As someone who was chronically in times past, I can understand why people easily get hooked on social media especially when they start attracting attention from many people. The perks of having attention and a lot of followers have driven people to do anything to gain engagement and followership. While we listen and do not judge, there are times when we should call out people for bad behavior and uncouthness.
Having banter, whether lighthearted or not, on social media especially on Twitter has been a long tradition where people with diverse opinions engage in a discourse to poke jokes while agreeing to disagree. Albeit banter, there were always people who took it overboard by being super disrespectful and abusive. With engagement farming becoming more popular and Twitter being monetized, we see many more people become more perverse in their interactions.
It is very shameful, that for a generation with access to so much education, some people move with heads that echo. It is one thing to have opposing views on issues; it happens all the time. But as a people, we must also be respectful of opinions and act as such. Rather, we have seen people outrightly disrespect people, attack their looks and verbally abuse them under the disguise of jokes and catching cruise. In a previous publication, I wrote about how content creators deal with cyberbullying and how we can curb such practices.
I still remember growing up in environments where making jokes, and bantering among friends was treated with respect. But in today’s world where we all feel untouchable behind a screen, we have people come only to project their low self-esteem by disrespecting people and throwing abusive words at people. For the most part, men are always at the abusive end of the stick with their abuse aimed at women and in some cases fellow men.
There have been countless times online when a harmless disagreement will result in people posting degrading pictures of others, name-calling, slut shaming, and insults being hurled at others. The worst part in all this is the minions who will be running commentary underneath these posts, laughing and amplifying all the abuse under the guise of “Oh this one ebi funny”. No, it is not. You are just being uncouth and mean.
At some point, people need to cut all the foolery and allow common sense to prevail These needless acts have resulted in people getting threatened with violence. While this writer does not support violence, one cannot police how people abused would react. Must we resort to violence before people become decent people? Most people cry for the abuse to stop. Where do we draw the line? How long must we encourage such mannerless behavior?
Maybe it is time strict rules are applied in the digital space. Brands need to stop rewarding bullies and abusers just because they have followers. These acts are not as funny as people make them out to be. It is abusive and disrespectful. People adopting a bully personality is not something we should encourage and the earlier we as a community come together to stop it, the better it is for all of us as a society.
Written By Nana Kojo Mula.
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