Social Media Has Given People Free Reign To Bully Others
In many ways, social media has been a wonderful asset to our lives. We’re able to connect with and befriend people across the world. We can share information with each other with the click of a button. Businesses and careers can take off with the power of social media. But with all the good that’s come from it, there’s even more that’s bad.
Social media completely eliminates the elements of human interaction. We can hide behind our computer screens, saying anything we want to anyone we want with little repercussion. It feels “safe” to us. The truth is: it’s anything but safe.
Talking to Celebrities
Nearly every celebrity has a social media presence of some kind. They post their lives on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for our enjoyment. Have you ever looked at the comments section on any of these celeb accounts? You would be hard pressed not to find a hate comment of some kind.
Why do people think it’s okay to hate on a celebrity they have never (and will never) meet? We become so desensitized to the fact that these are real people. They’re not some kind of illusion or character. They’re a human with feelings and emotions just like the rest of us.
It doesn’t make any sense to me why some people feel the need to cut down a celebrity in their comment section online. I can’t relate to that. At all.
Recent Display of Bullying
You may or may not have seen the drama going on in the YouTube beauty community lately, but this is bullying (and hypocrisy) at its finest. For a quick rundown: it was revealed that a few beauty gurus tweeted some racist comments over five years ago.
I absolutely disagree with what these individuals wrote. It was definitely wrong. But it was done over five years ago. People can change. We all make mistakes. If you could see what people on Twitter were saying to these individuals, it would make you sick. It certainly made me sick.
Only in today’s society do people think that it’s okay to bully someone for bullying someone else. Yes, what they said was wrong. But how are you any better than them by cutting them down and saying downright hateful things to them?
Honestly, the individuals acting high and mighty in their comments have probably said or done things just as bad. I would bet money on that. But that’s their karma, not mine.
The Bullying Needs to Stop
As I said before, people hide behind their computer screens and say whatever they want. They bully people because they’re under the illusion they have the right to say whatever they want. These are the same people that probably post a comment or share a tweet that discourages bullying. Do we even know what that word means anymore? It’s pretty clear that some individuals can’t grasp the concept. Their hypocritical behavior is proof of that.
When we were young kids in elementary school, I think we all learned a very important phrase: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Why have we lost sight of this? Why don’t we follow this same mantra in our adult lives?
There’s very little we can do to avoid social media. It’s a part of our lives, and, for many of us, it does provide positive benefits. But we do not need to comment on everything we see online.
It’s easy to read something we disagree with and move on.
It’s easy to unfriend, unfollow, or block someone that perpetuates negativity.
It’s easy to shine a positive light into the online world.
Let’s all work on rising above the negativity and hate to create a world on social media that is filled love and positivity.
