Negativity is a form of emotion people express when they dislike something or somebody. It is a kind of criticism that can affect the other person ranging from a small extent to a highly great extent; for example, the person facing negativity can even harm themselves; in some cases, people get so affected that they choose to kill themselves, which is not the correct option.
One of the significant problems people nowadays are living in stress is because of a hostile
environment. The easy availability of the internet and the freedom people enjoy by commenting whatever they feel like (even using abusive and vulgar language) to entertain themselves.
For instance, we can take the cases of celebrities, and they have to go through endless criticism or hatred for no reason. They are the soft targets as everybody knows that they would not be punished for writing about anyone and anything. Most of the celebrities whenever questioned.
How do they keep calm amidst all the negativity? They neither answer that nor do they react; neither do they care as it is not worthy and unnecessary.
A show called Troll police aired on MTV, which had this format about spotting the people who commented bizarrely on the celebrities social media handles. Now what happens is that people easily comment on anybody’s identity, appearance, clothing. Still, when confronted, they are clueless and do not even know the reason behind their weird act.
The irony is that the person using abusive language on social media transform’s into a dumb person. One must accept that no stranger or any known entity is worthy enough to disturb their inner peace if they go through any trauma or stress because of any negativity on social media.
Then there is another group of people who are not so famous, as in they are not exposed to a larger audience instead of a limited one. People from this group generally have problems revolving around their circles like friends, family, boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse. In these cases, people have typical issues due to jealously and the degree of jealously can vary from person to person.
For example, if Riya and Sheena are friends and beautiful, but Riya has 40k followers, and Sheena has 10k, this is the point where Sheena can start feeling lesser than Riya and eventually have a sense of hatred for Riya. And then things start to go wrong, the equation between friends changes. These little things are turning into huge issues which need to be looked upon.
Similarly, if a couple is on social media and is not sharing their passwords, trust issues arise, leading to several problems. Now the point is how does one cope with this negativity. It is simple if one wishes to overcome these kinds of situations. One should
understand that people who are not related to you or are not concerned about your betterment criticise you because of several reasons:
- Feels that you are superior.
- Just for fun.
- Aware of the fact that on a digital platform, they are faceless and have all the power in the world to write nonsense about anybody.
- Has negative nature.
- Seek attention by writing or spreading negative things about you.
Secondly, another reason can be that they try to put you down out of jealously, but you should first know your worth and value yourself. In some cases, because of rejection, also people start speaking against you negatively.
For example, if a boy and a girl are friends and the boy proposes to the girl, but because for any reason she is not ready to accept him as a boyfriend, now all of a sudden, from being a sweet, lovable friend, she has become a characterless girl for the boy. Why? Just because she didn’t accept his proposal and this rejection is not acceptable for the boy.
Why should it affect you anyhow? The person spreading bad things about you is someone who you don’t even know exist. There are also cases when somebody you know comments negatively about you. The statement can be applied here to remind yourself that whatever they are saying (your acquaintance) is their perspective, and the problem starts only when we react to things. Hence, the best way to cope with the negativity is not to respond.
Some people may argue that why should one not reply to the unnecessary things being said about them as they are not the way they are being portrayed or the way people have made up their minds regarding them.
We can counter this by suggesting that if the person is talking nonsense about you and is your acquaintance and matters to you, you should try at least once to clear their doubts and if they are just another human being existing on earth. There is no such need to give explanations. Once you understand your worth, you are all sorted. We should always keep in mind that:
- Just keep your priorities clear.
- Focus on your goals.
- Take negativity as a challenge rather than a problem.
- Never let others let you feel less about yourself.
With the help of these simple steps, one can overcome this ‘negativity’. Every human being, whether famous or not famous, should not allow negativity to harm them. Be it any social media, one should not take it too seriously; it is just a form of the digital world that is not the actual space to be in, so relax and keep going.
Bhawna Mehlawat is a researcher and writer from India.
