A Crime For Fun :CyberBullying

"Pulling people down will not help you reach the top"

We all know that; with the beginning of the 21st century, technology has become more advanced and so has its access. The tools for operation of technology have also become fast, and therefore so it has entered within the range of children. Internet is a blessing as well as a curse. All we need is the awareness of how to use it. Internet has shifted the trend of electronic gadgets from computers to cell mobile phones, notebooks and tablets. This shift has turned in people to become more social from one – to –one interaction to one-to-many interaction. Social media is proved to be the most effective, easy to access and time saving platform for connectivity among people. As social media unleashes its glory, it also has setbacks, the biggest one in the form of Cyberbullying.

What is cyber bullying? Anything unethical intended to harm the privacy of the victim via hate speech, defamation, harassing and damaging the dignity of another person. What is worse than humiliating any minor or someone already going through a crisis? There's a saying, "Be nice to people for no reason. We don’t know which battle they are fighting". We all are in extreme need to know the difference between joking and bullying. The Internet allows people to spread these hurtful messages, rumors, and photographs all over the world. Many of these things are cached permanently on the Internet, which means the negative effect may never end. Most people find satisfaction and pleasure in disgracing others. This adversely affects the personality of the victim and turns them out to act more negatively towards their family and relationships.

Trolling is a sister of cyber bullying. Trolling a person is actually the act of upsetting her/him by making derogatory jokes and hate speech on their attributes in an online community; causing shame to them. The content in trolls says something controversial in order to get a rise out of other users for that particular person especially celebrities and social media influencers.

We have many instances of how celebrities get victim of cyberbullying and trolling, such as

• When actress Yasra Rizvi was called out haters for marrying a younger man
• Influencer Areeka Haq trolled out by bullies for having mediocre acting skills 
•  Online community trolled actors Yasir Hussain and Iqra Aziz for being quite open about their life. 
• People trolled over Shehroz Sabzwari divorcing Syra Yousef and marrying Sadaf Kanwal.
•  Ayesha Omer very softly responded to bullying and hate speech over her dress on Instagram. This absolutely shows how people can stoop so low to hurt others.
• When singer Annie Khalid spoke up about society belittling women for second marriage

Cyberstalking and cyber harassment are branches of cyber bullying, and are in trend as teens are actively participating on social media platforms like Instagram, twitter, tiktok, Facebook, online gaming community, emails etc. This harmful act also breaches the victim's privacy tending to share or upload personal content of them causing humiliation. As per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, an estimated 15.7% of high school students were electronically bullied in the 12 months prior to the survey (2019). Cyberbullying can do more damage to a person's reputation. It can cause depression and anxiety, and lead to suicide, especially in young people such as teenagers.

Cyber bullying is a slow poison which abandons the victim and exploits their self-confidence. Individuals who are bullied — and the bullies themselves — are at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts, attempts, and completed suicides.

How to respond to cyberbullying?

I believe it is the high time that we start learning the damages about cyberbullying and normalize being sensitive about others’ sentiments. We can start from ourselves, furthermore, it is important to add up these values in the school curriculums so that maximum young people can learn that joking is not fun at all.