Auto-trolling

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Statistics from a report by the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center Elizabeth Englander's study on Digital Munchausen.jpg
Statistics from a report by the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center

Auto-trolling, self-cyberbullying , digital Munchausen or digital self-harm is a form of self-abuse on the Internet. [2] [3] It is usually done by teenagers posting fake insults on social media, attacking themselves to elicit attention and sympathy. [2] A study in 2012 found that about 35 per cent of those who did this felt better. [2] [1] Studies in 2016 and 2019 found an increase in prevalence in American adolescents rising from 6 to 9 per cent. [3] [4] [5] In a 2011 study, boys were more likely than girls to admit to digital self-bullying. [6] In a 2022 study published by researchers Justin Patchin, Sameer Hinduja, and Ryan Meldrum, [7] US youth who engaged in digital self-harm were between five and seven times more likely to have considered suicide and between nine and fifteen times more likely to have attempted suicide.

Contents

In the UK, a woman was cautioned in 2009 for trolling herself on Facebook and then jailed for 20 months for repeat offences during 2011–12. [8]

Though digital self-harm can be done in various ways, it is usually done in a public or semi-public setting. [9] Researchers Rinjani Soengkoeng and Ahmed Moustafa suggest that there are three types of digital self-harm. [10] These are:

These appear to be common reasons for digital self harm according to Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin's 2017 study of American middle and high school students. [11]

Contributing Factors

Common correlations to digital self-harm include bullying, [12] depression, negative emotionality, and sleep deprivation. [13] [14] [15] There is also research that suggests digital self-harm and physical self-harm have similar causes and motivations. [16] The two seem to be positively associated with physical self-harm [17] and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. [18]

Prevention

Identifying and preventing digital self-harm is arguably more difficult than its offline counterpart. For one, it is hard for parents to monitor their child's online presence. [15] Taking away internet access completely is usually impractical, as the internet is important for gaining important information from the outside world. [19] [9] There is a need to create strategies for digital self-harm prevention, as it is not the same as physical self harm or suicide. [19] Due to anonymous apps such as Yik Yak, Whisper, and Secret, it is more difficult to track digital self-harm without possible invasion of privacy. Research by Dr. Sujita Kumar Kar suggests that "calling out" the behavior of digital-self harm may be counterproductive. [13] Instead, encouragement to change online behavior may more beneficial in the long term. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-harm</span> Intentional injury to ones body

Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury, and self-mutilation have been used for any self-harming behavior regardless of suicidal intent. Common forms of self-harm include damaging the skin with a sharp object or by scratching, hitting, or burning. The exact bounds of self-harm are imprecise, but generally exclude tissue damage that occurs as an unintended side-effect of eating disorders or substance abuse, as well as societally acceptable body modification such as tattoos and piercings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullying</span> Use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people in the United States from the ages of 9 to 56.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-destructive behavior</span> Behaviours that are harmful to the individual engaging in them

Self-destructive behavior is any behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful towards the person who engages in the behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School bullying</span> Type of bullying in an educational setting

School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verbal or physical. Bullying, with its ongoing character, is distinct from one-off types of peer conflict. Different types of school bullying include ongoing physical, emotional, and/or verbal aggression. Cyberbullying and sexual bullying are also types of bullying. Bullying even exists in higher education. There are warning signs that suggest that a child is being bullied, a child is acting as a bully, or a child has witnessed bullying at school.

Youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below the legal age of majority, deliberately ends their own life. Rates of youth suicide and attempted youth suicide in Western societies and other countries are high. Youth suicide attempts are more common among girls, but adolescent males are the ones who usually carry out suicide. Suicide rates in youths have nearly tripled between the 1960s and 1980s. For example, in Australia suicide is second only to motor vehicle accidents as its leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 25.

Research has found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are significantly higher than among the general population.

Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st century and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with images. Sexting is not an isolated phenomenon but one of many different types of sexual interaction in digital contexts that is related to sexual arousal.

Researchers study Social media and suicide to find if a correlation exists between the two. Some research has shown that there may be a correlation.

Bullying and suicide are considered together when the cause of suicide is attributable to the victim having been bullied, either in person or via social media. Writers Neil Marr and Tim Field wrote about it in their 2001 book Bullycide: Death at Playtime.

