Social Media and the Toxicity it brings

Ah! Social Media. The first thing that came to our mind whenever we heard that word is definitely facebook. The social media giant. But did you know that it isn’t the first one? The one who started it all is called Six Degrees that is invented back in 1997, until MySpace appeared in the story and became the first social media who takes the world by storm. And there is Friendster as well that is so famous back in the days. Until Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, and the rest is history.

Title: Social Media and the 
Toxicity it brings.
Published Date: September 24, 2021
Author: alykavinsky 

A lot of social media app started to popped up in the internet. Back in the days, social media used to be a place where in people flocked in to enjoy, to have fun, play some games, de-stress. But what happened now? How these social media things became suddenly so toxic and occupied by trolls and cyber bullies?

📌 FACEBOOK

Did you know, that this social media giant used to be the most friendly social media app in the internet? Back in the days wherein mobile games isn’t a thing yet, facebook is the place where you can play a lot of interactive games. People in there respected you, but as time goes by, when multiple updates on the app happens, multiple changes occurred as well. Cyber bullies are everywhere. Calling you names, trashtalking you, sending you hateful comments, and more. In my own opinion, facebook should’ve takes measures in those kind of user. Banned them into the platform, or auto delete those bad comments. But nothing happens. Cyber bullying are still spreading like wildfire in that app. I missed the times when facebook is so low key in terms of everything. All chill and fun.

📌 INSTAGRAM

An app for photo sharing suddenly became a target of cyber bullies as well. And comment section is the place where they flocked in. And not just that, a lot of instagram user as well are used to fake their social statuses and lifestyle just to gain more followers and likes. These days, being on social media is like living in a virtual world that is too far from reality. How do some people manage to live that way? There is something more in real world that social media can’t offer.

📌 TWITTER

Twitter used to be one of the most friendly social media app that has ever been created. You can tweet anything you want without the fear of getting bashed by anyone because they simply don’t care and they are more focus on their twitter content. But right now, once you’ve tweet something unusual, cyber bullies will come to attack you in many forms you can’t even imagine. Twitter used to be like a social media diary, but now, it more of became a social media app for validation as well.

📌 YOUTUBE

And YouTube is not an exemption. And again, it’s comment section are just the worst! Before, you can just vlog anything and people will support you for it. But right now, if you vlog something that isn’t fitted on someone’s taste, they will attack you on your comment section as well. Worse is they even reported your video and there is a possibility for YouTube to take it down. How can people become that cruel for something they don’t even personally know? How can people who once so supportive became trolls for a matter of time? Social media world cruelty is indeed beyond unimaginable!

📌 TIKTOK

The latest one in social media platform is Tiktok. Although this app has a feature wherein you yourself can ban such an awful words on your comment section, it isn’t an exemption for social media bullies as well. I’m telling you, cyber bullies will find ways on how to send hurting words towards the creator. They even shuffled the words just to make sure they can make you feel like you’re a worthless creator and person as well. But tiktok keeps on improving. They themselves actually censored hurtful words or curses on the platform which is something we should give a positive points.

There are a lot more of social media app like Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitch, and more. But the kind of toxicity in there is less, compared to these four social media giants that I have mentioned.

Social media in my own opinion brings chaos into this world that we are living in. The world is tough already, but they make it even tougher. Suddenly likes and followers became a measure of how better of a person you are. People learn to lies and fake their lifestyle just to get some validation from the world.

Research shows why the new generation is so unhappy because social media got them comparing their real lives to virtual world’s unrealistic standard.

May we not forget that there is more too life than social media likes and subscribers count. One day, we will all get older and probably be gone in this world, so nothing matters anymore. People won’t remember you by number of likes and followers you accumulated on social media, but on how good of a person you are in real life.

Let us keep in mind that social media’s purpose is for us to have fun, and not to seek validation from strangers in the internet. Don’t be blinded by these platforms trend, and try living our real life outside of it. The real world has a lot of wonders to offer, it’s just us who neglected it most of the time.

But just in case you bumped into some hateful comments, or cyber bullies, report the user. That’s the least we can do. Kindness is kindness no matter how small it is.

“ LIFE IS TOUGH. BE NOTHING BUT KIND.”