselves that gives us our humanity, which used to be strengthened and honed through interactions made in-person? Is it simply a matter of taking the time to stop and remind ourselves that behind that words that make up that YouTube comment, tweet, or wall posting is another living, breathing, thinking human being with dreams, desires, and emotions not so dissimilar from our own?