Hate, a simple four-letter word yet holds so much meaning, so much despair. Hate has played a presence in every era in time. In 2017 the hip way to hate is online hate. We see it every day, every time that we log into our social media accounts, every time we turn our screens on. From a tweet to a comment on Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube, leaving a hateful message is just a few key clicks away. It is easier to spread negativity and hate then it ever was before.
This growing online hate space has only increased with the increase in social media stars. Social media stars have taken over the internet from your favorite Instagram beauty guru, who showed you how to have the best yearbook picture you ever could, to the youtuber sitting in their bedroom telling you a storytime of their stalker. These people live their lives online more than the average human, being that it is their place of work, not just a simple hobby or way to pass time standing in the line waiting for your iced coffee. With the rising number of followers and fame, these people seem to pick up a rise in the amount of hate that the average person can get. Just because they have 5 million followers does not mean that they have an extra hard layer of skin that allows them to not be affected by the nasty words thrown at them.
In today’s society, it seems as if it has become a new trend to instantly hate on someone online. One tweet starts and everyone decides to jump on the bandwagon to fit into what seems cool at them time. A trend that I have personally noticed online is with the youtuber/ makeup artist James Charles. He has done things in the past that are questionable but he can’t seem to post something without having thousands of people jump on him for anything – even if it’s not relevant. It has become such a simple thing to do that it has begun to make people blind to the fact that if you tweet someone that the way they dress is terrible, or their makeup looks horrendous, it’s still hate. That tweet that took you no longer than 10 seconds to post is just as bad as walking up to a kid at school and calling them a loser or knocking the books out of their hands on the playground.
The anonymous factor to taking your hate online helps appeal to this method because no one may ever know it’s you. With screen names and fake profiles, it’s easier than ever to become someone you’re not online, giving you the sense of power that no one will ever be able to track the hate-filled messages to you.
Not only do people think it’s okay because no one will know it’s them, but also the strange conception that, well if I don’t see the results it’s not there. If a tweet is sent to cause damage to someone else or a comment is posted on a girl’s Instagram calling them ugly, you won’t see the immediate reaction or the immediate breakdown. However, it’s still there, just because you don’t see it does not mean it doesn’t exist. It’s like when you close the freezer and you hear the ice cream fall yet just walk away, you walked away from the problem, but the problem is still there. Just because you didn’t see the ice cream fall does not mean it’s not going to tumble out on the next person to open the freezer.
It is 2017, and it’s time to take responsibility for what we do and realize that it’s wrong. It’s time for us to stop tearing people down in order to feel cool or better about ourselves. With only a few months left in 2017 let’s begin, switching from spreading negativity to spreading positivity and lifting people up one comment at a time. It’s time to make the internet a truly nice place to be.