Today, we live in a world where everything and everyone is criticized for every little thing they do whether it’s being themselves or not being themselves, talking about their life or not revealing anything about it, speaking a lot or speaking less or even not speaking at all and the list goes on. Unfortunately, there are a number of things that have been normalised that shouldn’t have been, such as people spreading hate with an excuse of “I have all the rights to give my opinion” or the people criticizing someone solely because they seem to enjoy it or in other words to have fun, ‘fun’ in their language. This is especially prevalent on the social media sites aka the internet where people feel entitled to share their opinions about others without any limits or consideration for the feelings of those they are targeting. Are there really no limits to sharing one’s opinion? Is it necessary to share one’s opinion about someone else when not asked for?

There are certain public figures who post on such social media sites as a part of their business or any other work they do and as a result there’s often hate in the form of constructive criticism which indeed is supported by a lot of people but are the feelings of people online not important? Not worth the consideration? There are a majority of people discussing about mental health awareness, cyber bullying, the importance of spreading kindness and being kind and all these are some common topics that are talked about a lot these days but somehow on the other hand, how people might feel or might already be feeling is not considered in a lot of cases, so who is at fault? People using these social media sites or the people commenting on other people’s work or their lifestyle. There have been certain comments made by people saying that if people do not wish to see the negative words or live in between the negativity or does not want to be a part of the hatred, then they should go off these social media sites or should take a break if their mental health gets affected but why is there so much hate and negativity in the first place? Why do humans have to protect themselves from the words and actions of other humans? Is there nothing wrong with the actions of people spreading the hate without being bothered? Sadly, it’s the reality and reality is harsh as said by some people but is the reality meant to be harsh or are the people so convinced by the statement that they make out everything harsh to be the reality.

There are people posting about their life, the things they deal with in their daily life, the things they are insecure of, the reality of their life and in most cases that ends up getting them being labelled as “attention seekers” or “clout chasers” but on the other hand, if someone posts the not so real things, the things they prefer to post simply for themselves then that is considered fake and hence in both cases, the person is criticized and there is hate either way. Should that be okay? Should that be normalised? We have the control over the content we wish to see, if a certain content pops up on our screen, we have the option to not view it again. Certain contents are liked by some and disliked by the others so why does spreading hatred for the creator is implied in a bigger number as compared to just ignoring the content that is not of interest. It should be understandable that one’s likes and dislikes can be the opposite of someone else’s likes and dislikes and liking different content is completely valid, something liked by one can be disliked by the other but the negativity is not valid, it should not be accepted.

Why are humans often against humans in this life? In today’s time, we all deserve to be alive

What is cyber bullying? Often, bullying someone online by using harsh language and sending them messages that are often viewed as threatening and not appropriate is known as cyber bullying. So, does all this not fall under the category of cyber bullying? It might not be said directly to the person but it is said about the person and in today’s world it is so common to assume something about someone’s life, make comments about it and speak anything and everything to prove one’s own assumption about someone else’s life true. Social media is a messed up place, a lot of times it is advised by a lot of people to not use social media a lot simply because of how it can affect someone’s mental health but we humans are the ones using these sites, if we choose to be kind, we can make it a better place, if only we could understand the difference between constructive criticism and directly spreading the hate from behind the mask of constructive criticism, if only people writing hateful things for absolutely no reason would try to understand the aftereffect of it on the other people and instead of building up the hate inside themselves for unnecessary reasons, would rather work on themselves, the world itself would be a better place.

“The reality wouldn’t be harsh if people wouldn’t be harsher

The humanity would always be alive if only humans could be nicer”

The internet was supposed to be a portal for knowledge, for information, for people to grow and learn but what is Internet in today’s world? Why does cyber bullying even exists in the first place? Why are people so comfortable while making others feel so uncomfortable? There are thousands of questions and maybe there are an equal amount of answers as well but how well known the answers are or, how ignored the answers are?

The real stories, the ones lived by real people in real time can never be denied, it will never not be a lie

There have been several cases where people that have been a victim of cyber bullying and of all the hatred spread by the people on the internet have committed suicide and not just one or two but there is a long list of such cases. According to the media, in the year 2018 a teenager committed suicide and her body was found in her house, lifeless. Dolly Everett (Amy Jane Everett) who was a 14 year old teenager, born on May 1, 2003, daughter of Kate Everett and Tick Everett, also was the model of an Australian hat company named as Akubra. She modelled for Akubra at the age of 6. Eventually she became a victim of cyber bullying even at such a young age. All the bullying resulted in her committing suicide on January 3rd, 2018. It is a sad reality created by the unknown faces leading up to a death of a 14 year old.

