Taking public jabs at others while avoiding personal confrontation is a hallmark of passive aggressive behavior. For many, it is also becoming a new social norm as more and more of our interpersonal communication takes place online instead of face to face.  Passive aggression is a deliberate but masked way of expressing feelings of anger (Long & Whitson, 2016).  Through such actions as posting embarrassing photos on social media and purposeful inactions such as failing to stop the spread of online gossip, digital communication has become the perfect medium for sugarcoated hostility.

Please click here to read my full post on Psychology Today about a real-life incident of unchecked, online passive aggressive behavior that humiliated a student in a suburban middle school…and how one astute teacher effectively managed the situation.