All the (cyber) world’s a stage: Framing cyberbullying as a performance

This paper explores the ways in which the use of technology presents girls with new and alternative ways to participate in and experience bullying. The focus is particularly on how girls experience and participate in ‘cyberbullying’ via Instant Messenger (IM) programmes and social networking sites (SNS). A mixed method approach was employed with girls aged 12–15 years old in Northern Ireland which captured 494 questionnaire responses and eight online interviews conducted using instant messenger.Findings show that girls of this age group are high IM and SNS users. These forms of communication may be used to impersonate others, convey hurtful or malicious comments or share private or embarrassing information with online audiences. The data indicates that these online forms of bullying may be facilitated within friendship groups in an offline context in order for them to have access to such information and access to the appropriate audience. Furthermore, the research indicates that older girls experience and participate in cyberbullying more than younger girls.This article positions these findings within the conceptual framework of Goffman’s understanding of social interactions as a performance and proposes a model which applies this framework of performance to the phenomenon of cyberbullying