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Jorge Verduzco

Professor Rodrick

English 115

29 November 2019

Misuse of Technology, Harming Others, and Self Injury Revision

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. Although, technology brings these wonders to the world, the power of

technology can be harmful when in the wrong hands. There are people who abuse and misuse the

power that technology, the internet, and social media brings to us. Social media users and those

who use the internet, in general, can be affected by online trolls, with the development of the

internet, cyberbullying has also become a problem, and being anonymous online can be abused

by certain users who simply use it for the wrong doings.

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. In the article ​Understanding the Dark Side of Social

Media​, by Bacarrella et al. it explains how, “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” (Bacarrella et al 435). As Bacarella states, trolling is
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simply used as a way to waste the victim's time which in turn amuses the troll. 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 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. As seen in this

quote, 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”( Bacarrella et al

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.

The internet was a way to connect the world, however with it comes a negative side

effect. 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
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emotional and mental breakdowns for people. In the article titled ​The Means to Justify the End:

Combating Cyber Harassment in Social Media,​ the author Laer, explains how, “...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”( Laer 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, 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 (“My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm,” 0:00:00 - 0:08:54). 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. Shifting our focus back to the article ​The Means to Justify the End:

Combating Cyber Harassment in Social Media,​ Laer argues that network providers are aware of

cyberattacks and sites such as Facebook and other social media have a report system (Laer 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
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harassment. This makes the victim vulnerable to continuous attacks which could result in

extreme situations for the victim such as the situation with Amanda Todd.

Anonymity could be a good thing, however when it’s put in the wrong hands it is abused

to attack others. 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 an article by Adler Patricia and Adler Peter titled

Self-Injury in Cyberworld​, they state that, “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”( Patricia and Peter 60). Some people who have gone through different and difficult

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” (Patricia and Peter61). 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, proceed 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 ( Patricia

and Peter 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
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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

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.