In This Season of Shivers and Chills, Whom Must We Truly Fear?

Have ghouls and ghosts been replaced by trolls and bullies? Have we reason to fear them instead?

Whom must we truly fear? (Photo: iStockphoto)

Halloween may have given you the impression that ghouls and goblins are scary, but today, when the world is on the Internet looking for party costume ideas, it dawned on Shweta Bachchan Nanda that the real spooks are the bullies and trolls. Welcome to the comments section, the place where nuanced debate goes to die. The bullies and the trolls are our new boogeymen. This is the sort that will go to town with Facebook’s dislike button.

What about the Internet turns us into its version of Mr Hyde? Anonymity. Every seasoned (and therefore, dead) horror movie victim knows that it’s their inability to predict what’s out there that leaves them unprepared and entirely at the mercy of their mutilators. The Internet is a bully’s heaven. No accountability and no one to stand up to them. It is unfairly easy for them.

The Internet troll is humanity’s despicable progeny; they are the sorry manifestations of low-blows, personified. Glibness and an Internet connection are the tools of the trade—a trade that profits on the misery and humiliation of another person.

In this odd rat race for effervescent fame, no one cares very much how many toes they step on and the Internet has made it frighteningly easy. This season, as we celebrate chills and shivers both literal and metaphorical, let us not be monsters of our own making, and leave the scaring to the traditionally ghoulish and the satisfyingly ghostly.

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