Peer victimization is the experience among children of being a target of the aggressive behavior of other children, who are not siblings and not necessarily age-mates.

Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to the communication technology advancements and young people's increased use of such technologies. Cyberbullying is when someone, typically a teenager, bullies or harasses others on the internet and other digital spaces, particularly on social media sites.

Social media began in the form of generalized online communities. These online communities formed on websites like Geocities.com in 1994, Theglobe.com in 1995, and Tripod.com in 1995. Many of these early communities focused on social interaction by bringing people together through the use of chat rooms. The chat rooms encouraged users to share personal information, ideas, or even personal web pages. Later the social networking community Classmates took a different approach by simply having people link to each other by using their personal email addresses. By the late 1990s, social networking websites began to develop more advanced features to help users find and manage friends. These newer generation of social networking websites began to flourish with the emergence of SixDegrees.com in 1997, Makeoutclub in 2000, Hub Culture in 2002, and Friendster in 2002. However, the first profitable mass social networking website was the South Korean service, Cyworld. Cyworld initially launched as a blog-based website in 1999 and social networking features were added to the website in 2001. Other social networking websites emerged like Myspace in 2002, LinkedIn in 2003, and Bebo in 2005. In 2009, the social networking website Facebook became the largest social networking website in the world. Active users of Facebook increased from just a million in 2004 to over 750 million by the year 2011. Making internet-based social networking both a cultural and financial phenomenon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empathy in online communities</span>

Empathy has been studied in the context of online communities as it pertains to enablers of interpersonal communication, anonymity, as well as barriers to online relationships, such as ambiguity, cyberbullying and internet trolling. The importance of this topic can not be underestimated as the landscape of online use drastically changed or evolved following the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 which forced many in the workplace, schools and even novice tech users into new and uncomfortable situations. This forced much more time spent and reliance on the virtual world, through our computers, phones, and tablets. Schools and workplaces moved online consumers also moved online for basic needs like grocery shopping, medical appointments and a host of new virtual services that impacted all generations.

This article explains the positive and negative impacts to adolescents’ exposure to social media.

Online child abuse is a unique form of child abuse also known as “Cyber Molestation” due to its virtual, distanced, and anonymous nature. Such abuse may not happen face-to-face, nor does it necessarily require physical contact. However, online abuse can result in negative face-to-face consequences in the form of statutory rape, forcible sexual assault, harassment, etc. In the United States, online child abuse is recognized as a form of child abuse by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

The relationships between digital media use and mental health have been investigated by various researchers—predominantly psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and medical experts—especially since the mid-1990s, after the growth of the World Wide Web. A significant body of research has explored "overuse" phenomena, commonly known as "digital addictions", or "digital dependencies." These phenomena manifest differently in many societies and cultures. Some experts have investigated the benefits of moderate digital media use in various domains, including in mental health, and the treatment of mental health problems with novel technological solutions.

Anat Brunstein-Klomek is an Israeli psychologist who is an associate professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. She holds an adjunct position at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Her research considers depression, suicide and bullying.

Suicide and trauma is the increased risk of suicide that is caused by psychological trauma.

Sameer Hinduja is an American social scientist. He serves as Professor of Criminology at Florida Atlantic University and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center. He has served as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar at Dublin City University and currently serves as Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Hinduja is also the co-founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Bullying Prevention. He is an international expert in cyberbullying, sexting, sextortion, online and offline dating violence, digital self-harm, and related forms of online harm among youth. He has written seven books, including Bullying Today: Bullet Points and Best Practices, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, and School Climate 2.0. His research publications have been cited approximately 20,000 times, and have appeared in such outlets as Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Computers in Human Behavior, and New Media and Society. Topics studied include empathy, psychological resilience, parenting, social and emotional learning, school climate, and well-being.

