All other things being equal, I think that bullies have greater access to a number of new tools which make their actions more efficient and accessible to a greater audience, the latter point a great strength of bullying, i.e., more witnesses to the shaming of the victim... which is ultimately, the bully's goal.
It was unthinkable in my time and in my neighborhood that the bullies I dealt with in 7th and 8th grade would ever be armed in any way, so I fought back, gave as much as I could, and hoped that they'd realize the cost for their fun was more than they wanted to pay. That and the humor I'd use against them/about them for the following week to all my peers usually paid off for me, and they'd leave me alone.
Which really sucks looking back on it... I could take getting beat up, but many of the kids that replaced me as their punching bags couldn't. I didn't know how to define it at the time, but 35 years later I clearly see that I had shamed myself by getting the bullies' attention on other kids instead of me. 
ed: spelling
Second edit: I just remembered something relevant--- one of the 7th grade bullies is now a friend of mine on Facebook, wound up studying literature, lives in China, and did the AA thing a few years ago, and is a minor, yet notable writer of non-fiction. Things can be weird often... but just as often, patience wins.
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