Why're We So Rude and Crude On Social Platforms?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 24 July 2024 Have you ever thought, what makes us so toxic, splenetic, threatening and abusive on social platforms? Whichever platform it may be, even a dignified forum of New Age Islam also becomes a medium for certain individuals to verbalize their anger and frustration on someone. The faceless intangibility of today's communication mode has made it amply clear that we all can stoop to unthinkably low levels of communication. The smug assurance that the other person is unable to see you and vice versa, emboldens us and unleashes our vindictive as well as abusive selves. It's so spontaneously volcanic that even we are not aware of this latent aspect of our personality. Faceless existence brings out our true essence, which is often not so pleasant. Culture, sophistication, decency, language, refinement and pedigree are all fake and fancy words. We are all capable of doing and speaking utterly obnoxious things in the secrecy of four walls. The key-hole morality, suggesting that we are what we are when nobody's watching, is eternally relevant in judging all people without an exception. While interacting on various social platforms with people whom we've never met in life, we often forget that we're degrading ourselves to the extent of feeling utterly ashamed afterwards and at the same time, demeaning the other person as well. Why do we do this? Can we call it just fun or harmless frustration? NO. Sociologists have begun to believe that abusive nature or verbal indiscretion (to put it euphemistically) is a trait human beings are born with. Some can suppress it, but most of us cannot. We try to find a corner to express the crude sides of our persona. That's the reason, we love dark corners and keep deceiving ourselves as 'enlightened ones.' We are perpetual self-deceivers, too lowly to call ourselves even truly 'educated,' let alone enlightened. We are all deviants, hitherto unmasked and unpeeled. At the same time, the assurance that we're not face to face with the person, makes us rudely bold. Faceless communication is always masked and 'safer' in the sense that an individual's identity is forever concealed and encrypted. That makes us so audaciously and outrageously 'bold' and 'candid' on social media. Today, we're living with two selves: Real self vis-a-vis Cyber self which is no less than self-delusion and sort of a Hamletian Dilemma because we don't know which one is true and which one is fake! ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/rude-crude-social-platforms/d/132771 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism