Anita Anand | Has social media ‘normalised’ hate, abuse, aggression in public forums?

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in rural India, there was not much opportunity to experience the world of aggressive or abusive behaviour. I was born into a respectable middle-class family and attended private schools and colleges. As such, it was rare to experience a swear word or any kind of abuse.

As my world widened, so did my knowledge of aggression and abuse. In India, the ultimate and most common abuse is linked to mothers and sisters, who ironically otherwise are revered. However, it appears that this is also true for other cultures. Further, the assumption in a class-ridden society is that only lower-class people use swear words and are aggressive. But that was and is a myth. When provoked, it is easy to lose dignity and succumb to aggression and abuse.

As the Internet and the social media have become an integral part of our lives, the aggression and abrasiveness in our language, both online and offline, have escalated to a new level.

Language once considered rude and anti-social is now part of our daily expressions.

Before the Internet, aggression and abuse were face to face or sometimes on a phone call. It could be verbal or physical with abuses, pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking, and even severe bodily harm, such as death. It was present in the family, the community, the workplace, and on the streets; it was class-driven, hierarchal, racist and sexist. These have now moved online as well, with trolling, manipulating images, bullying and general harassment. And has now turned into a global phenomenon.

The Internet has opened an excellent way to communicate, with a fallout of aggression and demeaning communication. Abusive language and aggressive behaviour that was once taboo or seen to be in bad taste is now the norm. Entertainment, social media, and online platforms primarily drive this normalisation. Side by side, the growing discontent and divisiveness resulting from a lack of governance and accountability have led to widespread frustration. Intolerance and outrage are trendy. People find comfort in using aggressive and abusive language to articulate their feelings, without really having to or being able to take action to make any changes. This empowers them.

Online social media platforms offer anonymity, which is not typically available in face-to-face interactions. It is easy to insult, tease, criticise and intimidate online. This includes targeting an individual’s characteristics, which can be offensive, degrading, and insulting.

Those targeted often suffer psychological damage and trauma and even, in extreme cases, take their lives.

A great deal of information and entertainment is now available on online social networks (OSNs), such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (X), Threads, Instagram and other social media platforms, which are the primary sources for news, information, entertainment, and interaction between people. Some platforms require permissions to view and respond to posts; others, such as YouTube videos, do not. In the spur of a moment, there is temptation to post negative or hateful comments, which can and does go viral. Much like a virus in real life, which lingers and weakens us, it is hard to undo the damage done by hateful and aggressive speech.

Research indicates that inappropriate language and online behaviour among young people are worrying trends. Social media, online gaming platforms, and popular entertainment deify rebellious behaviour and desensitise young people to abusive language. Peer influence, driven by a desire to be cool or to gain social approval, exacerbates this phenomenon.

Alienation from parents and siblings further encourages young people to seek an imaginary life online, without judgment or criticism, in autonomy that young people desperately seek.

It is a part of growing up.

More recently, the immense popularity of the limited four-part series Adolescence on Netflix in March this year is a good example of what is happening with adolescents and young people. In the series, a 13-year-old is accused of killing a classmate. Despite his denials, there is CCTV footage of him stabbing the young woman, which is not shown to the audience or the mother, only the father. As the episodes unfold, it becomes clear that the adults -- his parents, teachers, the police, and even the psychologist -- have no clue about what is happening in the online world adolescents inhabit. The series raises questions about the challenges faced by parents, school authorities, and adolescents themselves in minimising the dangers of recent technologies that are potentially harmful to adolescents and adults.

There are efforts to detect hate speech and posts that have the potential to incite violence, but it may be a little too late for what is currently happening online. Calls for regulation have not been effective, and nor can they be, given the vast reach and popularity of the platforms.

According to psychologists, aggressive behaviours, both online and offline, are due to a feeling of insecurity. This could be hereditary, as in passed down in families, or environmental, such as being in an abusive space at home, in school, social spaces or in the workplace. Frustration, depression, and anxiety also lend to inappropriate speech and behaviour.

Humans have a long history of violence -- face to face, in language, physical threats, bullying, in literature, films, TV serials and music -- which have now seeped into online platforms in insidious ways. This is not surprising.

Has abrasive and abusive language and behaviour increased, or are we more aware of it due to the media and modern communications systems? In my experience, it has increased and is now normalised.

The writer is a development and communications consultant