ABSTRACT

Victims of bullying are often reluctant to seek formal support, and instead, internalise their emotions, hindering recovery. Some will subsequently encounter discussions of bullying online, giving them an unexpected opportunity to share their feelings or experience vicarious support. In this article, we investigate reactions to discussions of offline and online bullying in the comments posted to the YouTube channels of 34 popular UK female lifestyle influencers. We used a thematic analysis of keywords associated with comments mentioning bullying to identify bullying-related themes. The almost universally supportive comments position female YouTube influencer channels as sources of unexpected indirect support for victims that professionals may also recommend. The comments also reveal a previously undiscussed strategy for helping victims: abstraction.

摘要

欺凌的受害者往往不愿寻求正式的支持，而是将情绪内化，阻碍康复。有些人随后会在网上遇到关于欺凌的讨论，这给了他们一个意想不到的机会来分享他们的感受或体验替代支持。在本文中，我们调查了对 34 位英国流行女性生活方式影响者发布到 YouTube 频道的评论中有关线下和在线欺凌的讨论的反应。我们对与提及欺凌的评论相关的关键字进行了主题分析，以确定与欺凌相关的主题。几乎普遍支持的评论将女性 YouTube 影响者频道定位为专业人士也可能推荐的对受害者的意外间接支持来源。这些评论还揭示了一个以前未讨论过的帮助受害者的策略：