Do you think the hatefulness and online trolling is getting worse each year? How will it be in years to come?

[InkyTreasuresbookstore]

Maybe I am just too sensitive for my own good but wonder if anyone else feels this way?

Over the years I've felt increasingly downhearted and disgusted regarding some people's behaviour online, I know it's not a new thing but the vile things said by numerous people this weekend regarding the awful tragedy at the wildlife park has very much topped it for me.

I can not begin to understand the hell this poor young man's family are going though without the added stress of knowing there have been the most despicably offensive conversations and insinuations regarding their loved one. From all and sundry, all ages - young and old. My own ds is the same age and I feel nothing but utter sadness and compassion for all involved.

Would these people display the same courage and bravery by standing up in public and voice their online opinions aloud? I doubt it, in fact I never come across anyone in RL who is so opinionated and vile mouthed as those online but even from the safety of hiding behind one's keyboard what kind of person gets such warped pleasure from typing these God awful things? I just can't comprehend offending someone in such a way. I would rather help than hinder and it greatly saddens me to see more and more people becoming so bold online, enough to state such vile and vicious things - moral corruption really is becoming a big issue these days.

I try to keep my sm down to certain accounts but I am finding the number of completely innocent people being trolled every day to be very depressing. For instance, I have alopecia and follow a lovely, beautiful young woman who owns a wig store. She showcases her wigs on YT, Tik Tok and IG. She is bright, cheerful and sunny in nature yet she has said that she will often receive comments from people telling her she is ugly, they say she looks dreadful bald and should hide herself away etc - wtaf is wrong with these so called human beings. Have they had compassion by-passes or something unfortunate which renders them complete arseholes?

And as a PA for disabled people I also follow several online disability accounts. The vicious, nasty comments on these accounts is breathtaking. I appreciate some maybe mentally unwell but I have suffered from mental health issues for years I can not comprehend what you'd actually get from telling a mother of a disabled child their son/daughter is disgusting/ugly and should have been aborted etc.

I have scaled down my SM viewing to minimal amounts these days as I am too much of a HSP to cope with it but regardless whether I stay or not I know it's still going on and getting worse which makes me feel quite despairing how things have become over recent years. Even MN has it's contenders (I wouldn't dare place a thread on AIBU for example!). I've been using this community for 20 years and some people on here are using completely different language from two decades ago, a lot more forthright with opinions and nastiness.

What on earth will it be like in say, 10 years time? How much worse can it get and who the hell are these people that walk amongst us saying such unpleasant things online yet most probably acting completely normal in RL?

I haven't actively joined anything. I am on FB as I follow many support groups for the health issues I suffer from. During and after the weekend these posts regarding the incident kept propping up all the time, as soon as I hide them more kept showing. I have deactivated my account for a while because I was so fed up seeing them overshadow my support groups.

I follow the other accounts because they hold my interest ie: the lady with the alopecia and the disability account but the vile comments still occur even on seemingly innocent posts.

Zelenskyy taking out the bot farms will help.

And just ignore the real scum. Don't make their hate your narrative.

I hear you OP. I always think it can't get worse and it does.

I follow a lady on IG with a severely autistic adult child and the comments she gets are absolutely staggering.

The problem with the internet is that it gives any old wanker the platform to spout their views, often anonymously. All of the stupid people believe that their voice is the only one that matters and needs to be heard - cue an absolute cesspit of hate and uneducated views.

I’ve been sickened by some of the posts regarding the Yorkshire Wildlife Park incident. Before any facts had even emerged people were falling over themselves to insult the man, call him names, post juvenile jokes in the hope of getting a few cheap laughs and now it’s come out that he had MH issues (of course he did) i doubt any of them will feel a shred of shame. It’s such a sad reflection on society. Some people are just scum and thanks to social media we have to suffer them.

I try to avoid such topics as the comments are always terrible. Actually in general it’s best to keep social media limited. I really just use mumsnet and YouTube and I still could do with limiting my use further and avoiding comments of certain topics.

I don’t think things are any worse. Ever since people could be anonymous you had terrible comments and bullying etc.

I can't get my head around it some days and one of the reasons I would never upload anything online myself, my skin is way too thin.

This weekend events have most definitely been the end for me where sm is concerned. I just can't get my head around people being so callous and vicious when someone is going through such obvious trauma in their life. That poor young man and his poor family, my heart goes out to them.

I have removed myself off many platforms over the last few days and hopefully will see less of this awful behaviour from now, even though I know it won't end and only get worse. I worry for my children's generation, this is all they will ever know. I am glad I was young before the internet.

I do find YouTube to be the better of all platforms and I don't see too many negative comments on the accounts that I follow so I will probably stick to that in the future.

I've definitely noticed the racism has ramped up massively - even on mumsnet sadly.

When even the odious US President joins in the humiliation of the man who died, then you know that a lot of the general public will think it is acceptable to do this too.

Public shaming and vitriol is vicious now. The only answer is to reduce your time on social media to the bare minimum. No Facebook, X, and anything else that is really nasty. Best not to expose yourself to it in the first place.

It's so worrying that these people even have these thoughts let alone air them online, it's awful.

The poor family, how must they feel. I don't like to run anyone down online, obviously that's the whole point of my thread but I do have exceptions. What a thoroughly despicable man Trump really is.

I am still shocked to the core by an online conversation I had with someone whom I thought was a reasonable guy.

His view was, I quote, "people should be allowed to call for the re-enslavement of black people".

I reported. Nothing was done.

It's going to end in tears, a very great deal of them. But it probably won't be the viciously horrible bastards who come out with shit like this who are weeping.

It is absolutely awful, OP, but we have major public figures like the US president directly contributing to the problem.

I fear that the genie is truly out of the bottle now. People feel able to say things online now that they would never have been able to say in polite society previously. Platforms like Mumsnet and others have no idea how to deal with it.

I’ve been on the net a long time and long realised that it involves a lot of fantasy lifestyles, a lot of lies, and a lot of keyboard warriors, saying things they wouldn’t dare say in real life.

Sad, but how it is. 🤷‍♀️