Cosmopolitan warriors of the keyboard: Cyberbullying as symbolic violent extremism

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a growing phenomenon worldwide and is perpetrated over a growing range of platforms, devices, and websites (Hanley, 2003). Estimates show that millions of people have been victims of cyberbullying (Laer, 2014). Cyberbullying can be defined differently across cultures and individuals (Cross Tab Marketing Services & Telecommunications Research Group For Microsoft Corporation, 2012). Formally, Microsoft defines it as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices†(Cyberbully Research Center, 2012). Cyberbullying has been on the rise in Malaysia as well as in the world. Malaysia is ranked the 17th highest in online bullying among the 25 countries surveyed by Microsoft.

How is cyberbullying perpetrated? What are the common attributes that lead to one being marked as a target for cyberbullying, given the anonymity of internet users? Why do certain individuals become targets of hate online? Most of the literature has identified forms of cyberbullying, the reasons for it, and how to overcome it, but none have explained the concept of cyberbullying in a way that parallels physical bullying.

I attempt to flesh out the reasons for cyberbullying by imagining the site of interaction as a “field†of activity within Bourdieu’s “theory of practice†paradigm. By doing so, it is hoped that the picture becomes clearer, in the way one might be able to identify a bully in a playground. Drawing upon the context of increased reports of bullying among the youth in Malaysia, this paper provides a literature review of cyberbullying in Malaysia, comparing these to the larger bulk of research on cyberbullying elsewhere around the world. It is hoped that by doing so, it will provide a better understanding of the ways to avoid bullying, as well as explaining the trend of extremist behaviour among Malaysian youth in general.

Thus, the method used for this paper is a literature review. The search for literature on cyberbullying was performed using Google Scholar. Cyberbullying was found to be a relatively recent phenomenon, thus most of the literature does not date back very far. My review thus included most of the existing studies on cyberbullying in Malaysia, comparing these to the larger bulk of research on cyberbullying elsewhere around the world. A pattern that I noticed was that most of these studies were conducted using an information technology or psychology paradigm. I thus aim to contribute to this corpus of work through the sociological paradigm, applying Bourdieu's framework of capital to explain the phenomenon.

Bourdieu conceptualised the “field†as an arena in which a game takes place between its players (Harrington et al., 2015). In the case of cyberbullying, the “field†is the type of Internet platform where the victim and bully interact, for example, social media such as Facebook. The victim, the bully, and the other individuals are competing for resources or “capital†which in this case is popularity. The “rules of the game†would be the internal logic of how the meme operates, as well as how to get more Facebook “likesâ€. Bullying, or “symbolic violenceâ€, comes into the picture when “dominance†occurs. “Dominance†is the use of power over others to make them do something against their will. It is observed that the “doxa†(knowledge of how to use the formal rules to one’s advantage) that Internet users should best employ is the one that minimises personal information as much as possible, to avoid becoming a cyberbully victim.

In conclusion, the forms of cultural capital that may be relevant to competition in the offline “field†do not provide advantage in the virtual “fieldâ€. The most useful cultural capital is that of anonymity. In other words, an invisible “keyboard warrior†is an invincible “keyboard warriorâ€.