You Might Be Involved in Cyberbullying

The weight of a comment or a DM on social media

Hana Kimura was a victim of cyberbullying. She left her last message and it was heartbreaking:

Why am I disturbed by this? I was a fan of hers from the Terrace House show. I was shocked that she was disliked by many online strangers despite her obvious cheerful and sweet personalities. She was only 22 years old, and unfortunately, the people on her social media have not been forgiving enough to make her feel safe and loved.

With the help of social media, we can easily connect to everyone including strangers.

As a normal human being, we think twice before we say something mean or we regret straight after saying it. Because we feel bad when we CAN SEE the person is hurt.

On social media, we don’t get to see the person’s reaction after reading our comments or DMs, hence, we stop thinking before we write. We stop having sympathy with the person whenever we wanna judge or hate, especially if the person is an absolute stranger (someone we don’t know in real life).

If you were to receive negative comments, how would you feel? Imagine getting lots of them every day and you might soon think the whole world is against you. Social media is just an application if you think about it, but we see our profile in social media as our only identity in this modern world. We try to impress by posting beautiful images, quotes etc. That’s why every negative input you receive from your followers or strangers, you just take it in and digest it. This is a form of emotional abuse. Everyone on social media is vulnerable. It’s easy to say “just ignore the hateful comments”, but we simply can’t ignore it because most of us do care what others think.

Please…..

Doesn’t seem like a big deal, isn’t it? Everyone does have a right to say and complain.

How about…

This is not ok because you’re attacking a real human being in the world of internet. It doesn’t feel that way because you don’t actually get to see the person physically, so it’s hard to imagine whether the person actually cares about what you think or say. Still, this doesn’t give you the freedom to judge anyone in any way.

You probably will be more careful when you’re using your own account/profile because people can recognize you. However, there is an option to be anonymous. This is when things can get really bad because those who like to communicate anonymously think they have the freedom to say/write whatever they want with no consequences. Being anonymous gives bad people the power to hurt others.

Vulnerable people tend to accept harmful messages easily and reluctant to stand up for themselves.

What do you think is the best way to protect the victims?

If you’re suffering from this, please get help.

Sorry to say, it is something to be ashamed of because being mean to others is immoral. But, everyone deserves a second chance and admitting it is the first step to start a righteous path.

It’s never too late to be a good person.

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