Bullies? Cyber Bullies!

At that point, a dilapidated figure stood against a cold wall, an arm trembling with fear as the mind felt caged with the way life panned out

The psychological pressure associated with the constant reminder that someone, who hates you to an extent one can only imagine, has his eye fixed on not only you but also on whatever you do across your social media! Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google Medium are platforms that one looks upon as a canvas of expressing yourself most beautifully with freedom of speech as the pinnacle point. What do you do when you want a break from your hectic schedule? You browse your feed, like some memes, tweet what you feel, and post what you like. This is a commonality for every young adult but for Harris, the whole definition and usage was to change within a couple of months with him questioning the mere thought of living this life.
Life is a journey, where you come across many diverse people. Some stay, some go but the ones whom you once considered close but ended up as bitter enemies are those one needs to be wary of. This universal truth is something most accept and good or bad, one needs to know the time when it is to move on! Moving on, was something Harris had embraced as he buckled the seat belt with the plane going for Taxi, Harris left his life behind and was on his way to Denmark to embark on his new university life. The lad had buried the hatchet and vendettas he had been carrying of those who wronged him on several stages of life with a wish that may they learn the right way to live but also with optimism that he may never get to face those people again.
The new stage, faces, and environment seemed to work the trick as Harris began living his life to the fullest, befriended people who brought happiness, and excelled in life overall! The past? F*ck the past as Harris was done dwelling with his past life and was more concerned in building a better future. Hilariously though, he would get regular calls from friends who would crack up elaborating upon the latest conspiracy theories that those who hated Harris would dwell upon, believing that the person living a continent away was still entangled with what his ‘beloveds’ were doing. While these stories provided quality banter, Harris would regularly ponder why those people would not leave him, not for his own sake but for their mental health. How long can someone be obsessed with someone’s life, knowing that the other does not give heed to their aspirations or actions? For quite some time, Harris’ close friend Mahmood kept insisting that Harris removes all these mischievous people from his social media platforms but Harris believed that such action is way too extreme, uncalled for, and somewhat unnecessary. What could one do by simply staying on someone’s social media platform? Well, a rollercoaster ride followed across four social media platforms that may sound hard to believe.

INSTAGRAM
Since a young age, Harris had been exceptionally talented as an artist and upon the insistence of his friends, he finally took the courageous step of creating an account that showcased his talent, as he believed it wouldn’t hurt to receive some appreciation from friends and peers for a skill that he had shunned for most of his life! Why did he shun it? Well, there’s a gender stereotype that designated art as a whole for the girls while boys were not encouraged to pursue it. However, the foreign experience at a European university, broke most of his stereotypical ideas as he presented his canvas to the world! Strangely, a recurring theme that he noticed was that whenever he viewed the ‘viewers’ on the stories he posted, the people who despised him the most would always be on that list. Strangely, this alarmed him due to the fact that they weren’t following his account at all and the regular views made him ponder whether they stalk the account every other day? As a precautionary measure, he decided to block two accounts that he was not comfortable with. What happened next? Secondary accounts of the same people were used for repeating the same actions that got their primary accounts blocked in the first place. BLOCKED! The audacity of these freaks needed to be praised as after a while, one of them, with a new account, commented on a post months ago. This comment was meant as a statement of intent to show that despite the number of blocks, they would always find a way to come back and do whatever they want.

*After consultation with some close friends, Harris decided to unblock these accounts, as a goodwill gesture to correct the earlier broken ties. However, three days later, after some below the belt actions of those people, they were blocked again*

FACEBOOK
“If you get a dime for every time someone resorted to hate speech to target you personally on Facebook, you would be a billionaire by the end of your life”
This was the saying of Harris who although loved sharing memes on that platform, hated the other dark side where keyboard warriors, who may not even have the guts to see you in the eyes in real life, would be willing to humiliate you, just for the sake of mere attention. While the gang that envied Harris was comprised of six people, only one of them was included in his Facebook, solely based on the years of friendship they once relished. Nevertheless, that guy kept showcasing his bitter tone towards Harris with little acts that one term to be childish. Whenever someone roasted, mocked, or aimed digs at Harris, that guy would be the first person to react to that as if it is a religious obligation that is mandatory for him. What would one get with such immature actions? Harris kept ignoring them, thinking that such actions do not bother him, rather only expose the shallow-minded approach they had and let them be happy in their confined standards for being blissful. Moreover, at times he would express his frustration with passive-aggressive statements about how bad Harris was, that too on the memes Harris himself shared. While these instances were mildly amusing, Harris pitied that guy, as his empathetic side kept pondering the reasons for this obsession. Self-insecurity? Loneliness? God knows what!

