Internet. Opinion. Trolling. Impact.
I recently heard a TED talk by Monica Lewinsky.
I could feel the moist in the corners of my eyes. Internet is the invention that has connected us as one, for the first time probably after the big-bang. Never before was everything so accessible. It has entered our lives as hurricane and we are rolling with it and in it. With no clear rules set, no boundaries, the virtue of anonymity and the power of infinity. Many of us are naive about its power and our limits. For many it has become a way to unleash our negativity, thoughtlessness and our fickle mindedness. We do not mind doing things that otherwise our ethical boundaries would not permit us to do. After all, the internet gives us the privilege of being anonymous and yet, say our mind.
Lewinsky's talk reminded me of a very small incident in my own life. It was small but it cut me off from some of my friends for life, friends who did not even probably realize that by indulging a small troll for fun they were hurting and breaking away from someone they were once close to.
I was a part of this whats-app group. The group had all my colleagues and friends on it. It was an all-women group. We used to have a lot fun on it.
It was just a month before I was supposed to leave my job, my country and move to Canada.
India was boiling hot at that time, almost every other person was involved in a debate on female equality, rights and respect. We were all party to an active discussion that called for equal rights for us all, to stop the rape culture, to educate and bring up men who respect women, to create an India where no one has to prove equality. It is a for-granted status available to all.
One of my colleagues, probably without even realizing what she was doing posted derogatory joke on a woman getting raped on the group. It was not liked by many. I was the only one who replied. I asked her very respectfully to read carefully before posting anything and avoid forwarding/promoting any content that is derogatory, especially to woman and on sensitive issues like rape. I clearly mentioned that it was not a personal comment but a small piece of advice to all my friends on that group, Friends who were females, who had the responsibility of being adult educators and who were all a part of an intellectual community.
I had never expected it to fire back.
The next day the group was full of comments- personal comments on how I was a spoilt sport, on how I could not tolerate a simple joke and on how I had made an issue out of such an interesting joke.
There were a few colleagues who tried to calm down the situation, a few who tried to explain my perspective and our responsibility as educators, slowly they were also quiet like me. I had myself decided to stay numb and just out of the drag, I had a point and I had made it. I had nothing more to say.
Somehow, my friends found the whole commenting business very fulfilling, they went on. It was making them feel powerful, it was fun. It was easy fun, at the expense of a very serious issue, that they did not realize, at the expense of their friend and that too they did not realize. They were indulging into internet bullying and they did not even realize that.
They knew I was leaving and for fun they started calling it- the coming of spring. They were waiting for the magical moment of freedom they would get to talk and joke without any limits or boundaries once I was gone. That was their spring.
Their reaction had a funny impact on me. I also started waiting for their spring. I just felt so detached, so out of place that it made it all easier for me- leaving my eight year old workplace, my friends, and my colleagues and moving to Canada.
