Social Media Becoming Too Toxic?

 Is Social Media Becoming Too Toxic?

The past month has seen celebrities wage war on ordinary people who dare stand up to them on social media, wielding their massive armies of followers like digital weapons of destruction. It has seen a growing number of journalists saying they plan to call it quits from Twitter as toxicity rises to a level even they can no longer stand amid everything from hurtful taunts about their children to outright threats of violence. Is social media simply becoming too toxic?

I honestly used to enjoy skimming Twitter in its early days. While there were certainly trolls and people trying to tear others down back then, there was also a lot of thoughtful, informed and insightful conversation as well. The good largely outweighed the bad and there was genuine constructive community building occurring.

Somewhere in the years since, social media lost its way.
Social media's rising tide has lifted all boats, elevating even the most horrific and toxic voices singularly fixated on tearing society apart and placing them equal with those informed and measured voices trying to bring us together.

What went wrong with the great social experiment that was social media’s promise to give voice to the voiceless and bring all of us across the world together?

Even academia, that ivory tower of knowledge and reasoned debate, in which experts debate theories in public with eloquent speeches and a competition for whom has a better command of the literature or whose evidence-based experimentation is stronger, devolves into schoolyard taunts and threats of violence when it comes to social media. It is truly remarkable to see storied faculty members whose lists of awards and positions of power and prestige in their fields are legend, resort to profanity-laden diatribes like children when it comes to social media.

Seeing a colleague post a savage personal attack against another on Twitter is bad enough, but when they encourage their followers, ranging from other colleagues to their students, to add to the thread with their own personal attacks because the colleague being attacked isn’t on Twitter and so its safe to eviscerate them, that is a really sad commentary on a society in which even the learned elites that are supposed to be above the fray are actually down in the sewers egging on the trolls. It is even more sad when the person being attacked is actually on social media and sees all of that commentary and attempts to respond, only to be overwhelmed with horrific hate speech and threats of violence.

Is There a Solutions For It?

There are few Tips You Can Do to Combat Toxic Interactions on Social Media-

1. Delay Your Response

2. Report Hate Speech

3. Practice Showing Empathy Instead of Aggression

4. Do not Get Involved Unless You Have to

5. Defend People from Bullies

6. Delete Posts That Could be Misinterpreted

7. Block and Ban Repeat Offenders

8. Emphasise the Importance of Context

9. Try to Make Your Own Posts Positive

10. Be assertive, rather than aggressive