Suppose you open Instagram to watch reels and ease your mind but, after some scrolling, you come across a video hating on your culture. Upon opening the comment section, you find thousands of people further promoting hate speech. Sound familiar? Social media was designed to connect people from different parts of the world. Who would have thought that it would have unintended negative repercussions. Despite this, you don’t need to quit the internet to re-establish your peace.
Online toxicity consists of any content that makes you feel inferior or unknowingly attacks your self-esteem. Being constantly exposed to such content can create anxiety, self-doubt, and result in long-term trauma. With regard to students, this can be mentally deteriorating, as it can even deviate learners from their academic goals. Recognizing these issues is the first step in diminishing their impact and taking care of your mental health.
First, let’s identify different toxic behaviours; some of them are hate speech, rage bait, cyberbullying, and doomscrolling. Cyberbullying is a form of personal harassment. Hate speech is targeted attacks toward certain groups, and rage baiting is provocative content designed to trigger anger and arguments. Another toxic pattern is doomscrolling, which makes it harder to avoid the potential consumption of toxic content, and could lead to emotional strain.
Having understood the different patterns, the need of the hour is to devise ways to mitigate the negative effects and to prevent oneself from experiencing the negative side of social media. Some helpful tips are to block and report accounts that spread negativity, curate the feed you get by following accounts that provide inspiration, and engage with positive content. By doing this, the algorithm adapts and helps bring you to the brighter side of the internet. Frequent social media detox is a useful technique which can help you regulate the dopamine that a person usually gets while using social media.
The best way to limit your exposure to online toxicity is to avoid and limit your interactions with it. Always remember that not every conversation is worth your energy and most social media platforms come with tools to flag hate speech, harassment, or misinformation. This kind of content can spread quickly, so the most appropriate way of protecting yourself is to verify what you’re consuming before you react. Doomscrolling, on the other hand, should be limited, which can be done by setting time limits on your devices for social media platforms.
The internet is a tool, not a life sentence. We can control the content we come across by curating the feed and controlling the way we use social media. Today, I invite you to try one small change. Whether it’s muting a toxic account, setting a screen-time limit, or simply pausing before posting an angry comment. Small steps build resilience. If toxicity overwhelms you, remember support exists: UFV’s Counselling Services and Wellness Peers offer confidential help. Remember that your mental health will always be more important than any online drama.
