Pulse Opinion: Why we love posting hateful and hurtful messages online

A mixture of human nature and societal conditions have created hate monsters online.

Schadenfreude is a German word that explains the feeling of joy you get from another person’s misfortune.

It’s a common emotion and as much as we try not to admit it, we have had schadenfreude at least once in our lifetime.

For some people, it is just more than once. Schadenfreude is a daily feeling. You can feed these human beings online, dropping nasty and horrible comments on Instagram or tweeting bad remarks about the misfortune of another person. It seems the Internet just brings out the worst in some people.

The story of D’banj losing his 13-month old son is, to say the least. Many of his fellow celebrities and everyday Nigerians have offered their condolence messages. Unfortunately, some individuals are not in this category.

 

From Twitter to Instablog9ja, these sick people drop nasty comments on the death of the pop star’s child. It is cold hearted and stupid to blame D’banj and wife for the death of their child. No parent wants his or her child to die.

 

You don’t need a magnifying glass to know social media has become a toxic place. Controversial, inhumane and sexist statements live on social media these days. And the trend is becoming worrying. People say the most hurtful things just to go viral, the elusive lightning in a bottle moment for social media junkies.

ALSO READ: Tobi Bakre speaks about Internet trolls

The chase for virality, however, is not the sole reason why a lot of people have lost their home training. Most of them never had home training in the first place.

 

The truth is that the Nigerian society is a place where corruption, tribalism and sexism thrives. For every hurtful comment, you read on Instablog9ja, just know that worse and more vulgar words have been used in real life. As a society, we harbour some sentiments that archaic in this new world ad troubling with regards to gender equality and female empowerment.

What you see on social media is just a reflection of this. Online, the comments are more brazen because trolls believe they can hide behind a tiny avatar and say the most hateful things.

The Internet is the Wild, Wild West and in place of bandits looting the countryside, we have individuals who have been badly brought up by their family and the society shooting hateful words at people they do not even know.

 

Also, in a rat race that is our society, where every man is for himself and God for us all, sometimes we are resentful of people who are successful. You can't understand why the next man is making a headway in life. You grin and smile when he has good news and secretly mock him when he falls on hard times.

It manifests as a like button when there is good news. You will begrudgingly tap the heart shape icon but once there is bad news about a person, here comes a lengthy paragraph of bashing.

ALSO READ: Amnesty International creates Troll Patrol for Twitter

It's human nature really and not just exclusive to Nigerians. People will hail you when times are good and bring out their knives to slaughter when things are bad.

The online mob is the ugly feature of this generation. Wilfully sending hate messages to people on social media shows how uncivil we are despite great technological advancement.