October 27th, 2020 at 03:15 am
Media personality Serwaa Amihere says she is no longer perturbed about cyberbullies especially those on social media.
She said most of those on social media who troll others are depressed people who are just looking for avenues to lay off their depression.
“When I started [journalism], it was really bad because I didn’t understand why some people, especially strangers use every opportunity to insult me or bully me or to say something bad about me.
“But over time, growing up in this business, I’ve come to develop a thicker skin for some of these things,” she told host of JoyFM’s Super Morning Show on Friday.
While Ms Amihere has attributed this development to how opinionated she has been on most social media platforms, she also believes people deliberately commit these acts just to bring down her image.
“I’ve come to realise that the people who bully us have their own issues to deal with: sometimes they need attention, sometimes they are just depressed on their own and so they’ll be looking for someone to take it out on,” she said.
She said despite how demeaning most of these comments can be sometimes, she has learnt to refrain from hitting back at these cyberbullies.
She is, however, concerned about the impact it has on her family.
“I have a mother who sees these things and is not happy about them, I have a sister; I have a little girl who will grow and see all the nasty things that are being said about her aunty on the internet, that’s what breaks my heart”
“I don’t have a problem when people try to criticise the work that I do; afterall, I criticise people too. So if you want to criticise me, there’s nothing wrong with it but criticise the work that I do, don’t get into my personal life,” she added.
She further recounted how some of the comments had affected her, especially in her work.
She said going back to work had become a challenge, after her recent interview with Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
“I kept saying to myself that we all have bad days: doctors have their bad days, carpenters do, in fact, everyone does, but for some funny reasons they think that some of us cannot have a bad day.
“You know, after my interview with Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the next day, only God knows what it took for me to go back to work: it wasn’t easy. Some of the comments I received on facebook were so demoralising.
“I was on air, doing an interview and people are insulting me and I’m reading the insults and I’m supposed to be going ahead with the interview.
“The funny thing is that most of the people who do this, do not have the balls to take what they put us through too,” she added.
Sports journalist with The Multimedia Group, Gary Al-Smith who was also on the show shared similar sentiments.
He said some of the trolls hit so hard that the victims of the these assaults have no other option than to hit back.
He, on the other hand, attributed the development to a feeling of anonymity on the internet.
“People have developed a feeling that ‘nobody can hold me accountable for what I do on the internet’ because of how the digital media is built.
“And this reduces the human side of most people in a sense that, what they will not be able to tell you in your face when they meet you, they are able to tell you over the internet,” he said.
Source: myjoyonline.com