It wasn’t even a month since you purchased a Jom Apply unifi internet package and your few weeks’ old social media page is riddled with a few messages of harassment. Maybe they don’t like your content, maybe they just need someone to vent to through bullying. Maybe they don’t like your looks.

Whatever their reasons, you might feel a proverbial stab to the heart at first glance, and you may fear that the harassment is getting to you. Worse, at least one of them sounds so personal that it is downright miserable to read. If you think that the solution to dealing with negativity is by reporting to the authorities, it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Most authorities would never have the time to look into your case, and even if they do, it can be compromised if the culprits do not have enough information to identify themselves in real life. Some at least have the common sense to harass under a fake identity.

So since reporting is not a surefire way to deal with online harassers, here are a few tips to heed. Also, you might want to check your profile and hide your own info if you have any. You shouldn’t expose yourself from the start anyway.

Blocking

Blocking is always a very effective way of responding to harassers. Just one action and poof, you are done. Get harassed by more? Keep blocking. The same culprit uses an alternate account? Same strategy.

There isn’t much else to say about blocking, but do remember that this strategy will not work if you are not being harassed, but being criticized instead. There is a difference between outright harassment and criticism, and you must look into both of them until you can actually tell. 

If that message is criticism, don’t block. Read it first so you can see if it is legit, then if you can, respond in a good manner. Don’t lash out or make any public statements, you are only shooting yourself in the foot. Talk to that messenger first before you officially open your mouth.

Ignore

This advice might sound, well, ignorant because it would mean that this situation isn’t taken seriously and not addressed. But unless you really have a good response to these harassments, the best you can do is to ignore them. There are two mindsets surrounding this measure.

One, you are not giving in by actually responding to them. You leave them hanging in the air because you don’t want to be caught in the bait. Their attempts will be rendered useless no matter how many insulting messages they send you, and it will eventually be boring enough for them to leave you alone.

Two, face this. There is really no escaping from the worst of people. Negativity is as old as humanity’s history, and the internet gained us the ability to be more active in expressing them. Because we tend to hide behind our digital masks, we can always get away with doing or saying mean or nasty stuff while insulting each other.

So you best deal with it, because the internet is just as lousy as the world. It isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, but you can always find that, can you? Meanwhile, what do you think the harassers will do when you ignore them and they keep up? Hire a bitcoin assassin? Send you a bill?

It is nothing to you because you are facing a screen somewhere far away from wherever the harassers are living, unless you are unlucky enough to be in their vicinity, which at that point, you should take it seriously and watch yourself out there. Now you can call the police if somebody suspicious is at your window.