Similarly there was another case of a 13 year old who hanged herself in her bedroom closet and was eventually found dead on October 17, 2006. Megan Meier, daughter of Tina Meier and Ronald Meier was born on November 6, 1992. Megan struggled with body image along with depression and attention deficit disorder commonly known as ADHD, where a person has trouble paying attention, face difficultly in remembering things (are often forgetful), they have trouble in being organized and also they might have trouble having control over their own actions (might act without thinking of the consequences of their actions) and so on. It was a few weeks before her death, when Megan met a boy named Josh online and soon they started conversing through a social networking site named as MySpace. Josh eventually asked Megan to be friends with him. Megan had been talking to Josh for sometime when suddenly the messages sent by Josh were different and he told Megan that he didn’t wanted to be friends with her anymore and Josh’s last messages to Megan were rather harsh, after which Megan took that major step. Later on, it was revealed that the person named Josh with whom Megan was talking to was not real and was a fake online profile made up by one of Megan’s friend/classmate’s mother, Lori Drew who was their neighbour as well, along with her own daughter, Sarah Drew. It had been stated that Lori Drew spoke about it and said that it was supposed to be a joke and that the account had been created to gain Megan's confidence and also to find out what were Megan's thoughts about Lori and her daughter but the neighbour who supposedly told Tina Meier about Lori stated that Lori laughed about it and that she had the intentions to mess with Megan. After sometime, at a press conference it was made clear that Ashley Greens who was Lori Drew’s 18 year old temporary employee was the one involved as well, along with Lori Drew and Sarah Drew and she was the one who wrote most of the messages pretending to be “Josh Evans”. She was the one who even wrote the last messages, the ones which led Megan to eventually commit suicide. Ashley Green talked about it and said that she wrote the last messages in order to stop Megan from texting Josh anymore and to end the story of “Josh Evans”. Later in the year 2007, Megan’s mother, Tina Meier started the Megan Meier foundation which is a cyber bullying prevention foundation which aims towards stopping the bullying happening worldwide.

Another case about a kpop (korean pop) singer/actor known by her stage name, Sulli (birth name Choi Jin-Ri) where she was found dead in her apartment after she committed suicide came out to be a shocking news, both for the people close to her and the people supporting her. Sulli was born in Busan, South Korea on March 29, 1994. She started her career at the age of 11 and debuted in the kpop group known as ‘f(x)’ in the year 2009. She was found dead in her apartment on October 14, 2019 at the age of 25. Sulli was receiving a lot of hate and backlash on the internet and despite her addressing the hate on her lives and showing visible sadness towards it, the hate and the mean comments did not stop. It was clearly seen a lot of times that she was struggling with her mental health due to all the negativity and yet the negativity for her never stopped which eventually resulted to her unfortunate death.

In the end, it is not just the people with a public image but also the people living their life simply amongst the people they love who receive hate and negativity, the criticism for being themselves. It is merely a person's case, it is indeed the whole world’s case. We as people cannot judge our own reactions to the unnecessary hate or negativity then how is showing hatred towards a person personally unknown to us so common without having any idea of how they might react to it?

How much can one know or how little is known? there’s always a lot unknown

Assumption is a disease, assuming a person’s lifestyle, a person’s whole personality and even assuming a person’s thinking process. People having blind faith over their assumptions is a disease. Just when someone’s assumption is based off anything related to someone other than themselves, it becomes like a virus. A virus that can spread from one person to the other and can make everyone believe in it, true or not, it's a virus that can often kill.

Everyone should be able to use the internet equally, one’s safe place shouldn’t be a threat to the other, one’s knowledge centre shouldn’t be the reason for other one’s misery. It is not something that needs to be talked about, it is something that needs to be understood, understood by every single person, be it a grown up or a teenager. Kindness cannot be implemented if kindness is not understood. Not always kindness is about speaking positive words to someone, sometimes kindness can also be not saying anything to a person, to let people be themselves, to not be a threat to them, to let the space made for everyone keep being a place for everyone, equally. It should be the people’s place.

“People make the world”, this line is something that everyone must have heard but we as humans shape the world, the world we exist in is already made, the originally created world. Our thoughts, our actions, our words do shape the world, so shouldn’t we shape it in a truly better way? Why is the human life suffocating for humans themselves? It shouldn’t be humans against the humans but instead it should be humans along with humans. Just accepting the fact that we never know what someone might be dealing with, how someone’s life must be like, what kind of a person someone might be would be more than just a tiny step in making humans feel comfortable amongst other humans. It would be a step, one valid step.

 “One’s assumption is not the other one's reality, it will never be.”

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