Social media is an inexpensive communication tool that has been thoughtfully designed to help people communicate quickly and seamlessly. Or at least that’s what we thought until it started to become a battleground of hate.
When dealing with cyber-hate, it is important to look beyond words as well as phrases, taking note of not only the context but other expressions like emoticons and images, also considering the fact that visual and verbal manifestations of hate influence personal and collective behaviours.
A quick look through the comment section of an Instagram post will show you how pervasive the problem is, in split seconds. Most of the major social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google have their respective policies in regard to the sort of hate speech permitted on their site, often times these policies are inconsistently applied and can be difficult for users to grasp. On social media platforms, anybody can upload or publish content obtainable by anyone interested but the downside is: this same tool has the potential to harm specific groups of people through certain discourses allowed on these platforms.
This harm has the ability to manifest itself through certain variations including offensive content, bullying and hate speech. In fact, many countries today are fast realizing that social media hate is a serious problem, especially because it is quite difficult to put up restrictions on the internet to prevent the prevalence of social media hate across minorities or countries.
Social Media Hate is very evident in content that seeks to promote violence or incites hatred amongst individuals based on certain characteristics such as gender identity, race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, veteran status, age or gender.
Not only does the existence of numerous haters make the use of social media very detrimental and harmful to people, it can also become dangerous to sensibly disseminate information or knowledge. Now a lot of young people choose to clear their accounts from people sharing offensive comments through the act of blocking or deleting them. They believe that unfollowing, blocking and deleting users is more effective than reporting offensive content to the social media platform. A lot of people are very much aware of the possibility to report pages but would rather not because it is almost pointless these days.
I for one have been a victim of social media hate. Being a singer and songwriter, my social media pages are filled with videos of my music and songwriting. Everything was going great until I saw a comment under a post I had just put up, the comment read “quit singing, you sound like a frog”. Reading that comment completely threw me off balance. I fell into depression for a really long period of time and started to question the usefulness of my talents. This comment made me delete every single post I had on my page that had anything to do with singing or songwriting. The situation was so disheartening that I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts altogether. I started to suffer from low self esteem and inferiority complex. I’d see a singer on TV and I’d think to myself “I wish I could sing like that”. I had decided never to have anything to do with social media from then onwards and I do not regret that decision one bit. As a matter of fact, that decision has been the best one I took in a really long time. Now I am more in tune with my immediate surroundings and unlike most youngsters, I am not permanently glued to my phone and I can actually be more productive singing in real life in front of real people with real reactions other than a bunch of angry strangers on some social app who probably don’t even care about my singing videos.
Another experience I had was on a dating app. The application is designed in such a way that it pairs you up with someone who has similar interests as you right after you have registered on the app. So I had gotten paired with this white guy and I decided to say Hi. His response was “Oops, you’re black”. That was the end of the conversation because I wasn’t able to come up with a response of any kind, seeing as it was one of the most insulting and racist encounters I had ever had over the internet. I simply deleted the app and moved on.
I can boldly say that I have accomplished a whole lot more than I ever thought I could, since I quit social media. Now I spend more time with my family, I’m more focused and I have better communication skills.
I can boldly say that I have accomplished a whole lot more than I ever thought I could, since I quit social media. Now I spend more time with my family, I’m more focused and I have better communication skills.
Come to think of it: Do you know how much value you could bring just by investing as much time as you do in social media into other things. Do you know how much you can accomplish just by putting your energy into real life activities? Do you know how much Cyber Hate you will escape just by quitting social media? Well, if you still haven’t seen a reason you should quit, read on, I’ll tell you why. As a matter of fact I’ll tell you what you can do instead of loitering aimlessly on social media.
Why you should quit social media
A lot of people everywhere have started to question the actual value of social media and I’m sure you have too. You post up a picture of yourself and think “why am I even posting this?” or maybe there’s some sort of rant on a particular subject and it gets you all emotional and worked up to the point that you develop a headache. But then again, it all ends there and you go to bed, wake up the very next morning to continue the very same cycle. Well, if this is your situation, trust me, you are not alone. Everybody is fed up. So here’s why you should quit social media and probably throw your phone into a well or out the window:
1. You are likely to have eating disorders which may lead to body image concerns
2. There’s way too much information on the internet that you just might become dumber instead of more intelligent
3. Social Media has the potential to ruin your relationships: Your cell phone will affect the manner you communicate with the people right in front of you especially if you are fiddling with it every other minute.
4. Social Media can cause depression; there’s a lot of people living fake lives, posting exotic pictures on social media and there’s also fake news which can negatively affect the way that you think, leading you into depression.
5. Social Media will disrupt your work flow; Studies show that using social media at the office for long periods of time can directly affect your work performance negatively.
6. Social Media takes you away from reality. In fact, it is so addictive you find yourself always wanting to be connected to the internet, even at social gatherings.
You might ask: “What comes next after I quit?” or “What can I do instead?”. There is a ton of things that you can do asides spending so much of your time looking at other peoples’ lives through your phone’s screen.
One of the best alternatives is ‘Writing’. This will be especially helpful to you if you have been looking to begin your writing career. “Why?” you may ask. Writing will help you eliminate stress. It will help you to be more aware of your reality. Writing will also help you to make better decisions, you will be happier, you will learn more. You will think better. You don’t necessarily have to attend grammar or literature classes to write more effectively. The more you write, the better you become at it. Additionally, writing will help you clear up your thoughts and make you more productive. When you write daily or as often as you can, you will be able to overcome difficult times even faster than those who spend all day on social media.
So instead of wasting valuable time scrolling through social media platforms, invest your time in writing and sharing all of those beautiful stories you have always wanted to tell.
