Cyberbullying in Junior High School Students in Surabaya

Ahmad Frisk Taufany

, Subagyo Adam

Department of Sociology, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: cyberbullying, junior high school students, social construction, habitus

Abstract: Cyberbullying is violence experienced by children or adolescents, such as humiliation, intimidation,

humiliation by children or teenagers, that is manifest through the internet. This study examines the

background issue of junior high school students who cyberbully and how the reactions arise from the

victims of cyberbullying. To analyse this directly, we used Peter L. Bererger's social theories and the

theory of symbolic violence by Pierre Bourdieu, incorporating the three-dimensional Berger model of

Externalisation, Objectification and Internalisation. Bourdieu used three concepts: Habitus, Environment

and capital. This research used the qualitative method, descriptive type and social paradigm. We obtained

findings from the interaction data found through selected keyword informants with a snowball technique

implemented. The results of this research are that the habits and environments are able to provide benefits

in relation to the use of social media for junior high school students with supported capital and tools to

allow them to access the internet. Cyberbullying occurs through both direct attacks and by proxy. Direct

attacks include insulting messages and tasks while account proxy is disconnected. Cyberbullying

culminates in the onset of beatings in the real world.

BACKGROUND

Violence at school is an urgent social problem.

Most of the student violence involves bullying. The

teachers sometimes know who is doing the bullying

and the victims who are being bullied. However,

when it comes to cyberbullying, few of teachers are

able to recognize it (Li, 2006: pp.157-158).

Excessive use of social media can have devastating

effects, whereby social networks can free users to

share about life. In general, a lot of Facebook users

are teenagers who psychologically have unstable

feelings and who often misunderstand or interpret

what they have seen through mass media or from

friendship sites (Juditha, 2011: p.4). Accessing the

internet has become a routine part of society in

general. The use of the internet is not just about

interacting with others, but it is also used also to

socialise until the user has a very close relationship

in the real world. Out of a variety of social

networks like Facebook, Path, Instagram, Twitter

and AskFM, Facebook is one of the most rapidly

growing sites for friendship today. Despite

competing with other social networks, Facebook

has become the largest user platform. Social media

users are not just teenagers; there is an increasingly

massive use of social media in Indonesia across all

age groups.

Table 1. Internet

Users

in Indonesia

Year

Percentage

Number

of Users

2014

30-35%

Million

2015

40-45%

Million

The table above shows that in 2014, internet users

in urban Indonesia city was 30-35 per cent, and by

2015 - found by MarkPlus Insight - the number was

already 40-45 per cent; reaching 55 million users

which was an increase from the previous year,

totalling 42 million users. Those who were

researched were internet users aged 13-64 from

SES ABC and who used the Internet for more than

3 hours a day. The growth rate of internet users in

Indonesia is still dominated by young people of the

13-30 year age group. In each city, surveyed by

MarkPlus Insight, about 50 per cent to 80 per cent

Taufany, A. and Adam, S.

Cyberbullying in Junior High School Students in Surabaya.

DOI: 10.5220/0008818301570162

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 157-162

ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3

157

of internet users are young (Kompas.com; accessed

March 12, 2017).

Indonesia occupies the third largest position in the

world when it comes to using Facebook

(kompas.com, 2015). Teenagers in the city of

Surabaya are sensitive to the presence of social

networks, so they often have social networking

accounts like Facebook, including junior high

school kids. The emergence of social media in

junior high school children can bring about

negative impacts such as bullying. Bullying in

Indonesia means disrupting weak people, either

individually or in groups. In Adilla’s study (2009:

p.57), bullying can be done verbally,

psychologically and physically. In the internet

world, negative effects on the internet that

ultimately lead to violent behaviour in cyberspace

is called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying or cyber

violence is often more painful than physical

violence. Cyberbullying victims become depressed,

isolated, are treated as if they are inhuman, and

they are helpless when attacked. Researchers found

that cyberbullying victims experience higher levels

of depression.

Facebook has becomes a pioneering medium in

cyberbullying actions. In the results of another

research study, Facebook occupies the highest

position for cyberbullying action by 87 percent.