References

  1. 1 2 Englander, Elizabeth (June 2012), Digital Self-Harm: Frequency, Type, Motivations, and Outcomes (PDF), Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center
  2. 1 2 3 Ktena, Natalie (2018-05-16). "These teens secretly trolled themselves online". BBC Three. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  3. 1 2 "Why more young Americans are cyber-bullying themselves", The Economist, 11 January 2020
  4. ↑ Juli Fraga (21 April 2018), When Teens Cyberbully Themselves, NPR
  5. ↑ Patchin, Justin; Hinduja, Sameer (2017), "Digital Self-Harm Among Adolescents", Journal of Adolescent Health, 61 (6): 761–766, doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.06.012, PMID   28935385, S2CID   3650036
  6. ↑ Ken Corish (2014), "Waving Silently - Technology and Self-harm", Every Child Journal, Imaginative Minds Group, archived from the original on 2023-02-09, retrieved 2020-07-21
  7. ↑ Fairbank, Rachel. "What Parents Need to Know About 'Digital Self-Harm'". LifeHacker.
  8. ↑ Maria Tadeo (5 February 2014), "Woman becomes first person to be jailed for 'trolling herself'", The Independent
  9. 1 2 Ramluggun, Pras; Small, Myra (6 January 2022). "Understanding digital self-harm and its implications for mental health practice". Mental Health Practice. RCN Publishing Company. 25 (1). doi:10.7748/mhp.2021.e1592 (inactive 31 January 2024). ISSN   1465-8720.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  10. 1 2 Soengkoeng, Rinjani; Moustafa, Ahmed A. (9 March 2022). "Digital self-harm: an examination of the current literature with recommendations for future research". Discover Psychology. 2 (1): 19. doi: 10.1007/s44202-022-00032-8 . ISSN   2731-4537. S2CID   247381023.
  11. ↑ Patchin, Justin W.; Hinduja, Sameer (December 2017). "Digital Self-Harm Among Adolescents". Journal of Adolescent Health. Elsevier. 61 (6): 761–766. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.06.012. ISSN   1054-139X. PMID   28935385. S2CID   3650036. ProQuest   1970948534.
  12. ↑ Cyberbullying Prevention and Response: Expert Perspectives. New York: Routledge. 23 June 2011.
  13. 1 2 3 Pacheco, Edgar; Melhuish, Neil; Fiske, Jandy (1 May 2019), Digital Self-Harm: Prevalence, Motivations and Outcomes for Teens Who Cyberbully Themselves, Rochester, NY, doi:10.2139/ssrn.3374725, S2CID   197744883, SSRN   3374725 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ↑ Meldrum, Ryan C.; Patchin, Justin W.; Young, Jacob T.N.; Hinduja, Sameer (4 March 2022). "Bullying Victimization, Negative Emotions, and Digital Self-Harm: Testing a Theoretical Model of Indirect Effects". Deviant Behavior. 43 (3): 303–321. doi:10.1080/01639625.2020.1833380. ISSN   0163-9625. S2CID   225133032.
  15. 1 2 Semenza, Daniel C.; Meldrum, Ryan C.; Testa, Alexander; Jackson, Dylan B. (May 2022). "Sleep duration, depressive symptoms, and digital self-harm among adolescents". Child & Adolescent Mental Health. Wiley Blackwell. 27 (2): 103–110. doi:10.1111/camh.12457. ISSN   1475-357X. PMID   33763977. S2CID   232354527.
  16. ↑ Erreygers, Sara; Symons, Michelle; Vandebosch, Heidi; Pabian, Sara (1 January 2022). "Fictitious online victimization: Exploration and creation of a measurement instrument". New Media & Society. 24 (1): 156–177. doi:10.1177/1461444820960079. hdl: 10067/1716470151162165141 . ISSN   1461-4448. S2CID   225000344.
  17. ↑ "Suicide prevention for physicians: identification, intervention and mitigation of risk". Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. 2021.
  18. ↑ Franklin, Joseph C.; Ribeiro, Jessica D.; Fox, Kathryn R.; Bentley, Kate H.; Kleiman, Evan M.; Huang, Xieyining; Musacchio, Katherine M.; Jaroszewski, Adam C.; Chang, Bernard P.; Nock, Matthew K. (2017). "Risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A meta-analysis of 50 years of research". Psychological Bulletin. 143 (2): 187–232. doi:10.1037/bul0000084. ISSN   1939-1455. PMID   27841450. S2CID   3941854.
  19. 1 2 Kar, Sujita Kumar; Arafat, S. M. Yasir (January 2021). "Digital self-harm in adolescents: Strategies of Prevention". Journal of Indian Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health. 17 (1): 137–141. doi:10.1177/0973134220210110. ISSN   0973-1342. S2CID   250992997.
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