Perspectives of Victims of Bashing in Social Media

Abstract

Bashing is defined as severe criticism thrown at an individual or a group. This issue continues to grow given the fact that technology continues to evolve and be more accessible to every person. People all over the world can now voice out their thoughts and occurrences in their everyday life comfortably. This can be used for beneficial and inspirational use but with some others, they abuse this power. People will have the ability to wield negative comments behind the screens, which will negatively impact the victim and others since it can be accessed by anyone if it is displayed in public. Thus, people in online communities tend to fail to observe that words can psychologically and emotionally damage a person's being. For this study, qualitative research is used, and the research design used is phenomenology as this study is aimed to understand the different experiences of bashing on people through conducting interviews with people who have been a victim of bashing in Quezon City this 2019. Phenomenology is the study of how people find their experiences meaningful, and its primary goal is to make people understand their experiences. (Baraceros, 2006) The research design uses more narrative interviews, procedures of coding, and content analysis (Flick, 2006). The bashing victims' experiences can be classified into three clusters, namely: Mental Health, School Performance, and Relationships. The majority of the informants stated that the bashing heavily affected them, which caused them to obtain depression, a mood disorder, and lower self-esteem. However, on top of the negative experiences, there were also positive experiences. Informants gained newfound perspectives and confidence. The bashing has also affected their performance in school. The bashing made an impact on the victim's academics, wherein they lost their focus and motivation in school. It affected their relationships with people; many went through isolation because of the way their peers have changed their opinions of them. Informants stated that they developed trust issues and were disrespecting their parents. Bashing does more harm than good, depending on how one is able to perceive the experience and cope with it. It leads to mental exhaustion, poor academic performance, and struggling relationships but also newly found experiences and confidence. Other studies show almost identical results in relation to this research. The research only took a population sample within Quezon City in the year 2019. Moreover, the research was somehow predictable, considering that it talks about bashing experiences, which would obviously give negative results. Most bashing victims go through the same phase when they get bashed, which makes results already evident from the beginning. The study also did not meet the standard in making a good research. From the given flaws, the researchers recommend going further to the study, focusing on the psychological effects caused by bashing, like a study on the comparison of men and women from being bashed. The researchers suggest doing a study in a different or a wider range of location in a different year. The study might need constant revisions and updates, because humans are evolving, and there would obviously be changes in the environment, society, and technology.