Digital Hate Culture

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As I’m sure we all know, digital media has led to a rise in hate culture that has been on all sorts of digital platforms, be it email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, haters have been around even before the advent of the Internet. But, with digital media and the interactivity it brings about, it has led to a sharp rise in anonymous (and even identified) haters all around the digital media sphere.

Take for example, celebrities. They are probably the people that receive the most hate (and love) ever since digital and social media came about. While there can be plenty of comments on their Instagram page idolising them, there are an equal (and sometimes even greater) amount of hate comments left by Internet users.

The perpetuation of hate on various online platforms leaves me feeling disappointed and shocked at humans sometimes. How can we bear to hate on someone we’ve never even met in real life, but just through what they choose to portray of themselves online/how they are being portrayed by media? That, to me, is just puzzling.

And sometimes, we don’t realise the negative effect of the bullying and hate going on online. There are so many cases of reported depression and even suicide just based on the online hate. Is it really worth it? And I’m not just referring to celebrities, this even happens to the people all around us, like our friends and acquaintances.

Sadly, I don’t think it will die down anytime soon. In some cases, celebrities file lawsuits against malicious commenters, but are these really effective in reducing the hate culture? In my opinion, it just suppresses it.

The world would be a much better place if everyone decided to be kind to each other and to utilise digital media the way it was created for – increased (positive) interactivity.