Yours truly, XYZ

Man is a social animal who craves to be liked. And it is curiosity-cum-craving that makes people sign up on anonymous messaging apps like Secret, AskFM, Sayat.me and the most recent one — Sarahah.  

Sarahah is the latest app to become all the rage, with it’s posts making an appearance on every social media website. One would think that this makes it easy for crushes to share their feelings, for best friends to point out differences and for estranged friends to reconcile. But, the reality is only vile. 

Mihir Chitre

Under the veil of anonymity, this unfiltered feedback is turning into a tool for nasty messages, ingratitude and even trolling. Aparnna, a media professional, who in the past had signed up on  the app Secret, shares how she received several homophobic anonymous messages. “My best friend is very open about his sexuality. Clearly, this bothered a lot of people and they sent some extremely homophobic, nasty messages about him,” she said. She recalls the year 2014 when everyone used a similar app going by the name of Secret. “It was a lot more fun back then. People kept things light often sharing inside jokes, and mocking old memories. But this lasted was only for a while. Soon, many people made it ugly by sharing nasty comments, and revealing dirty personal secrets,” she recalls. 

Interestingly, Sarahah was launched for employees to share feedback about their employer anonymously. What started as a workplace feedback tool was soon used to share toxic messages online, almost crossing the line of bullying and trolling. It can be noted ironically that the makers of the app described it as a tool for self-development by receiving constructive anonymous feedback.

Tanzila Anis

Tanzila Anis shares that despite receiving a couple of negative messages, she laughed them out loud. “Online trolling isn’t a new phenomenon. It happens every day on social media. So I am pretty used to it,” she says. Once she received messages that attacked her body, Tanzila decided she didn’t want to pay much heed to these comments. “I don’t understand why people think it is alright for them to comment on my body. I know that it is the easiest insult to think of behind the screen, but really, do you not know that I see myself in the mirror every day? I know I am fat,” she says flatly. 

Comedian Kunal Kamra, on the other hand, prefers to stay away from apps like this. “I genuinely believe that anonymity is overrated. If I have something to share with someone, be it positive or negative, it is best if I let them know that it is coming from me; and not anonymously,” he says. The comedian has a quip to share. “Now consider that the Prime Minister of India wants to tell me I’m stupid. If he does it anonymously, hidden behind a screen, will I care, will anyone care? No. But, if he passes an official statement, signs it with a stamp calling me stupid, then I should care. That is how it should work!”

Kunal kamra

Aparnna points out that worst characteristic of people sending messages anonymously. She noticed that the source of a lot of criticism and trolling is from people she knows intimately. “When I first logged on, I thought I would receive messages about superficial things such as my political ideologies or my thoughts about feminism. But too many messages were sent about my personal life, which isn’t out in the open,” she laments.

Midst the people receiving negative feedback, poet Mihir Chitre has bagged himself some positive comments. “I think anonymity can lead to interesting things and I was honestly surprised to receive a lot of positive messages,” he says, adding that no matter how much fame the app is seeing, it will die out in no time. 

However, with issues like anxiety and depression plaguing one, Tanzila suggests that people ignore these apps. “Messages and comments like these act as triggers. I have friends who are quite open with their mental issues and things like these act as triggers. So if they have made a 50 per cent progress towards the better, reading something so negative sets their progress back by 10 per cent,” she says, adding, “I have tried engaging and getting to the root of the issue, but it never helps. So just mute it out, let it go — it will be fine.”