According to the results of the study, 49 percent of

teenagers are known to be the victims of a bully in

the real world while 65 percent of them are victims

of cyberbullying. The cases of cyberbullying on

Facebook shows that communicators are

cyberbullying actors and communicants are the

victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying case

messages involve text interactions between two

parties. Text in Facebook's social media can be sent

via personal messages, comments or statuses. This

message is becoming dominant in the cyberbullying

behaviour that teens do on Facebook.

Communicators have their own way of encoding

the message and the communicant has his own way

of reacting to the message. Each communicator also

differs when it comes to using words in his

message to form different cyberbullying categories.

In this study, the researchers tried to determine the

background of cyberbullying in junior high school

students and to learn of the reaction of the victims

due to the occurrence of cyberbullying in junior

high school students in the city of Surabaya.

The benefits of this research can be considered and

triggered by the relevant research. This research

adds useful knowledge to the literature and to the

reality that exists in the community. The results of

the research can be used to provide information to

the students as a contribution of thought and as a

material consideration in overcoming the existing

problems. For the community, the results of this

study can increase knowledge about cyberbullying

so then the community can prompt a more

cooperative attitude to support the parents of junior

high school students in providing an understanding

and to promote the application of positive moral

education in junior high school students.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

2.1 Type Research

This study was a qualitative research study that

produced descriptive data in the form of the written

or oral words of people and behaviours that can be

observed (Bogdan & Taylor, 1975: p.5). This

method used the logic of thinking inductively, in

which problem-taking starts from the field and is

then explained theoretically as the beginning of

conclusion formation. The questions that arise in

this type of research are related to what, who, why,

where, when, and how.

The qualitative method aims to obtain complete

information about possible cyberbullying

perpetrators that occur among junior high school

students by extracting information using in-depth

interviews. This is to better know the phenomenon

that exists in society and to understand the events

and relationships between people in certain

situations. This makes the research informant and

their election have a very important role. Through

the informant, we get a lot of information that later

can be analysed and used to get valid data.

The selection of informants was done using the

snowball technique. This research found the first

informant in one community of the basketball team,

two informants from two state junior high schools

and from two private junior high schools in

Surabaya. When having met the key informants, the

researcher will meet with the next informant in

accordance with the criteria related to the focus of

the problem, referring to the information that the

researcher wants to know and if it can be fulfilled.

This research data retrieval took four informants

who were categorised as being less than 16 years of

age who attended two schools in Swata and two

schools in SMP Negeri in Surabaya. The

informants were interviewed by the 9th graders. In

junior high school, the age of puberty in men is

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

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between 12-16 years old and in women, it is aged

11-15 years (Hurlock, 1980: p.185).

2.2 Data collection technique

The data collection techniques used in qualitative

research methods included in-depth interviews.

This type of interview is conducted openly by using

research instruments in the form of guidelines or

open questionnaires with 10 informants so then

detailed, broad, clear and profound answers can be

obtained. In this type of interview, the researcher

paid attention to the words and actions undertaken

by the informant.

Interviews are in the form of a dialogue

between the researchers and the research subjects

conducted with intimacy and in a relaxed setting.

The location of the interviews is as desired by the

informants, either at home or in other places such

as cafes, parks and so forth. This method is

expected to dig up as much information as possible

so as to get a clearer picture and it is a likely way to

get unique and honest info. The interview process

is not always fixed on the standard interview

guidelines but also follows the subject. It is this that

allows the researchers to develop further questions.

The researchers also give freedom to the informants

in relation to their opinion and do not cut off or

down the words of the informants.

2.3 Data analysis technique

This study used data analysis techniques through

the use of interview transcripts, data reduction and

data presentation, and then drewn out the

conclusions. The first stage was transcribing all of

the data obtained during the in-depth interviews,

literature studies and documentation or portraits

obtained during the research. Secondly, was the

data reduction or mapping. In this process, the

researchers make a summary, encode the data, find

any themes, and reduce the data that occurred

during the field research until the reporting is

complete. Third, was the data presentation. When

doing the data reduction, the data obtained was

analysed. Fourth, was taking the data conclusion as

the last part of processing the data that was

obtained (Iskandar, 2008: p.223).

3 DISCUSSION

Violence is a criminal behaviour caused by anger or

sense of habit used by actors to face their social life

(Ritzer & Goodman, 2004: p.552). Violence can

occur in physical form, mentally, and also attacks

can happen on the way that one thinks. Hard-to-

solve is the symbolic violence that comes through

discourse (Haryatmoko, 2010: p.127). Hendarti &

Purwoko (2008: p.51) mentioned that the act of

violence can be divided between 4 properties,

namely (1) Physical, (2) Symbolic, (3) Bureaucratic

and (4) Structural. To explain symbolic violence,

Bourdieu used the three concepts of habitus,

environment and the subjective world structure

(capital). The first, habitus, is i.e. the perpetrators’

cyberbullying through Facebook.

The definition of cyberbullying itself is “an

intentional, repeated, and aggressive act or

behaviour carried out by a group or individual

employing information and communication

technology (ICT) as the instrument. The acts is

against a victim who cannot easily defend him or

herself or terminate the bullying (von Marees &

Peterman, 2012: p.468).”

Every individual has different habits. Where

they get the habit can be through experience, their

history, or through their daily activities. In

cyberbullying, the individual more often encounters

the virtual world than the real world and its

environmental individuals can have anger. Habitus

is an action and behaviour created by the

individual’s social life.

Both environments are a place to interact with

individuals and groups to build togetherness.

According to Bourdieu, an environment is a place

of struggle and a place of collective force, a place

where there is individual conflict or inter-group

conflict that is used to gain a particular position.

The environment is also determined by capital. For

example, in cyberbullying, individuals who have

more knowledge about the internet and who have

the ability to hack use this to beat other individuals.

Individuals who lose out are intimidated by the lack

of struggle involved to maintain their social media

accounts.

The third capital is a kind of competitive market

that exists in the environment used to maintain

individual positions. According to Bourdieu, there

are 4 types of capital; economic capital, cultural

capital, social capital, and symbolic capital. These

four modalities affect the fate of the individual and

others. Capital is the supporting aspect of the

environment; if the individual has the power to

fight but does not have the capital to do so, then the

percentage of individuals is very small when it

comes to winning.

Cyberbullying in Junior High School Students in Surabaya

159

The reality of cyberbullying in junior high

school students has been described by Berger &

Luckman (1990) through his dialectic triad through

the process of externalisation, objectification and

internalisation.

3.1 Externalization Process

This is the process of human self-pouring

continuously into the world, both in physical

activity and mentally. It can be said that the

implementation of the internalisation process has

been done or will be done continuously into the

world, both in physical activity and mental. At this

moment, this is the expression shown by the junior

high school students who conduct cyberbullying by

sending a threat message through Facebook that

embarrasses the victim, spreads slander and insults

the victim in order to threaten the victim and to

make trouble.

The motivation actors are also diverse; some do

it because of anger and they want revenge, some do

it out of frustration, some want to seek attention

and some even make it a leisure filler or spare time

‘joking around’. This process continues into the

real world and there can be fistfights between the

perpetrator and the victim. Like the AK, KM, and

LA informants, they ultimately become dissatisfied

with cyberbullying after directly meeting and

hitting the victim.

3.2 Objectivization Process

The process of objectification is when the

perpetrator gets the inspiration to cyberbully. Junior

high school students access the internet, triggered

by older people like their older siblings, parents,

teachers who are older and who have experience

accessing the internet. Once they understand

internet access and other features, then the intensity

of its use automatically increases. Accessing the

internet is common to junior high school students.

A habit can produce a social life. Junior

students use their level of consciousness to form

their own habits by looking at the reality that is

around them and the effort of expression redefines

the value that is believed to be true. It is seen in

junior high school students that they use social

media accounts indirectly to prompt more intensity

to check their account.

3.3 Internalization Process

Internalization is the individual subjectively

interpreting their objective reality. The re-

enactment of reality by man and transforming it

once again from the structure of the objective world

into the structure of the subjective world is a part of

this. The perpetrators cyberbully through social

media like Facebook are inspired by the fact that

anyone anywhere can do cyberbully. The results of

interviews with AK, KM, NP and LA informants

show that it can be concluded that the perpetrator's

background factors into cyberbullying. The

background of the perpetrator can include anger,

hurt, revenge and ego preferences. The offender can

also be bored and has the ability to hack. AK has

software that can be used to hack, and so AK freely

hacks the account of their potential victims. The

other actors leant more toward heartache and

revenge as the reason for giving the victim bad

treatment.

