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How To Deal With Toxic People Online (And In Real Life)
Social media has given people a shield of anonymity from which they feel free to spew their toxic venom. Here’s how to combat it.
I have been dealing with people’s crap for literally my entire life. When I was in elementary school (and middle school…and high school…) I was frequently bullied, had my car(s) vandalized, and generally just socially unaccepted for the most part.
As I got older and made it to college, I spread my wings a bit from my hometown and started to fall into more of a groove with people who shared similar interests as I did. Around the same time, I began to accumulate a bit of popularity on social media (back then, it was MySpace). I noticed that no matter how nice, or kind, or positive you are — there are always going to be people who try to tear you down.
If you clicked on this headline, you know what I’m talking about. Particularly during this tumultuous election year, many of you have probably experienced the combative nature of the general public for the first time. This nature typically presents itself under the shroud of the internet, behind a keyboard, and often times (especially on Twitter) under a completely anonymous username with a random profile photo.
