Introduction
The existence of social media trolls have been on the rise with shots/shades thrown and clap backs in response to the harassment and bullying. It’s really funny seeing people take joy in paying attention to the lives of others, perhaps it would have been advantageous if such individuals channeled the energy they used in bullying and harassing people online into doing more positive things like researching for opportunities such as steemit that would be of immense benefits to their lives.
Social media is primarily developed for people connect and network with the aim of improving lives but as it seems, some supposed adult body sized individuals are using it to abuse, stalk, derogate and send people into an imprisonment of their rather absurd opinions. Social media platforms are now used to hide under a veil and castigate people that ordinarily, they can’t look in the eye, it’s more of a school/classroom where everyone is equal with no one needed to be respected regardless of their age or personality. Is there any benefit in harassing and bullying others?
Coming from a more detailed angle of what social media bullying entails, it consists of posting unwanted comments intentionally designed to create a hostile, degrading and intimidating effect on the target. This is an act no decent human should partake in with some under the pretense of correcting or advising. For example, a young boy telling an elderly woman enough to be his mother to wipe off her ugly ass make up on social media. Her makeup might not be perfect but the manner of communicating this could be considered grossly inappropriate which killed whatever good intentions he might have had.
A typical example
All social media platforms have an inbox or direct messages which are particularly designed for such situations. If someone comes through in an awful manner with threats on social media do you know you could report? I guess each country would definitely have authorities capable of handling such or maybe the police.
Are there other ways of protecting yourself from social media harassments?
A typical example of social media platform where bullying is on the rise is Instagram. Instagram was majorly designed to give your friends a peep into what’s going on in your life and sharing your stories with the use of pictures and video. This has however been taking advantage of by ill-minded individuals who have misused it and been on a rampage. Instagram taking into consideration the likelihood of such, added an option where you could report any account you feel was created to cause havoc or stalk by filling a form.
In situations where you experience extreme cases of defamation of reputation and character assassination on social media, you could file a lawsuit especially in severe circumstances where the culprit makes a post that could damage a brand name or its business relationship, sounds impossible right?....A blogger in my country was recently hit with a lawsuit by a reputable personality which after a couple of months left her almost bankrupt “It’s good to let people have a taste of their own bitter pill perhaps when they do, they become more sensitive ”. All that's needed in such situation is getting a good lawyer to carry out the necessary course of action on the case enabling you make the bully pay for damages.
Ways of avoiding cyberbullies
However in situations where taking legal action might seem rather impossible, here are some tips on how you could avoid getting into such situations at the first instance.
Be more careful about the things you post
Make sure your personal information made available to the general public is minimal
You don’t necessarily need to react to the bullies as they would definitely feed off your reaction
Avoid making comments on controversial and sentimental posts
Post only things that are necessary
Avoid taking shots first but rather make a deliberate effort to avoid trouble waters, silence is golden.
Are you a victim or an abuser? Do you support social media bullying? Do you know the internet never forgets? Do you think your spouse, children, an employer or a friend will be proud of you when they read your posts and comments?
It’s rather best to be careful what we post so they don’t come back hunting us at the long run, you never know if you would be in need of the same person you have been harassing on social media.
There is obviously no gain neither do you stand a chance of winning a prize so it better to resolve to not posting hurtful things to your fellow humans. Always put yourself in the same shoes and ask yourself if you would be cool with someone else making such comments about you.
Conclusion
Social media bullying is one epidemic we should anticipate here on steemit in the nearest future considering the rapid growth the platform has experienced over the past few months. In my honest opinion, I think steemit.com should put this into consideration and make available more privacy settings where you could block off anyone whose presence on your page would be unhealthy for you (ill-intended users) and also giving room for reporting abuse where you notice inappropriate flagging which would be handled with immediate effect. That way, it would have been controlled even before its inception.
Thanks for dropping by :)
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I agree that cyber bullying/trolling will probably be an epidemic in steemit because controversy generate audience/traffic. Traffic will turn into comments which will generate debates which would generate optimal payout in steemit. I don't agree with it but as it's said, it is what it is.
Very true my friend, controversial posts are one way of getting attention on steemit. Let just wait and hope that cyber bullies aren't on rampage in the future :)
Great insight on cyberbullying, it's very prevalent in our society but I've grown numb to it. It might be too late to stop it but it isn't to late to prevent it on sites like this with a generally wholesome and a thriving user base.
Let's work together to shut this down on first sight if we see it happening on steemit :D
Yes friend, measures have to be put in place as early as possible :)
wow! what a wonderful,well organised,very educative post.keep it up.upvoted.follow back
Thanks friend :)
Good analyzing post!upvoted nd following!
follow me back pls,just need supports from the seniors!i m just born in steem it
Thanks friend, would check out your blog as well :)
yes, we need a power mute the trolls button.
Cyber bullying is unfortunately growing at a very fast pace. Today everyone has access to a device connected to the internet and feel like they can do and say whatever.
I've seen news on tv where kids committed suicide after a prolonged attack on social platforms , mostly facebook .
And even if I hate to bring it up , "The Blue Whale Game" that killed so many in different countries. That is also some next level cyber bullying that can easily find victims in kids or uneducated people.
I think we have to be very careful at what we say, be responsible , because you never really know who is the person you are targeting ( even with a joke ) or what he/she has been going through . I could be that your comment is the drop that fills up the glass for them .
Be ethical , stay positive and nothing can go wrong :)
Amazing comment my friend, you have said it all, thanks for coming through :)
Thank you for a very well put together article .
The truth has been spoken and it is true that cyber bullying is a case, where no matter how further technology goes foreword, society will always be a step or several steps behind it.
Very true friend ...thanks for dropping by :)
I've had my share of bullies/trolls on Instagram. I just try to not give them too much attention. It's hard to not let it get to you though. I work my ass off for my followers and dealing with negativity sometimes makes me wonder if it's all worth it.
Sorry about that dear. Regardless, it's best to ignore them most times, that way they feel less relevant :)
Yeah, you're absolutely right