Cyberbullying and Social Media Addiction: Exploring the Nexus of Online Harassment and Behavioural Dependency

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, social media has made communication easier between people. But the convenience of always being online can also result in issues like Social Media Addiction and Cyberbullying. Present study looks at the connections between a sample of respondents’ gender, Social Media Addiction, and Cyberbullying. The Cyberbullying Scale (Parker, 2016) and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (Andreassen et al., 2016) were the instruments utilized. 150 participants (N=150) from reputable universities in the Delhi NCR made up the entire sample. Both male and female students were taken into consideration, and the participants ranged in age from 18 to 30 years. Random sampling was the basis for the sampling. The result revealed that there is a weak positive correlation between Cyberbullying and Social Media Addiction which means, there is a slight tendency for scores to rise together, which suggests it most likely happened by coincidence. There may be additional variables influencing Cyberbullying that are not included in the analysis. The finding also revealed significant gender differences with males reporting higher levels of Social Media Addiction and Cyberbullying than the other gender. The study does have certain limitations, though. Our capacity to determine causal relationships and comprehend the dynamic interplay over time is limited by the cross-sectional design. The accuracy and dependability of the results are impacted by potential biases introduced by the use of self-reported measures. Moreover, the size and makeup of the sample may restrict how broadly the findings can be applied.