The Phenomenon of Cyberbullying in the Virtual Social Media Communication Community

Abstract

This paper aims to explain the phenomenon of cyberbullying among vocational school students that belong in the group on social media. In this study, the data gathered from the informant is social media activists who have seen or experienced as victims of bullying in their community groups. The proven data validation level is further analyzed by an interactive analysis method to draw the conclusion of each case that appears in the social media groups. The results showed the symbol of the message used as an interaction tool of the group members who are often considered to be potentially offensive and tend to cause an unpopular relationship among the members of the symbol of the icon emotion with the text accompanying the icon. The symbol was originally used as an expression of relations between members. But gradually the use of the symbol is no longer controlled and by the communities, categorized spam is even regarded as a language that leads to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying victims usually struggle themselves to prevent and fight off any form of unwanted messages. As a final act, if the victim of cyberbullying is no longer able to fight it, he intentionally will come out as a member of the group. While the members of the group do not have symptoms of cyberbullying, they tend to be passive. If he empathizes with the victim then he will send a private message and be followed up with face-to-face communication.