Torment Inflict on Netizens [1]
Not all forms of abuse leave bruises.
It was a day like any other, until this fateful incident occurred.
After an early start, another step towards a fit life and some reading, I shared something I wrote with my fellow writers in a group solely meant for this.
A fellow member replied to this on the pretext of reviewing my work, and to my surprise, subtly blackmailed me asking me to unblock him. Ironically, I hadn’t even engaged in any conversation with him, let alone block.
Upon some probing to quench my curiosity, I figured that this person wasn’t even a writer, and was part of this group to ‘make friends’ (now, we all know what that means). He further justified himself, saying he also wanted to improve his command over the language, and since writers are good linguistically, he had such a preference. (Two birds with one stone, eh, mate?)
I politely asked him to back off, all in vain, for, he was very persuasive, which isn’t of much help in this situation. (Ever heard of consent, mate? Applies to every activity, and not just those involving intimacy.) Utterly disturbed, I brought up this issue in the group, and a bunch of victims confessed to have undergone the same set of traumatizing events (and, friends, that’s how I met Nidhi, for whose blog I’m writing this :D).
By the time we could track these people down, they had deleted their accounts – which is when it struck to us that this was nothing but a mere case of cyberbullying.
While this wasn’t too harsh an incident, it was still something which widened our minds. In fact, there’ve been victims who’ve ended their lives thanks to such insensitive bullies, and we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemies.
Unless and until our society recognizes cyber bullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue.
I wish to voice myself out to all the cyberbullies out there, irrespective of the bullying style.
You’re the one behind a screen who throws out heartless, harsh words.
You’re the unhappy one, feeding your misery by harassing and humiliating.
You’re the weakling, trying to gain power by birthing aversion in others.
You’re the fool who believes you can get away with everything you do, but you don’t realize that you can only last as long as someone takes it to a legal level (trust me, won’t take very long).
You’re the helpless soul who lacks empathy, and I can’t help but pity you.
In a world of good souls taking to the cyberworld with the best of intentions, you’ve chosen to stoop down to sadism. Instead of cherishing diversity, you have chosen to mock it. There is no known value in what you do – no goal, no achievement; nothing to look up to.
You choose to tear down the world around you.
I choose to build a better one.
I refuse to let you hurt me.
I find purpose in my life. Life may not always be easy, but I choose to enjoy every single day. Your messages don’t harm me.
My voice will speak out against your hatred and stand with others to remove the fear and anger you promote. Our voices, combined, will silence yours and those like you.
Hope you learn from your mistakes and soar higher than ever with the right actions.
Wishing you nothing less than the best,
Yours,
A proud survivor of cyberbullying.
If you liked what you read, feel free to head to my blog to read more such posts – World of Vigorous
Happy reading! ❤️