By Venessa Anthony
Social media is revolutionary – we cannot deny that. Unfortunately, everything good always comes with a dark side and when it comes to online platforms – despite being a great way to communicate and spread news – they are also breeding grounds for toxicity. More young people than ever before are coming across others explicitly intending to hurt or harass them in the day and age of the internet.
If you’ve been on Instagram in the last few days, you would’ve seen everyone’s stories taken over by the newest social media hype – an anonymous messaging link. Essentially, it’s a way for your followers (or anyone with access to your specific link) to send you anonymous messages and/or questions. Initially, this trend seemed like it was all in good fun, but like it always does, it soon got weird. What started off as tame questions or cute compliments went on to hate messages and insults. It made us wonder whether such anonymous messaging platforms were aiding cyber bullying.
Since cyber bullying, a growing problem associated with social media use, has become a significant public health concern that can lead to mental and behavioural health issues and an increased risk of suicide, The Morning Brunch took to the internet to find out what people think about this new trend that has taken over the internet and whether they see it doing more harm than good.
Entrepreneur and educator Zahara Jawfer Tharique noticed this trend leading to an ugly place before most. She told us that she had been seeing this anonymous messaging trend making the rounds on Instagram and has been reading all sorts of responses. Some, she observed, were funny and well meaning while others were downright negative, rude, and demeaning.
We asked her if she already participated in the trend or if she hopes to do so in the future. “I’m not hopping on this bandwagon. I’m not afraid. I’ve always spoken my heart out and been who I am and I couldn’t care less about what haters have to say,” she told us, expressing her distaste at the whole shebang. There will always be people who express hate for no reason at all, which Jawfer observed was an expression of their bitterness, darkness, jealousy, and malice.
When asked what types of messages with negative connotations she had seen, she described messages targeting people’s bodies, voices, and, in general, very personal physical attacks. She also questioned whether people thought about what they must be putting the person on the receiving end through, emphasising that no one’s skin is that thick.
“Sure, they tolerate it, but why spew hate or say anything negative to anyone? Would you like to be in their shoes? Don’t we have enough issues in our country? Aren’t we unhappy enough as a nation? Do you have to bully people into anxiety and depression or punch a hole in the confidence they build?” she questioned passionately, highlighting that she genuinely believes everyone’s journey is special and unique – it is not our place to judge what other people do with their lives.
“Here’s the rule of thumb I follow: If you cannot say something to someone to their face, you cannot say it to them at all! You hide behind an app and spill out all that hate on someone, for no actual reason, and most of the time this person has not harmed you in any way,” she noted.
She urged social media users to put themselves in their shoes before they send mean messages just for fun. She strongly stated that bullying is indeed harassment, noting that if one is a bully, she would regard them as a lowlife.
When told that this could be a way of cyberbullying, another Instagram user Maya Fernando was shocked and told us that she hadn’t seen it like that. “Social media is always a dark place, so sometimes when there are hateful comments and such online, we tend to turn a blind eye, not because we don’t think it’s wrong but because it’s become so normalised online now that we don’t even see or notice it anymore,” she told us.
Upon realising that people can only send messages if they had access to the link, she realised that her account as well as many of her friends’ were private accounts, so any degrading or insulting messages they could get would be from people who have access to their account.
“I am very selective of who I allow on my account; I think them to be my closest friends and some family,” she told us, shocked and horrified at the thought that the people she loves and trusts wholeheartedly could be sending such awful messages.
“In a way, I suppose the trend will help you weed out fake friends, but also, we can never know who sent the message, so we will live in a constant state of anxiety, not knowing which of our friends might secretly hate, despise, or be jealous of us,” she worried.
When these tools are used in conjunction with responsible following and communication practices, it can reduce the chance of experiencing cyberbullying, but in this particular case, where the culprit is unknown, it is difficult to take much or any action against them. The tools given by Instagram – while extremely useful in combating cyberbullying on the platform’s features – can do little by way of inculcating an outside platform like this anonymous link to the network.
Yes, Instagram should take measures to prevent such cross contamination, but until that happens the only solution would be to either stay away from promoting trends that can clearly do more harm than good, or simply not publicising the awful responses, thereby not giving these bullies the limelight and false sense of accomplishment they are looking for.