Twitter & Google Medium
These two are fairly interlinked and complicated. The first thing that Harris did after creating his Twitter account was blocking all the Twitter accounts of his ‘friends’ as the last thing he wanted was them stalking him from these accounts. Unfortunately, you cannot keep things hidden for long as on one miserable day, they found his Twitter account using one of the users he forgot to block. So what’s next? They scanned the whole account, ranging from the first tweet, 2 years ago, to the latest one, providing their rude comments on most of them, in a vain effort to infuriate Harris. Well, he simply deleted their comments and blocked the last account too. But what followed, was pathetic, even by their standards. They created a fake account with something from Harris’ past and followed him with that account. This was not only bullying but also blackmailing. What would one do when someone brings up something from your past that you pray no one gets to know? Feel scared? Insecure? Mental stress? Harris felt all of these as he realized the new sly jibe he faced, knowing that things are getting worse than ever. Within the next two months, Harris was blessed to block 15 fake accounts, which, for some reason, he could trace back to his admirers, who felt no remorse or shame whatsoever realizing that Harris was completely aware of what they were doing.
One of the strangest moments was when Harris was ranting to one of his close friends about how he is pissed with the constant stalking and she asked if Harris has any proof. The lad couldn’t figure out the exact evidence that could satisfy this claim and simply showed her his Twitter block list. Luckily, his stalkers were dumb enough to post a screenshot of one of his tweets on both Instagram and Snapchat. This was all he needed as he had proof that their accounts were blocked, yet they posted screenshots of his tweet. One simply cannot view tweets with blocked accounts, right? They had shared those screenshots in a manner of arrogance, expressing their anger at being blocked, and calling out Harris. They might’ve expected a response considering the attack, yet Harris refrained as he knew, he had the evidence he needed for a victory on that front.
These love exchanges continued for quite a while on Twitter, as Harris learned to live with his ‘fans’. Soon, even they realized that this has stopped bothering the lad, therefore, they decided it’s time to approach a new platform to make life miserable, and what’s better than his story writing profile? The thing with Google Medium is that it gives the author quite some power and you can realize who is reading and from where they accessed the articles too. The first incident of confrontation was when in a 4000-word essay, the name of one of those people was used in a sentence. Nothing personal, just a mere mention that this person was doing this at a specific time. So what’s next? Someone used their fake Twitter account, took a screenshot of that sentence, and immediately sent it to Harris with the wording, “Several people have sent me screenshots of this, and you did not take my permission, remove it and never mention my private life again”. The thing with dealing with idiots is that you should just listen to them rather than offering justifications as Harris abided by their demands even though by that time, there were only 3 viewers of that story, including that person, his Aunt, and another university friend who was unaware of the existence of the one who felt offended. LIES! They would’ve celebrated that night, thinking they taught Harris a valuable lesson, showed them who is boss, but in reality, lost more respect and gave more evidence.
On a particular day, Harris was comfortably watching a football match of his university team when his mobile started ringing with successive notifications. Being a lazy replier, he found it fit to ignore them for the time being and only open when free. Upon checking, he found that his old pal, who hadn’t talked to him for ages was texting. His heartfelt a sudden shock at what he read,
“This is a CRIME! You took my name….”
“I am taking this very seriously….”
“Who do you think you are?”
“You think you can do anything and get away with it all the time?”
“IF YOU EVER USE MY NAME AGAIN…..”
These were just some of the ‘praises’ aimed at Harris as he could not fathom the situation he came across. He quickly opened his Google Medium and in the reader’s info, found a user named “DINKU”. That DINKU was none other than his beloved stalker number one who forgot that their Gmail account is depicted with their name on Google Medium. A depressed figure understood what just took place and could not decide how to react. Express anger? But, the pal who’s fighting has a brain of his own to think. Offer justifications? No, the accusations are not open for debate, but rather commands, with sin already determined and punishment already decided by the person. He decided to just observe what is to occur and then come to a verdict. The pal who once was the most trusted person, was a moron who did not even have the courtesy to listen to the other and simply bashed at the other, exerting his wishes and commands. Those commands were super humiliating and embarrassing for Harris but he did not complain in front of the charging bull whose sole aim was to burn everything down. Was it the end? Harris prayed so!
The stalkers ruined the peace Harris achieved after years of patience and effort. What did they achieve with this petty act? How can one hurt so much to the point where they consider their will to live their life? How can someone be so ignorant and barbarous that they are influenced by perspectives that others bring to them? The caged sensation, realizing that someone you hate is right behind you, monitoring every action you take, hoping you stumble or place obstacles that pull you down. The privacy and sense of safety being non-existent as you fear someone knowing too much about you. Worse, they spread it to people you care about. As a friend said back then, “If it isn’t murder or any other vicious crime, and people you are surrounded with actually care about you, they would look beyond your flaws for what you are today rather than what you were”. These words were imprinted on the mind of the lad who looked upon support for carrying him out of his depressive state to a point where he could be a better version of himself. This mere dialogue played a pivotal role as he began his life from scratch, freeing himself of the concerns of what people think about him, their ability to hurt him, and the mere thought of someone overpowering his mind! The people who want to leave you, are on the hunt for a reason to leave despite your best efforts. Imploring expectations or expecting someone to stay forever is like living in a fool’s paradise as no one is permanent in life. The unfortunate thing is that despite the heaps of evidence Harris accumulated, there isn’t a platform where he can expect punishment for the wrongdoers as cyber laws are next to nothing in his country.
By this time, you may have already figured out the real identity of Harris and if you are receiving this personally, let it be known, that Harris is grateful for the minor things you may have done that helped him go through these challenging times for the better! Harris may not be able to say it in person, with his left hand shaking whenever he tries saying something emotional, this is the most formal thank you note he could ever think of!


As for his stalkers (who may be reading this), I wish the worst for you! Nature has a unique way of doing things and what goes around, comes around. One day you may face a similar situation and for that day, I hope you are not surrounded by the amazing people Harris was blessed with as they picked him up when all hope seemed lost. I can’t find it in myself to ever forgive you for the things you have done and if we ever come across, I would pretend you don’t exist as the anger bottled up in this body would be too much to bear if it ever gets released.

Happy 1st Anniversary of Being Stalked by Cyber Bullies