By Charlotte Butler,
Everyone now uses some form of social media, especially young people, whether
it be Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter. Social media has become a
place for people to vent their frustrations. For example, twitter. Many tweets are
profane or angry, while this is fine for venting your frustrations, some are aimed
at people. How does this really affect someone’s mental health?
Steven Pinker (a linguist) once identified 5 functions of swearing, one of these is
catharsis, which is very common, but another is abuse. Both are used on social
media.
An abusive tweet may seem inconsequential on the surface, but sometimes,
something as seemingly unimportant as a profane tweet can ruin someone's day.
One saying that springs to mind is “treat people how you want to be treated”,
everyone, most likely, heard this from teachers at school, but it seems to be as
lost to some people as Pythagoras’ theorem or the order of Henry the 8ths wives.
I find it interesting that something still taught to children now is out of reach for
some social media users, bearing mind they are most likely older than 10.
I believe that language is the most powerful tool we possess, but some people
seem to be chucking slurs around like javelins. I think we need to reflect on this
and ask what it says about social media and its impact on people.
The average teenager can tell you about the negative impacts of social media,
because it’s been there in their formative years, like a little devil on their
shoulders. This devil tells them that “you don’t get enough likes”, “that person is
better looking than you” or “you don’t have enough followers to matter”. But this
little devil doesn’t work alone; it is fueled by comments on someone's looks, likes
and followers, fueled by that person gossiping about them at lunch, or by that one
tweet.
This little devil is what pushes people, not just teenagers, to self-harm or even
taking their own life.
Everyone has a little devil on their shoulder, so before you hit send on that tweet,
comment or message, envision yourself feeding the devil on their shoulder.
Then maybe you’ll realise that words hurt more than sticks, stones or broken
bones.
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