To communicate with friends and family, people utilise social media on a variety of online platforms. It has given a boost to the world economy by increasing communication among different countries and promoting trade. People use numerous social media applications like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. To network career opportunities, to form new friends across the world with common interests. Some use social media as a platform where they can share their thoughts, feelings, insights or emotions with others.
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Social Media: A Curse or A Boon?
Social media has undoubtedly contributed to the advancement of human civilisation. By bringing people from all over the world together in a single location. Where they can express their ideas and thoughts. People have been shown to benefit from these positive encounters since they help with co-development and the improvement of social skills.
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However, some people these days abuse social media. They are using this platform as a way to spread hatred and propaganda against a person, group or whole community. Such individuals use social media as a medium to manipulate people by spreading hate speech and fake news. This orients individuals’ thoughts and opinions on numerous matters in a negative direction.
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This may lead to the development of inappropriate or destructive behaviour among people. Which will be against the welfare of society. The spread of offensive religious views or fake news on social media about a particular community can lead to misunderstanding or conflicting opinions among different groups, and violence is a general outcome of such scenarios.
Shedding light on the negative side of social media in which generally two types of individuals are involved. One who spreads hatred and the second who is a victim of such hatred. For the same reason, there are thousands of content creators and millions of content viewers in the world. These content consumers usually use social media as a way to enjoy and take a break from their exhausting and busy lives.
However, some individuals use social media as a way to unleash their stress and frustration by indulging in negative activities like insulting, manipulating, and spreading hate against people or groups to fulfil their agenda or to satisfy their ego.
They write personal comments regarding random people or particular people without thinking about the consequences of their actions. Have we become so irresponsible and immature that we can’t even think two steps ahead about what impact our actions could usher in the longer term what is going to be the result of such negative behaviour on the victim and the way this can negatively impact their psychological state and life?
One hateful comment can affect the victim’s mental health. Positive and negative feedback can be hard to tell between. Positive criticism sometimes referred to as constructive criticism, entails giving someone feedback in a way that does not offend them but instead motivates them to change for the better. The prevalence of negative criticism on today’s social media platforms frequently results in the absence of positive criticism. Thus, it would be true to say that social media contains a sizable amount of negativity. People should use social media with caution since it can both create and ruin lives in a matter of seconds.
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Methods to control hatred:-
There are various methods one can use to control hatred on social media and some of them are mentioned below:-
- If you are the receiver of hatred these methods can be useful:-
- It is important for you to understand that nothing is more important than your mental health.
- Protecting your mental health should be your priority.
- Ignore the negativity and continue to move forward, it is the best way to live happily and peacefully.
- There is no need to react to everything, not everything deserves your attention.
- Mediation and yoga can help you to add positivity to your life.
- Distract yourself by learning a new skill or language.
- Don’t stress about hatred, believe in yourself and simply give your best. Our deeds determine our destiny.
- It is necessary to take a break from social media occasionally; such productive digital detox can help to increase mindfulness and can reduce stress.
- For the spreader of the hatred or just a normal user then these are some ways to control :
It is important for you to understand that your comment or anything you write or post on social media is public and is viewed by hundreds of people.- Avoid spreading the news before verifying it; first, verify the facts before forwarding any content. Don’t be a carrier of fake news.
- Criticism is incredibly essential for the content creator in order to grow and improve. However, the use of positive criticism as a medium to criticize others is good.
- View positive content and share the same with your loved ones, spreading positivity can bring sparkles of positivity into your life too.
- Abusing or insulting others is an inappropriate method of resolving stress and frustration, either trying to meditate to calm yourself or consulting a mental health professional whenever required.
It is necessary for each user to become “A RESPONSIBLE USER” “as social media is the platform to spread the appropriate content to reach every corner of the world, so be the one who spreads positivity.”
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