3.4 The intensity of Use in Maya

World

Intensity comes from the Latin language that is the

intention of referring to the use of power size or

state level. Currently, all people, both old and

young, do not seem to get off their phones. For

young people, mobile phones have become the

most important part of their life, used to connect

with their friends and to access social media via the

internet. The intensity of the internet use in a day

can be at least up to 6 hours. Based on the results of

the interviews conducted with AK, KM, NP and

LA, their intensity referring to using the virtual

world was that they all spent at least 3 hours a day

using a mobile phone.

3.5 Identify in The World

The internet is one of the electronic media types

with a variety of functions that can be used through

computers and mobile phones. The most widely

used social media platform for friendship is

Facebook. Four informants who had been

interviewed stated that they used their mobile

phones to access the internet. The current reality is

influenced by the environment around them, both

the home environment and the school environment

of the junior high school students.

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3.6 The Violence Occurring On

Students in The Maya World

Symbolic violence is violence that causes physical

injury but that leaves the victim psychically

wounded as well, and takes place anywhere.

Symbolic violence on social media is more related

to the human psyche. Violence through social

media is called cyberbullying. According to the

four informants interviewed, cyberbullying is

offensive on the internet. The form of

cyberbullying done by the informants was also

diverse - informants AK, KM, NP and LA

conducted violence in the form of insults through

the victim’s inbox or wall, while AK - in addition

to bullying on the Facebook – hacked the social

media accounts of his victims.

Every problem has an impact and a reaction is

gained. The impact of the symbolic violence that

occurs in the real world leads up to the beating of

the victim. The four informants interviewed had

mixed reactions. The AK informant was just idle

and joked around, and eventually continued to

hijack the victim's account until the beating

happened. AK was still accepted at a prestigious

school, was friends with the victim and used to

return the victim's account early. The KM

informants felt disappointed and hurt because they

were not cheated by the victim into taking revenge

by insinuating and mocking the victim. Not used to

being ignored by the victim, KM approached the

victim and then hit them. The NP informant felt

cheated by his NP peers and so responded by

mocking the victim and insinuating things using an

indecent word. The impact that NP had on the

victim was that they did not greet each other. The

impacts shown by the four informants are the result

of symbolic violence, where symbolic violence

directly attacks a person's psychic or mental

qualities. The four informants thought all of this

was unnecessary.

This can cause big problems and be the talk of

many people. Because it starts with a mild problem,

it appears to be due to the individual or intergroup

conflicts and is known only to the conflicting

people. This is called latent conflict. It's the same

with cyberbullying conflicts, in that only certain

friends know. Cyberbullying among junior high

school students in Surabaya includes latent

conflicts.

4 CONCLUSION

Cyberbullying is the act of harming others both

mentally and physically. Cyberbullying is also

quicker to attack a person's mind. There are two

types of cyberbullying: cyberbullying as part of a

direct attack and cyberbullying by proxy.

Cyberbullying equals bullying in general. What

distinguishes between cyberbullying and bullying is

the location. Cyberbullying uses intermediary tools

such as mobile phones, or social media to

intimidate a person while bullying does not use

intermediaries but directly involves the victim and

perpetrator meeting.

Cyberbullying arises because of the increasing

intensity of internet and social media use and

because the junior high school students find it easy

to access. Accessing the internet is the habitus or

habit of the students in addition to learning. The

intensity of using the internet for students in a day

is for at least 3 hours. If the students often access

the internet, then the negative impacts are learning

lazily and at worst, being able to cyberbully. The

four informants who use the internet said that it had

become a habit. Bourdieu said that habitus is a

historical product that creates individual actions in

accordance with the pattern generated. Habitus can

appear in the environment around the informant.

High intensity when using the internet can trigger

cyberbullying actors who go on to perform

different forms of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying among the junior high school

students was not only in the form of a direct attack,

but also bullying in the form of a proxy. Here the

more intelligent actors in information technology

are above average compared to the victim, and

easily break into their account. The perpetrator's

perception of the victim's reaction was as follows:

angry, resentful, wanting revenge or because of

frustration. Other reasons included feeling bored

and having the ability to hack, for entertainment,

for a laugh or to get a reaction. Cyberbullying is

often in the form of direct proxy, with the victim

only silent when they have been intimidated and

humiliated through social media by the

cyberbullying actors.

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