Log #4

     "The Tipping Point," a book I’ve read this week, is about how little things can make a big difference. The author actually writes in an opposite perspective compared to ordinary people, who tend to express their points of view on the surface of matters. Mentioning epidemics in his book, the author insists that contagiousness often starts from a subtle detail. It’s the same old story as cyberbullying which is our group project. We often too concentrated on bullies to neglect those who watch the situation happening like a live video. Bystanders are problems as well.

When it comes to "epidemics", the author mentions that emotions are contagious, so are behaviors. Take, for example, the stabbing death of a young Queens woman, her tragic story was narrated in the book. Most ironically, she was chased by her assailant and attacked three times as thirty-eight of her neighbors watched from their windows. However, at that time, none of them called the police. It was almost a matter of psychological survival, which also corresponded to dilemmas of bystanders throughout cyberbullying. Subsequently, a series of studies were conducted after this tragedy, so-called "bystander problem." What they found, astonishingly, was that whether to help victims or not depended on how many witnesses there were. It's said that when people are in a group, responsibility for acting is diffused. They assume others may help; however, no one reaches out his hand eventually. As for bystanders of cyberbullying, while some kids feel compelled to help, most do not take action because no one around them does so, or they do not know what to do. Even though they witness it from the very first beginning, yet they think others may help. Therefore, they end up leaving victims suffering without assistance.                           

Whether because of the indifference or dehumanizing effects of urban life, Bystander problems are happening around us. Influences can be outspread and proved to be an epidemic. The solution to it is to change people's behavior; human beings do have such power to detect smallest details sensitively around themselves. It's not hard to reach out a helpful hand when seeing something that needs justice. If one does so, bystander problems will gradually be improved.

https://nobullying.com/how-the-bystander-effect-could-promote-bullying/