The Psychological Torture in Social Media

If you think it doesn’t exist, just watch the headlines. One person after another commits suicide after being violently attacked online. I am a victim myself.

After so much of it, you begin to question your sanity. It starts seeping into your life like a horrible cancer. Just when you think they can’t get to you anymore, someone else joins the group. The part I love is how they block you and then talk trash behind your back.

I’ve discussed mobbing before. For those of you who aren’t sure what it is, let me share the definition.

According to Wikipedia:

Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online.

When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, such as “ganging up” by co-workers, subordinates or superiors, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, humiliation, discrediting, and isolation, it is also referred to as malicious, nonsexual, non-racial/racial, general harassment.^[1]

The mobbing of an individual regardless of why can be brutal, agonizing and humiliating. When it is from people you once respected who jumped to conclusions, it is horrifying. Attempts to explain are met with more people attacking and blocking you..

Character assassination is worse than physical torture in many ways. According to this article seen here;

In practice, character assassination involve double-speak, spreading of rumors, innuendo or deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the target’s– morals, integrity, reputation… It may also involve spin information that’s technically true, but presented in misleading manner, or without the necessary context… In other words its malicious assaults designed to damage or tarnish the reputation of a person. Once done, these acts are difficult to reverse or rectify. Therefore its likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for many celebrities or important personalities, in can last for decades after their death…

According to Wikipeadia, some of the effects of mobbing or character assassination include: adjustment disorders, somatic symptoms, psychological trauma (e.g., trauma tremors or sudden onset selective mutism), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depression.^[2]

Literally, this is cyberbullying. Many dont even realize what they are doing. They think somehow they are exposing an individual when in fact, they are attacking them emotionally. It is easy to destroy someone else when you hide behind a computer screen with a fake name. For the person doing it, no harm comes to them. To the victim it is devastating.