Social Media Stalking

Let’s discuss the following short story for today’s topic.

Characters: Fictional

Location: Fictional

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It was the time when cell phones just started coming into existence. Social Media platforms were budding and intrigued every single teenager out there. Spending hours at the cyber café to explore this world after school became the new normal. Teenagers now had access to their entire circle outside of school hours. Riya was just another such teen soul who wanted to explore this new world.

Riya was a popular personality in her school, with a more tomboyish nature she got along with everyone that ever approached her. She had friends everywhere she went, but Riya was a private person. Hardly let anyone in her personal space. Therefore, didn’t trust anyone enough to share her own troubles with anyone else, even with people closest to her. She felt that her family and friends are two different worlds so whatever happens at school was automatically non discussable with family until it reaches to the edge of a cliff.

This thirteen-year-old being was very happy with how life was going. Going to school, studying and chatting through the day, coming back to a loving family, studying, playing, and also, browsing through social media.

It was a bright sunny day; Riya was browsing on the internet when a chat box popped up on her social media. Sneha Gill, she didn’t recognize the name at all. Checking her profile, Riya found out it was her senior at school, so she decided to reply back.

Sneha had texted, “Hi.”

Riya replied hesitantly, “Hi.”

“You’re from Class 7B, right?”

“Yes, how do you know me?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something important”

Riya hesitated again but replied, “What is it?”

“Actually, my friend Aryan is a really good guy and he really likes you”

“Okay, so?”

“Can you please be his girlfriend?”

“First of all, I don’t know either you or this Aryan guy, so no. And secondly, he doesn’t even want to talk himself so whose girlfriend are you making me, a ghost’s?”

“No, it’s not like that, he really loves you. He’s been observing you for two years now, how kind you are to everyone and how you help out at school with every extra-curricular. He’s just shy as he does not want you to hate him. So as very good friend of his I approached you to at least get you to talk to him.”

Riya was confused by Sneha’s attitude, “If he really likes me tell him to meet me, I’ll directly talk to him about it.”

“But promise me you’ll accept his proposal, then he’ll come and meet you. He really loves you and will do anything to keep you happy.”

“See, thanks for conveying your message but I’m not going to meet up with random people and go out with them.”

Even are Riya straight out rejecting, Sneha was really insistent, “You know for the past two years he’s been going to temple on your birthday and praying for your well-being. He even had an accident when he went barefoot this year. You are so ungrateful! He loves you so much and you won’t even accept to like him back”

Now, Riya was furious, “And just who are you? His sister. Mother or what? Why are you talking to me, isn’t he a grown enough man to talk himself? If not, please entertain your friend yourself as I’ve absolutely no interest in ever seeing either of your faces as well. And please don’t contact me again. Handle your friend yourself.”

Saying so Riya logged out of her computer and went back to studying to divert her mind from thinking about what had just happened. Next day, Riya was really scared to run into Sneha or Aryan by any chance. She was very suspicious of Sneha as she just kept insisting and not a single time told her anything about this guy she was vouching for. Luckily no one approached her. Heaving a sigh of relief, she went about with her day. Two weeks had passed away to her conversation with Sneha. She had neither contacted her in person or on social media for the last fortnight. Thinking it was a prank played by someone, she decided to forget about the whole incident.

A few days later, a message from Sneha popped up. Taking a deep breath, she opened the chat box. Riya asked her straightaway to not message her anymore as she wanted nothing to do with her or her friend. To this Sneha replied with a message that shocked Riya.

It said, “See I know you rejected him without even getting to know him and I didn’t text you anymore after that. But yesterday he saw your name in my inbox and read our whole conversation. He was really heartbroken and couldn’t understand what to do. He just left and went home. I got a call from him mother this morning that he had suddenly slashed his forearm and lost a lot of blood. We are in the hospital right now. His parents don’t know the reason but I do. He couldn’t accept you not being with him and in future loving someone else. He really loves you, there’s still time, come to him. Tell him you love him. You can save his life. Please help us out here.”

Riya couldn’t believe what she was reading. She herself had many guy friends who had crushes or girlfriends, but no one for whom she would send such messages to other girls for.

She was stunned for a moment; her mind went blank anticipating if what Sneha told her was true or not. And if yes, then was she the reason for someone dying without her doing anything, or did she had to lie to save someone’s life. After gathering her thoughts, she figured something, ‘why is it only Sneha messages her about Aryan. He never approached me; I’ve never seen anyone suspicious around me. Why is she forcing me so much to be with a guy I’ve never even met? ‘

Still even if what Sneha said was 1% true, Riya wanted to account for it. So, she decided to reply,

“First of all, I feel really bad if your friend is really in the hospital, but that has nothing to do with me. I’ve never met this guy in my life and you are asking me to say that I love him. Do you have a head on your shoulder for real? This is absolutely ridiculous. And if you are making up this story so that you can guilt me into being with your friend then I’m absolutely disgusted by both of you. See please don’t contact me again else I’ll be going to our principal with this entire conversation.”

Sneha immediately blocked Riya after reading this. Riya was relieved that she that this ended without escalating further. A few months passed after this incident. Posting pictures on social media was now trending. Suddenly Riya noticed a comment from Sneha on her post with a guy friend.

Sneha commented, ‘Yeah roam around with random guys. You were never worth him. You’re a sl**. Thank God he was saved from being with such a girl. Do whatever you want, you’ll never be happy after hurting him.’

Riya was shocked at what she was reading. She immediately deleted the comment and hoped no one had read it. Similar stuff kept happening on all her social media posts and pictures.

