Cyber-aggression and victimization and social information processing: Integrating the medium and the message.

Abstract

Objective: To theoretically examine how the functional properties of Information and\nCommunications Technologies (ICTs) may potentially influence social information\nprocessing (SIP) relevant to cyber-aggression and victimization (CAV), and the opportunities\nfor aggression and victimization that these new technologies provide.\nResults: Our conceptual analysis highlights multiple functional properties of ICTs that\nprovide opportunities for CAV, and implicates new social norms arising around use of\nICTs that may also distinguish online from offline aggression and victimization. These\ninclude the paucity and/or permanence of social cues, the deployment of substitute cues\n(e.g., emoticons), ambiguity around intentions of communicators and around perceptions\nof privacy and audience, and the removal of response inhibitors resulting from\ncontinuous access to ICTs. Conclusions: Our analysis provides a useful heuristic\ndevice and reveals a need for innovative research to better examine how features of\nICTs modulate social information processing to increase (or decrease) the likelihood of\ncyber-aggression and victimization. The consideration of SIP in understanding CAV\nopens important avenues for future empirical inquiry.