THE PHENOMENON OF CYBER BULLYING IN ALBANIAN CONTEXT: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS

Year 2014, Volume: 1 , 406 - 409, 01.09.2014

Jozef Bushati Edit Lezha Gezim Dibra Ardian Tana

Abstract

Exponential growth of technology usage has further
expanded the concept of an information age. In the prolonged transition of
Albania society the perception of the virtual freedom has changed radically.
During the last years the Albanian government implemented the extension of
Internet connectivity in the rural and urban schools. On the other hand,
private cell mobiles companies extended the internet connectivity offering it
with affordable fees for the mass population. These initiatives changed the
usage of virtual freedom making its usage massive for everyone. Despite the
variety of age frequencies everybody can have access to virtual communication
by simple gadgets to sophisticated ones. This freedom of communication has
affected many social aspects which one of them is cyber bullying. Cyber
bullying is defined as using electronic communication to torment others through
devices such as Internet, e-mail, text messages or even social networking
sites. Most people do not recognize the symptoms of being stalking online and
the techniques a cyber stalker employs to target them. The purpose of this
exploratory study is to give a brief overview of current knowledge in the
literature about cyber bullying. Also, this paper will look at the perceptions
of Albanian college students regarding issues related to cyber-bullying
phenomenon based on descriptive data gathered out from a comprehensive
questionnaire. Alternative tactics for preventing this phenomenon in the field
of education were discussed in this study.

Keywords

Technology, transition, internet extension, cyber bullying, education

References

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