Young Italians between Cyberbullying and Hate Speech. A Focus on Digital Communication Practices

"Findings show how social media and IMPs [Instant Messagin Platforms] play a central role in information seeking but also to relate with peers and politicians. Cyberbullying is widely spread on social web, furthermore, some behaviors are perceived as forms of entertainment of digital youth cultures. As a fluid phenomenon, cyberbullying and incivility show several similarities in terms of dimensions and effects. They are pervasive throughout the connected life of citizens, impacting negatively on the quality of relationships among people and institutions. In particular, the pervasive use of social media has reduced the distances between the communicative behaviors of politicians and lay publics, making the areas of interconnection between their practices even more visible and observed as a continuum of communicative actions influencing each other." (Lovari & Rega, 2019, p. 232)