In this though-provoking piece, Swachitha Kommugala looks at the impact that cyberbulling can have on the life of a young person, and the severe effects that it can have on their wellbeing.

Cyberbullying/online bullying has become increasingly common these days. Especially among teenagers. According to me, it is an act of destroying one’s identity just because they are famous or what they do is not up to the mark. Sometimes this starts just as a joke or just as a troll but people have no idea about how much it affects someone’s confidence.

People find many reasons to bully someone. It may be their voice, their appearance, their dance, their clothes, etc. I have a friend who is famous on Instagram. People started trolling her because they did not like her appearance. She fought and fought and lost. Bullying became unstoppable. Pages were created posting her morphed images and memes. She was completely depressed and due to depression, she became physically and mentally weak. She became very conscious of herself. She couldn’t do a thing and lost 3 years of her life to depression. She couldn’t even get her degree.

But slowly she found her true self and started chasing her passion ignoring everything. Her family supported her. She again started posting content on Instagram but with more confidence now. She continued doing her thing even though there were several hate comments on her videos, hate messages in her inbox. She received lots of love from people who started liking her. She was also invited to do a reality show on TV. Now she is earning through Instagram.

I just want everyone to know that nothing is permanent. There are many celebrities who are badly bullied by the people and also later madly loved by the people. Bullying caused many suicides, many dreams to shatter. According to my opinion, there’s nothing much we can do to completely stop Cyberbullying because people won’t stop expressing their hate no matter how many suicides, depressed kids, mentally weak youngsters they see. It is our choice whether we chose to ignore or respond or think about them. We need to choose to ignore and move on. We should never let anyone define us based on what they see or hear about us. We should not give someone the power or authority to destroy us. Even if they do, that should not have any negative effect on us.

By Swachitha Kommugula