Sunday 22 March 2015

"Monica Lewinsky calls for a more compassionate internet"

So I was getting a bit of writers block (standard really because I'm not all that creative) and I decided to do opinion pieces or talk about my own experiences towards news articles.
I came across this article --> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31976567
It's a really interesting article but you should also view the ted talk they talk about because it's amazing!
I thought it was relevant to write about because well my blog is online and whenever you put anything online there is always that risk of somebody not liking it or talking about it to their friends.
I've had my own experiences of this but I'm gonna leave that until later in this post to explore.

To be honest, although the internet has it's incredibly bad rep for bullying I have found aspects where people have shown compassion and support. I have a couple of examples: the other day I came across a video of a man who was promoting confidence in yourself and your body. He showed his body after losing something like 240 pounds (Which is an incredible achievement!) and he exposes his excess skin. What I found so powerful was that he gets rather emotional talking about it because he thinks girls will think differently about him if they see it and that when he goes to public areas on a sunny day, he feels compelled to keep his shirt on and not take it off. I presume he worked his ass off trying to get the body he wanted to end up facing something that he didn't want at all. However, people saw this and took pity on him and started a fundraiser in order for him to have his surgery to remove the excess skin. I thought this was beautiful, it made me so happy that people on the internet sometimes do look out for eachother.

I also had a tumblr blog years ago called thisisjustagame.tumblr.com (it's since been deleted and now someone else has the url - damn) I used to post a lot of personal stuff in it and my darkest thoughts - this is back when I wasn't very happy with my life - Most of my followers came from a couple of 'tumblr famous' people who I had made friends with in a group chat. I know most of you are probably screaming catfish at the screen right now while you read this but they were all legit, lovely people. I remember the amazement when I posted a really personal mother's day blog post on my tumblr page. If you have read my previous blog posts you would know that my mother died tragically when I was nine years old, meaning mother's day isn't the most easiest day for me so the post was rather depressing and sad. All of a sudden I was flooded with messages of so much love and support from the 'tumblr famous' people and their own followers as some of them had reblogged it and said how beautiful and meaningful it was. I was amazed at the kindness they showed me because I didn't really know them but it's amazing how complete strangers can sometimes say things better than your own friends.

I'd say the website that I see most abuse on is youtube, this is the worst website to put abuse on because people could literally pick anything out of a video and make fun of it. In fairness we are all guilty at some point of looking at people falling or hilarious cat videos and that's all good. With my experience on youtube before (Not there anymore so don't bother searching guys!) I remember how nerve wracking it was to put content up especially singing or just talking in front of the camera. I remember my friend and I had this youtube channel (we kind of laugh at the embarassment of the whole situation) but we were only 13 years old and we were just mucking about in front of a camera for fun. Soon enough I remember waking up every day to people saying "Go kill yourselves" and "You're such f***ing idiots". It was terrible, imagine waking up and seeing those messages - not the best way to start the day I must admit. At least our videos didn't go viral but some poor people on the internet get awful abuse for barely anything sometimes.

I've been snooping around on facebook (yes people I am creepy - moving on) but I couldn't help but notice when people publish their drama online on facebook. People that bother fighting with people on their own timelines and stuff. It didn't make sense to me. All you're doing is promoting to your friends and whatever family you have on facebook that you're a nasty person. If you haven't got anything nice to say about someone publically (Cause lets face it, we do need our private bitching every now and again) don't say it at all. Some girls I've found on facebook are publically humiliating eachother on facebook because 'karmas a bitch'. Why? Why would you do that? Would you not want to just pick yourself up and strut on and do something positive with your life rather than negative?

Now for the final part, I am always so nervous when I post stuff onto this blog. It's mainly because this is something I consider doing professionally and with the risk of getting 'hate' it's awful. Then I have to have a mindset that there are a LOT of people on the internet and not all of them are going to be nice. You just write what you believe in and express what you believe in and that's honestly all that matters. I have a good few people that read my posts and give a lot of support and I'm absolutely grateful to you!

Enjoy the day and stay positive and safe on the internet folks!

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