It is well known that cyber abuse is definitely a part of many peoples lives, especially in the lives of bloggers/ influencers/ celebrities (basically people who live their lives online). You could say I live my life online as I too am a blogger. However thankfully after bringing CiaraSwalsh online I haven't received any negative comments or abuse.
Something I read very often is, "You deserve the abuse if you put your life online" or "You can't complain about getting abuse online because you chose to put yourself out there". I think both these statements are absolutely ridiculous. If you really think about it, everybody who has a phone, computer, tablet, is online. Everyone posts pictures to their Instagram or Facebook from nights out, food, family, friends, clothes, makeup etc. But once an influencer, blogger, celeb does the same thing it's only "right" to give them abuse.
I see myself as a total normal person who likes to have a creative outlet and I'm lucky to have amazing and kind followers. However the bigger I get there's more risk of getting abused. Isn't that mad? People believe that just because there's hundred's of thousands of followers, their comment wont be read. But it is!
One of my friends recently highlighted a FB group on her blog and when I asked her which one it was I had to research it. What I found was shocking. I can't believe a group like this exists and to see people I know in it and participating in bullying other bloggers/influencers was just insane. There were even comments on girls weight and even worse saying bloggers and influencers all have anxiety and that they made it a trend. Can you believe that? I ended up leaving the group again because I couldn't be faced with such negativity.
I have met many influencers discussed in said FB group and I have to say how lovely and down to earth they really are. I have rarely ever had a bad experience with an influencer/blogger, they are normal people at the end of the day with things they don't share on social media like family matters, their health and other serious matters. Everybody has a story to tell and just because they put a part of their lives online doesn't mean they deserve to be openly bullied online.
We as bloggers/influencers or whatever you wanna call it, are here to provide good enjoyable content for our readers. I will always reply to a message, I will always be transparent and more importantly I'm not here to purposely play you like fools (i.e. by not disclosing anything). I know there are the odd influencer/blogger who don't disclose properly but for the majority, we want our followers to like us for who we are. I hope I manage to portray that to you all and please don't paint us all with the same brush. 💜
This leaves me with questioning how much I put online. You all know how open and honest I am about everything, from my battle with scoliosis to disclosing if a product is sent to me. But seeing how mean those 5000+ people were in that group, it makes me uneasy. It won't stop me from posting or from being who I am, but remember I'll always keep it real for you guys.
I hope you all read this and remember that everyone has something they have to deal with. Online bullying or any form of bullying is down right horrible, just think before you post, as you could get someone on a very bad day and you could do some serious damage.
Sending you all positivity!
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