Tuesday 26 February 2019

Bullying on social media

or something akin to it has apparently led to a well known knitwear designer taking extended leave.
I don't know what the story is apart from the fact that  her blog is not active. The "club" she had running is also in abeyance until September.  
Her blog is popular. It has hundreds of followers, perhaps more. The comments always seem positive.
I read her blog occasionally if I think she is going to talk about the design process. I always find it helpful to learn how other people approach the design process. In this particular case it is doubly useful because this designer had a stroke and had to relearn - or at least rediscover - many things. 
From her own comments I suspect she is, quite understandably, a little "spiky" or irritated at times. I sense her frustration when she can't manage to do something as quickly as she once could - and when the effort of doing it at all tires her. I don't know whether that is part of what went wrong. If it is then I imagine she will feel even worse. I just hope she can get through this and go on giving the people who do knit from her patterns the pleasure she was giving them before.
But the situation made me think about the problem of bullying again, especially bullying on social media. It seems everyone is aware of it but few people are prepared to do anything about it.
I have blocked a few extreme left-wing trolls in my time. I have blocked more  extreme right-wing trolls. I rarely comment on one newspaper site simply because there are a small band of almost constant commentators who seem to see the site as their personal domain. The site is "moderated" but this has not stopped this little group of making fun out of criticising even the most innocuous of comments. It undermines the whole purpose of the ability to comment.
I am wary of what I post but someone still took offence at something I intended as a compliment. I keep my Facebook account confined to a few people who are genuinely friends. The comment, "But Cat you could have hundreds of followers..." makes me shudder. I want to know people. If I was like the designer above I would set up a separate account for that purpose. 
Adults don't expect to be bullied. They don't always recognise bullying when it happens. They might acknowledge that someone isn't being very nice and avoid them but they won't realise the behaviour is that of a bully. One of the biggest problems is that those around them often don't recognise that sort of behaviour for what it is either.
Perhaps it is time people did recognise it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is time to recognise bullying and that it can take many forms. The committee of a certain group we are both familiar with comes to mind. R

Anonymous said...

It's the power thing - so many people want to be taken heed of - and they fail to realise that they would get a great deal more respect and affection by being kind and considerate.

Anonymous said...

Sorry - g**g*e is messing me about. Previous comment was from "jeanfromcornwall"