Factors Influencing Cyberbullying on Instagram Among University Students

摘要

Cyberbullying is one of the major problems of social networking sites, which has been known to have prolonged adverse psychological effects on social network users. Cyberbullying has been discussed a lot in literature, but little research has been done on cyberbullying and its related factors. This present study seeks to examine factors influencing cyberbullying on social media among university students. Using social roles to contextualize user behavior, the researcher hopes to gain more knowledge by understanding individual behavior and their community online. Social roles in a digital environment are usually unspoken and unnamed. However, they are demonstrated by patterns in behavior and even though these patterns are mutually agreed upon, they can become social constraints that affect future interactions. Social roles are identified automatically through ego comment networks and linguistic cues of comment.Instagram was selected for this study because it is widely used and preferred by university students. Literature was reviewed extensively, and a conceptual model of influencing factors was identified. This model seeks to give a comprehensive detail and holistic view regarding the factors influencing cyberbullying as well as understanding behavior pattern that exist among university student on Instagram.