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Jorge Verduzco

Professor Rodrick

English 115

25 September 2019

Misuse of Technology, Harming Others, and Self Injury

Technology and the use of the internet has allowed people to do things that could not

have been possible without it. People use technology in everyday life, whether it is used in the

scientific field or simply used to browse social media. It can be seen as an essential source for

today's way of living. However, technology and social media can be harmful in many ways.

There are people who abuse and misuse the power that the internet and social media brings to us.

Social media users and those who use the internet, in general, can have their privacy invaded

through the use of trolling, with the development of the internet cyberbullying has also become a

problem, and being anonymous online can have its downside.

With the advancements of the internet, various opportunities such as education and

entertainment have flourished with it. With these new discoveries, it has also become a

playground for those who find enjoyment while conducting the act of trolling. Trolling occurs

when one individual, the troller, has a goal to annoy its victim continuously. Trolling can happen

over text, videos, and even voice chats. According to Bacarrella et al., “The motivation for

trolling is not to stimulate thought-provoking discussions but to sow discord on the Internet and

get a rise out of people simply for the amusement of the troll” (435). These internet trolls are

now using the anonymity that the internet provides in order to form this new persona which in

their eyes, it is simply for comedic purposes. Having a laugh and enjoyment out of wasting
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others' time and continuously annoying them is something that these trolls would not be able to

get away with in real life. Not only does technology help create this new online persona

involving trolling, but it affects those who are victims of trolling in various ways. Bacarrella et

al., continues to explain that “... trolls find entertainment in wasting organizational resources by

taking up the time of customer support representatives, for instance in pointless Twitter

exchanges or in lengthy, off-topic LiveChat conversations”(435). Through this example, it can

be seen that trolls do not typically have the intention of hurting someone at a personal level,

instead, they want the short enjoyment that comes with annoying someone or a company.

Needles to say, this is possible due to being able to go anonymous on the internet where it is easy

for trolls to find their targets. Although trolling is not viewed as an extreme way of harming

others, it is still a downside of what the internet brings.

A way in which the internet can cause attacks from one individual or group of people to

another is through cyberbullying. Cyberattacks are a step above trolling in that it is more

personal and continuous attack towards an individual which can be taken to the extreme levels

by the attacker. A way in which I have personally seen cyberbullying is on social media, where a

user tends to be made fun of by his/her appearance through the photos uploaded on to their page.

Individuals who tend to attack these victims tend to have avatars set up as their profile picture

and tend to have no personal pictures of them uploaded. Attacks such as these can cause

emotional and mental breakdowns for people. According to Laer, “...an 18-year-old student at a

U.S. university committed suicide after discovering his roommate electronically spied on him

and gossiped about him on Twitter”(85). This way of using social media by an individual affects

others, in this case, the online abuse by someone else ultimately affected the victim in real life,
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leading to his suicide. Not everyone has a thick skin and people do take cyberattacks to an

extreme resulting in the suffering, self-harm, and even death of the victim. An example of this is

from a video uploaded in 2012 by the YouTube channel TheSomebodytoknow. This video went

viral and shocked the masses after a young girl, Amanda Todd, told her struggling story of

constant cyberbullying by her peers on Facebook. Amanda Todd had several instances in which

she tried killing herself from drinking bleach and overdosing on medication. The constant attacks

and abuse led her to hang herself in her own home (Youtube.com). This clear example shows the

true nature of what cyberattacks can lead to. As the internet continues to evolve, situations like

these have a higher chance of surfacing if nothing gets done to combat these cyberattacks. Laer

argues that network providers are aware of cyberattacks and sites such as Facebook and other

social media have a report system (85). While I do agree that this a fix towards reporting and

stopping users from attacking others, I argue that this is only a temporary fix, because when a

user gets reported and ultimately banned off a social media site, it is usually the account and

email associated with it that gets banned. This does not stop the user from creating an alternative

account and continuing the cyber harassments. This makes the victim vulnerable to continuous

attacks which could result in extreme situations for the victim such as the situation with Amanda

Todd.

Being anonymous online is a pathway for people to attack others but also for individuals

to express themselves differently. In this case, expressing themselves differently in a way that is

not so healthy. According to Adler Patricia and Adler Peter, “In the early 2000s, the internet

offered a way for self-injurers to express hidden sides of themselves they could not share with

friends or family members”(60). Some people who have gone through different and difficult
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experiences in life sometimes feel the need to harm their bodies. Adler Patricia and Adler Peter

quote a woman who says “ Cutting is the only thing that likes me right now… And it’s my way

out. Nobody has to know. It’s just between me and the box cutter, or the exacto knife, or the

scissors” (61). Being afraid that friends and relatives will question them and judge them for their

self-harm allows them to become anonymous over the internet and post what they want without

the fear of someone near to them finding out. Alder Patricia and Alder Peter, continue to explain

that these groups who practice self-injury as a lifestyle compare “self-injuring to other coping

mechanisms, such as the consumption of alcohol or drugs, but considered self-injury preferable

to addictive and medically damaging consequences”(61). While I do not believe injuring oneself

is the answer to problems, this shows how that internet is able to bring strangers together, in this

case, a negative way with an idea that self-injury is a way of life. Since online groups tend to be

all anonymous no one will know how exactly these individuals are harming themselves. This is

not a good thing for those who take part in the practice of self-harm because this anonymity

strays them further away from gaining some sort of help from professionals who seek to help

those in need. By being with these anonymous online groups, it significantly shapes the way one

thinks, leading towards this endless loop of self-injury with the mindset of acquiring no help in

the future.

The idea that the advancement of technology has helped humanity overcome obstacles is

true but there are negative side effects that come with it. As technology and the internet continue

to expand there will always be those who misuse it in ways to hurt each other or themselves.

People create a different persona of who they are and use it to troll others. Using it in ways to

attack people which leads the victims to take it out on themselves for being targeted. Those who
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find the pleasure of staying anonymous and creating the idea the harming oneself is the only

answer. The internet and social media does bring the world together, but there will always be

individuals and groups who cause very serious problems for others by changing the way they act

and think when they are online, in contrast to how they act and think when they are offline facing

the real world.

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Works Cited

Adler, Patricia A, and Adler, Peter. “Self-Injury in Cyberworld.”​ Contexts,​ vol. 11, no. 1, 2012,

pp. 59–61. ​SAGE Premiere 2014​. DOI 10.1177/1536504212436501. 21 Sep. 2019.

Baccarella, et al. “Social Media? It's Serious! Understanding the Dark Side of Social Media.”

European Management Journal,​ vol. 36, no. 4, 2018, pp. 431–438. ​ScienceDirect

Journals.​ DOI 10.1016/j.emj.2018.07.002. 21 Sep. 2019.

“My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm.” ​YouTube, u​ ploaded by

TheSomebodytoknow, 7 September 2012,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOHXGNx-E7E&bpctr=1569416438​. 25 Sep. 2019.

Laer, Tom. “The Means to Justify the End: Combating Cyber Harassment in Social Media.”

Journal of Business Ethics​, vol. 123, no. 1, 2014, pp. 85–98. ​SpringerLink Journals.​ DOI

10.1007/s10551-013-1806-z. 21 Sep. 2019.