It Takes A Hashtag To Build A Caring Village- How we got Twitter to be kind.
What started as a place for getting bite-sized information as it happened has increasingly become a grand hatred field. There are many things that make Twitter amazing. It is at once a community, a rallying ground for positive social change and a source of learning from experts. All of this, however, depends on who you follow, and who your followers are. These are the accounts that form your community, the tone you are submerged in and the views you absorb.
Background
In the past, people who got retweets gained popularity and recognition as thought leaders. These translated to real life with many of them securing opportunities from their influence on the platform. Going forward, Twitter popularity began to be rewarded with actual money. This was the rise of the influencer era. Brands saw the power these popular people had on their followers and set out to pay them to market products and services. With this firmly in place, it came as no surprise that it became a competition. Guess what the fastest ways to become popular are. Spreading falsehoods, hurling insults at people, being savage guaranteed your posts earning more retweets, likes and in turn more rewards online and offline.
It is easy to be cruel when one is not facing the victim as one cowers behind the shield of an anonymous handle.
Perhaps more disturbing is the apparently unprovoked vile behaviour seen, with no identifiable need and for no obvious monetary gain. They seem to derive joy from hurting others online. Bullying, which is already a menace in real life, has been taken to new heights here. It is easy to be cruel when one is not facing the victim as one cowers behind the shield of an anonymous handle. People have been attacked online for sharing their views and standing for justice. Some comments have gone as far as to issue death and rape threats. The levels of abuse and harassment are scary and unhealthy. In other scenarios, the vitriol has pushed vulnerable people already on the brink to suicide. In what is considered by some as a relief and by others as belated; Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey acknowledges the gravity of the problem and agrees there is more to be done to combat hate speech and other problems of this social network.
The How and Why of Our Plan
We at Hellocare remember those early days and very much wanted to bring back a sense of that helpful community. We wanted some more love on this app. We believe strongly that it can be a place of support and encouragement. It can very well be a platform to get prompt, lifesaving information. More pertinent to who we are is the fact that Twitter is an effective way to disseminate quality, much-needed health information.
After all, it is well known that behind anyone’s smile may lie an inner self going through emotional turmoil.
We know the detrimental effects this hostile environment on Twitter has affected people’s mental health, especially among young people. We see how rape threats, sexual harassment (which are almost exclusively targeted at women) and death threats have severely made people anxious and has tipped many into post-traumatic stress disorder. For groups like adolescents in which self-esteem is often dependent on the opinion of their peers, bullying takes a huge toll on their self-worth.
In light of these, we came up with a plan for mental health awareness month which is observed in the month of May. We had used a hashtag called #HelloThere as part of our mental health awareness campaign in 2018 encouraging people to reach out to their loved ones whether they were the reserved or outgoing type. After all, it is well known that behind anyone’s smile may lie an inner self going through emotional turmoil. This included graphics bearing messages on mental health information, blog posts demystifying conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder. This Twitter campaign had a reach of over 1.5 million accounts.
This year, we are happy to see the work done by various mental health professionals and organizations. We appreciate the increased levels of awareness about this area of health and we see the changes in attitudes by people. We, however, wanted a campaign that will be simple to partake in, reach out to strangers, create a sense of ownership, have a domino effect, and consolidate on the lessons learnt throughout the month. Most importantly, we wanted to end the month on a note of easing trauma with kindness on the timelines to make senders and receivers feel better.
We came up with the #HelloThere 5 Days of Mental Health Awareness Challenge to run from May 27- 31. We laid out the steps and shared them with our networks on various social media platforms. They, in turn, sent the messages to their own networks. Participants had to reply our tweet with @ and say something nice to the first account that came up. Pretty simple, right?
What Followed
Within hours, the replies started trickling in. We had hoped the tweet and replies to it would serve as a reference to spark joy later. However, some participants did not include the hashtag. Yet others partook without replying our tweet. We still saw them and it was heartwarming to see people getting involved. After putting out reminders of the steps involved, more responses could be seen in one thread.
We found that the messages came in a variety. Some like this tweet by @Nikapetrelli were warm words of encouragement.
Others like this reply by @cassie_daves came in the form of appreciation.
Some messages were directed to the self as shown by @mentallywoke_KE
and some to favourite celebrities
Many of the messages were unexpected by the recipients and it was clear it made their day. Many of them retweeted on their own timelines further spreading the goodwill.
We thank you all for the response to this challenge. Because trauma is a major cause of mental illness, kindness can go a long way to healing not only ourselves and the people closest to us but strangers too.
We hope that this challenge replicates itself beyond this period. With the increasing fluidity of the online and offline spaces, we hope to see more kind words and gestures being exchanged at bus stops, cafeterias, in our homes, offices, schools etc. As mental health is a collective responsibility, we all can contribute to maintaining an environment where this can flourish.
Will you continue this challenge every day and everywhere?
We hope you do.