After her patience hitting the limit, she decided to text Sneha.

“What is your problem. If you don’t like me stay away from me altogether. Why do you keep commenting stupid things on my posts? Just live and let live. If I see even 1 more comment ever, or if you or your friend try contacting me again in any way, I’ll make your life living hell. You would’ve wished you never messed with me. If you want to get expelled before graduating, feel free to continue, because I’ll make sure I find you, and give you a taste of your own medicine. STAY AWAY FROM ME.”

Saying so Riya blocked Sneha.

Riya didn’t even realize how much she was shaking while typing until it was over.

Sneha never made any type of contact after that ever again.

It took Riya 2 years to forget about this incident and move on. She developed a fear of relationships and how extreme anything can get without doing anything. She never shared this entire incident with her friends or family. Nobody knew the struggle behind the smile she put on for those 2 years.

Looking back at what happened with her, she become actively invested in her friend’s relationships and personal life so that they never even remotely go through what she went through. She wanted to be that ear to her friends which she didn’t have.

THE END

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Kind of a brief read, wasn’t it? You must have had many why is she behaving like that, she should’ve just blocked her after first message and many more thoughts right?

Let me know down below!

As for in my opinion let’s deconstruct the situation.

So, this is set in I’m guessing around 2006-2008 when cell phones were just becoming an item available in every middle-class household. Internet became an accessible source; various social media platforms were raging amongst teenagers. Riya here is not more than 13-14 years old. The exposure to teenagers about social media and everything else was a blank canvas. They were exploring as they go. Talking to random strangers or people in vicinity which were normally inaccessible like school seniors was a possibility. Riya was at a tender age of learning about what comes beyond friendship through her friends or other people at school.

At a glance, in today’s day and age, this issue looks miniscule but the fact is, people still go through social media bullying, lynching, stalking, blackmailing in spite of those block buttons we keep suggesting.

When I read through what Sneha had been doing I’ve two possible deductions.

One being, maybe there wasn’t any Sneha or Aryan, maybe it was one of her classmates or someone from another class who created a fake account and tried gas-lighting her.

The second theory I have is that Sneha herself was Aryan, and was trying to get Riya’s attention so that she would at least talk to him if he decided to confront her.

Both the situations may be a possibility or the events might have unfolded exactly as Sneha had narrated to Riya. We don’t know. But hear me out, whatever might be the story on the other side, what do you think was going through Riya’s mind.

Imagine someone telling you they’ve been observing you for 2 years from afar; no harm done yet, but then via some source they are approaching you and that too aggressively. How would one react? Especially a teenager who barely knows how the world works. A person blackmailing to kill themselves because you won’t co-operate with their wants or keeps stalking your every move in person or on social media without your knowledge.

Riya’s innocent heart must be scared to death at such thoughts. She must be in panic going and spending those eight hours at school, and the fact that she didn’t confide into someone is much scarier because if something were to happen to her for real, people wouldn’t have had the slightest clue where to even start.

This line of thinking is still in play. Even in 2021, there are thousands of teenagers leading a dual life, one that the family idealizes them to be, and another being their own self or want their social circle wants them to be. Pick any school and survey, you’ll only find a handful of them who are confident enough to spill everything to their parents without hesitation.

It’s not always fear that keeps them from disclosing anything to their parents but mostly the feeling of disappointment they might cause their parents by showing how they aren’t really how their parents ‘wanted them to be.’

This social norm is going to keep hampering even in future generations. New parents or the millennials giving birth around these years are observed to exercise love and friendly attitude towards their kids. There’s a possibility of these kids still not revealing their issues when they grow up assuming, ‘my parents don’t stop me, they’ll just allow this.’

What our society needs right now is children to be made aware of their surroundings and treated as equals. Hearing their opinions and if rejected, should have a valid, logical reason. This will create confident personalities and help them be more confiding since the parents do the same.

Coming back to Riya, in that moment she must have been scared and more importantly she must have felt directionless. There was this random person talking to her and claiming to be from her surroundings. What if she spread wrong rumors' about me? What if she tried to threaten me in person? Such thoughts might have engulfed her. She didn’t feel confident enough to confide in anyone. Later she became someone to listen to others reflecting on her own situation.

Sneha texting about the accident must have scarred her for life. Imagine, true or not, someone blaming you for a person’s encounter with death when you haven’t had any contact with the person in question. She must have had so many sleepless nights.

This part here encourages me to persuade each and every one to check on other people. Keep asking them if they’re alright even when you feel their behavior is normal. If you care enough, keep pestering even if they feel annoyed, cause that might save people from falling down a dark hole. Riya became that person to her friends but she didn’t have that person for herself. We need to save such Riya’s so that they in turn save many more. For me, Riya was a strong girl, she could have easily fallen into depression fighting all of this alone, nevertheless she came out scarred but strong.

We live in 2021, social media has grown exponentially and has helped people stay connected with each other especially when they aren’t able to leave home right now. But so has the stalking on social media. When you meet your people in person you get to know if there’s any change in life, whereas, online it’s just texts; and only if either on initiates.

Ex’s, toxic people, weird/random adults approaching you; these people create multiple accounts to just stalk and torcher a person. Even adults struggle dealing with such issues, so this over exposure to teenagers is just a thought that creates goosebumps.

Talk to people especially kids around you. They can be your children, siblings, neighbors, be empathetic towards them.

That’s it for today @ in my opinion. Let me know what was your thought on the story, what Riya could have done otherwise, or what more ways can be build to tackle social media stalking to save people and help them open up.