Yellow

Cyberbullying

To be ‘yellow-bellied’ or simply ‘yellow’ is to be cowardly or easily scared. This word originally applied to birds that literally have a yellow belly, like the yellow-bellied sapsucker. From there, it came to mean an insult for cowards (Wikipedia). Moreover, from the late middle Ages, yellow had been associated with falsehood, treason and treachery; Judas was also often depicted wearing yellow at this time. It has been suggested that yellow-bellied, meaning a coward, may have also been inspired by chicken egg yolks being yellow and a chicken meaning coward.

“There are those who have life on social media, and then there are those who have a real-life,” Amit Tandon, Comedian

‘Yellow’ in this article refers to the first category; aka the ones who appear brave only in the cyber world, in the real world they would probably go into hiding even from the sound of someone sneezing around them. While a majority of these seem to be content with putting their point across forcefully and rudely (even in places where they don’t belong) but there are those, read pricks, that can go to the extent of abusing others on social media with a threat to hurt physically, hurl profanity. These kinds don’t care about the age or gender of the other person and at times even threaten females with rape (many such instances have happened recently). In many cases, these yellow-bellied pricks have also threatened to kill people. These bullies have never achieved anything in their life and were probably bullied, and now they have found an outlet for their frustration while hiding behind fake social media ID’s. Majority of these perps hide behind random photos in their profiles and would seldom show their real faces. In real life, these social media bullies or the yellow-bellied cowards probably wouldn’t even walk for a hundred meter with their chin up in public. They are usually low on confidence in real life and bullying on social media, sort of compensates, for whatever it is they lack in the real world.

Although they are harmless in the real world, they have become a real menace in the cyber world, and they cause innumerable pain and suffering to those who work hard to create genuine content. These yellow-bellied social media bullies are experts about everything from Art to Cinema to Music to Politics to Religion to Modeling to everything else, only on social media, and they are keen on sharing their expert comments and opinions at the drop of a hat. They have an opinion about everyone and everything. In the real world, they are good for nothing pricks who may not even have a full-time job and would probably be living off their parent’s money. They have nothing much to do in real life, so they spend hours and hours online hounding others on social media.

Celebrities across the world have been at the receiving end of these yellow-bellied cyberbullies for many years. Take for instance the case of an Indian cricket team captain whose five-year-old daughter was recently threatened by a man online after the team he captained was defeated in a match. The perp had threatened to rape the sportsman’s five-year-old daughter. Not sure what can push a human being to such a low level but rape threat that too to a five-year-old; really? What were you thinking, man? Man wouldn’t be the right word here because it turned out that the perpetrator was actually a juvenile who was later arrested and he has even confessed to the crime since. This incident is partially responsible for this article because I felt utterly disgusted. There have been other instances such as this as well.

Imagine the plight of the celebrity and his family when they would’ve read about this threat initially. This incident highlights the dangers of cyberbullying. You never know when the bullying in the cyber world might manifest in the real world as well. This happened to be a celebrity and action was relatively swift by authorities in India but imagine this happening to a common man. Like I said before, cyberbullying is a mental issue which needs to be dealt with carefully. There have been countless studies linking cyberbullying with mental illness. There have been so many cases where bullying not only left a lasting effect on the ‘bullied’ but also on the ‘bully’ as well. Whether it is the real world or the cyber or the social media world, bullying can cause severe trauma. Most bullies lack the confidence to face others and may have suffered mental trauma in their life as well. These bullies are in serious need of mental help. Cyberbullying is a serious problem which needs to be dealt with, jointly, by users, social media companies and law enforcement agencies together. Report any such case to Facebook, Instagram or any other platform even if it’s happening to someone else. Pretending that it’s only happening to others and will not happen to you is a big mistake because this is what fuels the bully’s confidence. Social media platforms need to do more to ensure such instances can be kept at bay. There is also a great need to establish resources to help these cyberbullies to see the mirror and accept their problem.

Parents need to keep a check on their kid’s social media activity to see if something is amiss. Kids are not comfortable sharing instances of being bullied with their parents. Ensure that you intervene if you notice even the slightest hint of stress or anger in your kids.

I am not against memes, and I think some of them are creative and hilarious, but the fun ends when lines are crossed, and in some instances, the so-called Memer’s do cross the line by using profanity. Let’s see the Memer’s create content at their own expense for once.

This is for you, yes you the cyberbully and you who thought that making memes is a worthwhile job (you see if it were worthwhile, then you would have surely come out of hiding by now): The truth of the matter is that having an opinion is not wrong in fact any Tom, Dick and Harry can have an opinion about others while hiding behind a fake ID. But, before you criticize or share your point of view about others, be sure that you have a thorough understanding of whatever it is you are about to opinionate. Make it worthwhile by structuring it constructively and not for the sake of criticizing only. If you can’t do it, then stay the f*** out of it and mind your business and use social media to connect and network and not to hurt others.

And, just in case you don’t like my opinion (Yup I got an opinion too :) ) then keep monkeying around on the social media and be a ‘yellow’ but remember that sooner or later someone will surely catch-up to you; cheers…

Photo — Pixabay

Originally published at https://socialist-today.com.