Many SLOHS students may have feelings of helplessness or feeling lost after being the victim of online harassment. Photo courtesy of Your Teen Magazine.
In a world where almost everyone is different from each other, there’s bound to be a few people who believe others are “inferior” in some way. With the rise of social media use in teens, especially in the last decade, people have gotten more and more comfortable with the things they say to other, whether that be due to a sense of anonymity, ignorance to the repercussions or just basic lack of care and empathy for others, this behavior has unfortunately leaked into the real world and has been very apparent throughout San Luis Obispo High School.
Mike Tyson was right. People have gotten way too comfortable with disrespecting people. People have been using social media since it was created, however it wasn’t until the pandemic and the fact that practically every baby is born with an iPad in hand, and a VR headset strapped to their face, that it became one of the largest industries in the world.
“I do very much think that social media has made people more hateful because they have more accessibility to hatred… They have more places to throw out disrespect, sometimes anonymously if they go about it correctly. They have a better ability to hate,” said senior Oliver Lyons.
“Social media removes the barrier of actual human interaction… people tend to not think about what they are saying since they aren’t face-to-face with the person, so they’re more likely to say something they wouldn’t,” said junior Jack Edwards.
At the core, these responses are pretty much the same. Many people can agree that, despite being active users of it, social media is not a good thing for us as a society to have. People have become so used to online culture and anonymity that they have pretty much based their entire real lives around it and adopted the same bad habits they have online.
“One suggestion would be to put the phone down and try to have a conversation about your problem with the actual person instead of reverting to your troll self. Most students I have met at SLOHS are capable of having real conversations,” said English teacher Scott Nairne.
Most people can agree that social media is a great tool for helping people connect with people they otherwise wouldn’t, however it is up to everyone else to keep to themselves and not go out of their way to bother others.
