Trends can kill

By Amber Gaskins

I HATE scrolling on social media these days. Not simply because it can be unhealthy,

especially when it comes to doom scrolling; but because of the trends it can produce.

Many of us have seen people being unapologetically themselves in real life and on the

internet. Which may not be everyone’s cup of tea and it is not supposed to be. Everyone is

supposed to be different. However, it has become a common thing where people will say nasty things like, “bring back bullying.”

Yet, bullying never went away even though it should. Why has bullying become a good and trending thing? Why do people feel comfortable doing it to others, especially at ages when we understand that bullying is wrong. Putting people down and shaming them (especially when unwarranted) should not be normalized.

I have recently witnessed my friend losing a close friend due to bullying. it was someone I had the deepest pleasure meeting a few times. This was a magnificent, brilliant, future leader that was unapologetically himself - and people could not handle that. He was only 19 years old and did not make it to the age of twenty. With an identical twin brother by the way. Put that into perspective: someone lost their identical twin brother because people felt comfortable bullying someone who did not deserve it. Someone who was already put in a difficult predicament when young who was persevering as a young adult.

How about a “spread some love” trend? There is enough hate and hurt in the world

The worse part about bullies is most of the time they are not held accountable for what

they have caused. Many young and even older individuals take their own lives because they

cannot take the pain people are causing them on a daily basis. It is an indirect murder because people want to be rude, mean, nasty, and hateful. For what though?

Why cause an entire community pain, simply because you wanted to state an unnecessary

opinion? Please stop this “bring back bullying” trend and bring back more positivity. No more

trends that put lives in danger should be put out there on social media, especially with the

knowledge of younger populations being present on these apps. How about a “spread some love” trend? There is enough hate and hurt in the world, we do not need to campaign for spreading more of it.