Comment, Like, and Subscribe
Comment sections are an integral part of the Internet. Originally intended to foster connectivity, encourage engagement, and allow users to interact with one another, comments have been a cornerstone feature on the Web for decades. However, like all things that humans touch, it’s become poisonous, and the integrity of the comment section has waned over the years, oftentimes turning into a toxic forum of negativity.
According to Arlin Cuncic, a clinical psychologist with Very Well Mind, comment sections are a new playground for harassers and hecklers. Cuncic says that there are many factors that snowball the influx of negative comments on social media, including anonymity, online disinhibition, dehumanization, lack of feedback, and mob mentality. “Instead of perceiving each other as a person at the other end of the computer, we imagine we are commenting into the void,” Cuncic says. “We can’t see the effect of our words on the person at the other end.” Without the weight of guilt or shame associated with their cruelty, hateful comments get cast without consequence.
Like an angry mob with their pitchforks and torches hanging around in the town square, negative rabble-rousing is ingrained in the deeply flawed human psyche. People are emboldened by anonymity and, just like a road rager protected by the walls of their car, hateful thoughts come easily when you can’t see the source of your contempt. Similarly, the Internet offers a seemingly protected space for the angriest commenters, who can anonymously practice their cruelty from behind their computer screens, hiding in secrecy and safety.
Well, nothing online is a secret if you have an ounce of cybersleuthing experience.
Via u/hessomid
Sticks and Stones
Haters have always existed. As the most integral figures in history would argue, you can’t just people-please your way to an extraordinary life; we all gather a few haters along the way. However, there’s a difference between the opposition of a naturally disagreeable world and a following of blatant haters who throw negativity and cruelty upon those who challenge them.
According to Urban Dictionary, a “hater” is someone who maliciously casts doubt, raises hostility, and shares unkind opinions about other people to make themselves feel good. Ultimately, as an act of insecurity, haters try to ridicule, belittle, and diminish those around them in an attempt to bolster their own confidence.
In the last several decades, social media has presented a particularly interesting opportunity for the haters of the world, providing multiple platforms and avenues to spread hate anonymously and (seemingly) without consequence. Foul-minded commenters may reveal their true nature by leaving unkind comments on strangers’ posts, baring their spitefulness and ultimate insecurity in 180 characters or less, but their identity remains secure behind the mask of their computer screens.
However, instead of letting the negative comments deflate their self-esteem, influencers are fighting back. They’re combating the haters in the comment section by tearing down a wall of anonymity behind which the haters hide, revealing the identities of their ugliest commenters and showing the world the man behind the curtain.
Via u/bigbellalifts
This trend has been extremely prevalent among female influencers, who, due to their controversial circumstance of existing and being female, face a larger number of haters and opposers in the comments. You’d think that the majority of negativity would come from mean girls or other competing female influencers, but most of the cruel and notably pathetic comments come from men. I speculate that these men are so lonely that they seek the companionship of other hater men and like-minded losers in the comment mob, turning against female content creators to prop up their dwindling self-esteem.
Besides, what does a person have to gain from leaving rage-bait comments on an influencer’s post? Are they lonely, bored, or are these negativity-mongerers simply desperate to reach out into the void to express their baseless loathing? Regardless of what it is, they’re running out of refuge, there’s no hiding online anymore, and negative comments are getting called out in spades. Commenters on social media don’t get to be misogynistic, cruel, violent, or shameful harassers and not face any consequences… Not anymore.
Instead of feeling sad, anxious, or undermined by negative comments on their posts, influencers are harnessing the negativity and flipping the script, turning the power of the Internet against their oppressors. With one hilariously empowering move, content creators are able to steal back their dignity, shine a spotlight on their tormentors, and pull an uno-reverse on their enemies—one vigilante-inspired, cyber-sleuthing exposé at a time.
Enough From the Peanut Gallery!
Confidence is an ironically fragile construct for us humans. However, once a person can learn to love themselves, pat themselves on the back, and shut out the noise of everyone else’s opinions, suddenly self-esteem isn’t so difficult to come by. While it’s easy to drown in the onslaught of opinions from a self-entitled peanut gallery, it’s ultimately more empowering to negate the negativity and focus on the opinions that really matter.
And let me tell you, it’s not the Ken Morris’s or the emboldened haters of the world vying for bitter acknowledgement in the comment section who validate a person’s successes.
Comment sections, while they were once a crucible of the Internet’s charm and lore, are now a wistless fighting pit and a cesspool of toxicity, waiting for the shining spotlight of justice to scatter the roaches and reinstate a semblance of community online. Shushing the peanut gallery is often the healthiest thing a person can do for their self-confidence, especially on social media.
Via u/soszerafa