THE PHENOMENON OF CYBER BULLYING IN ALBANIAN CONTEXT: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

Exponential growth of technology usage has further expanded the concept of an information age. In the prolonged transition of Albania society the perception of the virtual freedom has changed radically. During the last years the Albanian government implemented the extension of Internet connectivity in the rural and urban schools. On the other hand, private cell mobiles companies extended the internet connectivity offering it with affordable fees for the mass population. These initiatives changed the usage of virtual freedom making its usage massive for everyone. Despite the variety of age frequencies everybody can have access to virtual communication by simple gadgets to sophisticated ones. This freedom of communication has affected many social aspects which one of them is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is defined as using electronic communication to torment others through devices such as Internet, e-mail, text messages or even social networking sites. Most people do not recognize the symptoms of being stalking online and the techniques a cyber stalker employs to target them. The purpose of this exploratory study is to give a brief overview of current knowledge in the literature about cyber bullying. Also, this paper will look at the perceptions of Albanian college students regarding issues related to cyber-bullying phenomenon based on descriptive data gathered out from a comprehensive questionnaire. Alternative tactics for preventing this phenomenon in the field of education were discussed in this study.