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Sarahah Needs To Stop Before Someone Seriously Falls Victim To Its Cyber-Bullying

byRachna Srivastava
14th August 2017
3 minute read
Sarahah-Stop

“Leave a constructive message.” #Sarahah.

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Sounds eerily familiar, right? We are sure your feed must be flooding with posts (and so are your DMs).

Right now, the social media is divided into two sections: people who are going all ‘Sarahah, Sarahah’ and people who are avoiding it or at least trying their level best to avoid seeing those sea green-white templates showing up on the social feed. Which one do you belong to?

Those of you who have absolutely no effin’ clue as to what I am talking about, then let me quickly fill you in. Sarahah, the raging app, is the latest social media fad that lets you leave an anonymous message to someone, personally. Yes, the key here is anonymity. One doesn’t know who has sent her/him a message on the app.

Quite a hit amongst the youth, the app is fun for some, but also a nightmare for others. It is also a really good ego boost as people who get a lot of good messages and tend to post them online.

 

While the same process of anonymous messages opens doors to cyber-bullying of greater magnitude. A review that was posted on Google Play reads,

“My 13-year-old sister uses this and she got a death threat aimed at our 2-year-old brother.”

 

All this leaves a greater impact on impressionable minds.

People across the globe are reporting incidents of bullying, of verbal abuse and it is quite the masked opportunity at a hater’s or bully’s perusal.

 

But the developer from Saudi Arabia, ZainAlabdin Tawfiq, who developed Sarahah says it should not a bullying platform but a self-development tool.

 

Barely six months into existence, Sarahah was launched as a website but it is the app that has gone viral. There’s an added feature that lets users block messages from senders who may have sent offensive messages.

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More than a “constructive” message, it is human tendency to fret about the not-so-constructive ones which, if vile and filled with hate, leave a lasting impact. And, they are.

The fact that we as humans need validation, that too anonymously is something not quite pleasant in approach, to begin with. Why should anyone hide behind a mask? Why can’t people let others know what they genuinely feel with their identities intact? (This is no way to give a nod to hate messages received in the “others” folder or the targeted “direct messages”.)

Cyberbullying needs to stop, and so does Sarahah, before some irreparable damage is done. Let this not be another tool handed to cyber-bullies.

 

People who are fed up of seeing the Sarahah posts on their feeds can disable it using this Google Chrome extension. And, for others, does this go with your sentiments?

Have nothing against the app and people who are using it the right way, hope they enjoy. But, in no way make it a tool to spread hatred. Sadly, there’s too much hate already in the world. Let’s constructively work to get rid of that.

What are your opinions on Sarahah? (Nope, will not ask you to specifically “leave a constructive” message).

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