Trolling cyberspace

Bullying is rampant in schools and it is also present in cyberspace (“The art of bullying: Online trolls in India abuse, threaten journalists for doing their jobs”, Gulf News, August 7). Online bullying is a disease that is plaguing every social media platform, and has becomean epidemic we can no longer control. Everyone has a smartphone or a tablet and behind the comfort of a screen and a username, people say things that are mean and inappropriate. No one is safe from an online troll who lurks in the comfort of his or her home,

waiting for a victim. Such trolls pry on one’s insecurities and get a kind of high when they criticise people. Some even use made-up names to maintain their anonymity. Whether you are a common man or a celebrity, there’s no saving anyone from this epidemic. Is it an ego boost or a way to kill time? We will never know. Howver one thing is for sure, there is a lot os psychology behind this. A lot of people get affected by these negative comments and it can have an effect on someone’s mental health and how they see themselves. So many young children get trolled online by people they don’t know or their classmates and end up having depression, anxiety, or worse off, taking their lives because of the comments people post. Like the article states, even journalists aren’t immune to such threats and bullies. Such cyber trolls need to stop. Before posting something negative on someone else’s Facebook page or Instagram story, think before you type. Maybe in the past, the saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’, made sense, but in today’s world words hurt a lot and in most cases can cause permanant damage to a person.

From Ms Alia Mathur

Dubai