Anonymous Social Networking Platform Taking Dark Turn
In the last month or two a new anonymous social networking app has been in the spotlight as it soars to the top of charts, beating out both Facebook and Snapchat on Apple's Free App Charts. This app, called Sarahah, has also had booming numbers with a user base of 62 million as of August 2017. For those who are slowly slipping behind on the cool trends, like me, I will catch you up to speed on what exactly Sarahah is, how it started, and why its recently been catching some heat. I have done some research on this to make sure I have the right idea.
Sarahah launched in November of 2016 in Saudi Arabia as a platform that would act essentially as a suggestion box for corporate employees about their managers' performance. The anonymous aspect allowed for honest opinions and constructive feedback without the fear of stepping on toes. The name "Sarahah" comes from the Arabic word for honesty, so as you can infer the intentions were good. I can definitely appreciate an app like this, but like many things the program has strayed from this function and become more of a way for younger aged people to anonymously comment rude, unnecessary opinions and open a new door for cyber bullying.
Websites such as Business Insider, CNN, Fox, and ABC have all shared articles highlighting the scary abuse behind this app and how parents can better monitor their children's accounts. More often than not in these articles, the app has been called things like 'a breeding ground for hate'.
Ok lets stop here and let me rant for a minute now. It concerns me deeply that in an age where social media is already so impressionable on adolescents, that these anonymous apps are able to exist with so little regulation. I was curious if this app was as toxic as some news stories make it out to be so I asked my sisters who are regular Sahara users. They both, without hesitation, gave me case after case of when both they and their friends were tormented or harassed. In the most severe cases, there were comments from people urging for a person to self-harm. This has me absolutely shook to my core. My youngest sister is in the 8th grade and was being told things that would make people my age cringe.
Y'all. We need to be countering the negativity and shaming with a productive and uplifting app. No I don't have the answers for how exactly to do this, but this is unacceptable. And don't get me wrong, there were extremely sweet and encouraging messages left. Some messages were innocent, middle-school-crush notes, or friends willingly signing their name at the end; but either way those are far over shadowed when you have another eery voice telling you how worthless you are. I would love to see these apps step up and start taking appropriate action in filtering these messages out before they're even posted. These rising generations don't know a world without internet and if we allow things like this to slip through the cracks without so much as a conversation about them, that is when problems spiral. The app, although extremely strategic and efficient for its originally use, needs to be adapted for what has become of it. This is that crossroads of social responsibility and profitability. The ball is in your court Sarahah.
Sarahah launched in November of 2016 in Saudi Arabia as a platform that would act essentially as a suggestion box for corporate employees about their managers' performance. The anonymous aspect allowed for honest opinions and constructive feedback without the fear of stepping on toes. The name "Sarahah" comes from the Arabic word for honesty, so as you can infer the intentions were good. I can definitely appreciate an app like this, but like many things the program has strayed from this function and become more of a way for younger aged people to anonymously comment rude, unnecessary opinions and open a new door for cyber bullying.
Websites such as Business Insider, CNN, Fox, and ABC have all shared articles highlighting the scary abuse behind this app and how parents can better monitor their children's accounts. More often than not in these articles, the app has been called things like 'a breeding ground for hate'.
Ok lets stop here and let me rant for a minute now. It concerns me deeply that in an age where social media is already so impressionable on adolescents, that these anonymous apps are able to exist with so little regulation. I was curious if this app was as toxic as some news stories make it out to be so I asked my sisters who are regular Sahara users. They both, without hesitation, gave me case after case of when both they and their friends were tormented or harassed. In the most severe cases, there were comments from people urging for a person to self-harm. This has me absolutely shook to my core. My youngest sister is in the 8th grade and was being told things that would make people my age cringe.
Y'all. We need to be countering the negativity and shaming with a productive and uplifting app. No I don't have the answers for how exactly to do this, but this is unacceptable. And don't get me wrong, there were extremely sweet and encouraging messages left. Some messages were innocent, middle-school-crush notes, or friends willingly signing their name at the end; but either way those are far over shadowed when you have another eery voice telling you how worthless you are. I would love to see these apps step up and start taking appropriate action in filtering these messages out before they're even posted. These rising generations don't know a world without internet and if we allow things like this to slip through the cracks without so much as a conversation about them, that is when problems spiral. The app, although extremely strategic and efficient for its originally use, needs to be adapted for what has become of it. This is that crossroads of social responsibility and profitability. The ball is in your court Sarahah.
This is the first time I have ever heard about this app, and it sounds like an updated version of something people in my high school did. Anonymous bullying is never okay, and I don't think this app company will last long. If they continue to allow bullying on their site, they are creating an incredibly poor brand image, and brands associated this much negativity typically fade.
ReplyDeleteI had never even heard of this app before reading this, so I must be falling behind on the trends as well. But I agree with you that this is the exact opposite of what our society needs right now. Reading about it gave me flashbacks to the Ask.fm phase from middle school where the boys would rate the hottest girls in the 7th grade, or girls could say nasty things about each other and no one would ever know who said it. It’s sad because even if the app was created with good intentions, the Internet has once again found a way to turn it into a way to spread negativity.
ReplyDelete