“I love the way it feels to be a hater. Something so sweet about thinking that I’m better,” are the lyrics to “Hater’s Anthem” by the band Infinity Song, a hook most teenagers who occasionally use the Internet are familiar with. Many teenagers are also aware of the toxicity that the Internet can breed, especially on social media sites like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
However, though the trend with the song involves young users proudly hating on certain things, the song itself is actually about the insecurities that haters have that cause them to hate. In 2024, the band described the song, saying that “It’s not to glorify being a hater, it’s to kind of diagnose it. The intention behind it was not to promote hate but actually to just empathize with it.”
Everyone’s done it before. You probably liked that one backhanded comment or shared that one video that was a little cruel but funny. Maybe you even think the person being targeted deserved it! Either way, chances are you, yourself, have engaged in Internet toxicity negatively due to its normalization.
What does it mean to cyberbully? Cyberbullying by StopBullying is defined by “sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.” According to Avast Academy, almost half of American teens and adults have experienced cyberbullying, while it jumps up to a staggering 95% for online content creators.
A 15-year-old user on TikTok was recently exposed for serious accusations, like saying racial slurs and sending graphic images, by two of her friends. Without any substantial proof of either, she had been made fun of by many people on TikTok.
People on TikTok have started a trend with the audio, “Damn, I messed up. We gotta go bald,” displaying themselves mocking her by putting on her makeup as a diss. Aside from the allegations, creating jokes due to a young teenager’s appearance has always been unethical, and many of these people have been doing so without realizing the controversy behind it because it’s “funny.”
But the worst part of it all is that the allegations were false. The user recently spoke up about it. The allegations about the graphic content turned out to be false rumors spread by her online friends.. But before anyone knew this, she had already blown up as a trend and was made fun of.
Had people never made fun of her in the first place, had her friends not spread false rumors, had people not mindlessly mobbed her, all the hurt would have been avoided.
Next time you see something funny, ask yourself if it makes fun of someone’s characteristics or other things they can’t control for a joke. Everyone should take the time to be aware of what message we are conveying as Internet users, especially as it is towards other people just like us. The Internet has become a cruel place, and people need to change.
