Things We All Need TO Stop Doing Online!

In the social media age, not only do we have to fight the FOMO we get when we see our peers having the time of their lives without us on their summer holiday, or how we are constantly reminded of how single we are when we see couples on the gram that are #RelationshipGoals, we have to watch every tweet and photo we post to make sure we don’t offend the grammar police or the dreaded internet trolls. The internet has a very long memory and with the ever so rampant Cancel Culture nowadays, you could easily turn into public enemy number one overnight or a victim of some serious online bullying. It’s funny how quickly you can trend for all the wrong reasons when a disgruntled ex decides to leak your nudes on the internet, or when you make a bad joke that was slightly racist or homophobic. The internet is a pretty unforgiving place and today I wanna talk about how we are actually responsible for all of it. All of us are, or have been internet trolls and it needs to end.

Photo by Liza Summer on Pexels.com

 The Grammar Police

Lurking nearby in the online bushes are individuals who can’t help but correct the grammatical mistakes you made on your tweet. These people are relentless and won’t quit, they probably get high off of spotting grammatical errors on people’s posts. It is true though that there’s something irritating about grammatically incorrect English, and I confess that I occasionally get the urge to correct someone when they make a mistake, but then I quickly realise how much it sucks to have someone come at your spelling in the comment section and I know that I also make a ton of grammatical errors too, I mean I write a lot of articles so no doubt I inevitably do, and If it wasn’t for spell check on Word I’d be a lot worse. My point is we should all take a breath on them corrections, we all make mistakes from time to time. If the urge is that bad then you’d rather politely suggest it to them via DM instead of the comment section. Siri, play F**k the grammar police

Revenge Porn

Not all relationships end on a good note, that’s for sure. There’s some hurt feelings in the process and sometimes, the ex who feels hard done may resort to sharing intimate pictures and videos of their ex-partner just to get back at them. Not only is this a gross violation of privacy, it is a major betrayal of someone’s trust and it’s actually against the law. Now there’s usually people with a holier-than-thou attitude who are quick to point out why these people even shared the compromising media in the first place, it’s totally unfair to blame someone for being vulnerable with someone who stabs them in the back in the end. It’s like confessing to the priest that you have a weird fetish and he outs you in front of the congregation, that’d be pretty messed up right? Whenever we share a leaked nude in our friend groups or like it on social media, we’re only adding to the victim’s turmoil, so instead of trending such vile acts, we should denounce the instigator and quickly delete the media to stop it from further spreading.

Also-also, don’t share your partners nudes with your friends, it’s mad disrespectful to them!

Body-Shaming and Slut-shaming

Having a positive body image is hard enough already when you constantly see perfectly shaped insta-models with abs, V-lines, small waists and big banks on the gram. After taking a hundred selfies and finally narrowing them down to maybe three that are insta-worthy, you upload them on your feed only to have some rando comment about your double-chin in the comment section. One thing the world can do without is commentary of how other people look because trust me, they are well aware of their flaws, they look themselves in the mirror every day and trust me, they don’t need to be reminded about any of them. People go through so many things in silence and a recent struggle might have left them a few pounds lighter, and they know it, so you might as well keep that “Oh my goodness you look so skinny, are you eating right?” comment to yourself. Slut-shaming people over their outfits is archaic and it really has to stop. Everybody has the right to dress how they deem fit and if their clothing seems a bit too exposing for us, we are allowed to keep our opinions to ourselves and let them look fabulous in peace.

Actual Trolling

This one is a real problem. In life there are people that are just haters. They hate to see other people succeed, hate to see them happy, and they’ll always try by whatever means to dampen your spirit. Sometimes you might post a picture of you enjoying some quality time with bae, and there’s gonna be that troll in the comment section who writes, “It will end in tears”, Nah fam get outta here! You don’t get to come and rain on my parade, just because things didn’t work out for you doesn’t mean that they won’t for me too. There’s a lot of negativity out here and people just love making other people feel shitty. As human beings we are quite fragile too, we can read a dozen positive comments but one comment from a troll is enough to ruin our day. In as much as we need to develop thicker skin and stay away from the comment section, we should also make sure we’re not being trolls to someone else too. Celebrities having feelings too, just be more considerate.

We need to do better

One way or the other, we’re all responsible for the way the internet is right now. We need to understand that what we might text on our screens could have a massive impact to someone’s esteem and self-image. We need to stop enabling online bullies and retweeting and liking their posts, they are damaging to some people, you might get a crack out of it, but someone on the other end of the joke might feel like taking their life away. Don’t let bitter people instil their bitter sentiments in you, my momma raised me better and I know yours raised you better too, stop supporting misogynists who post derogatory posts about women and any other negative sentiments. We know better, now let’s do better, cheers!