Cyber bullying is a harsh reality in this age of social media. And the people who are most affected by this unfortunate trend are celebrities who are trolled, bullied and mocked on a regular basis. Ananya Panday may be new in Bollywood but the Student of the Year 2 actor has seen the ugly side of fame in this short span of time. And her personal experiences and that of people she knows have given birth to So Positive, which is a DSR (Digital Social Responsibility) initiative which aims at creating and spreading awareness about social media bullying.
“I decided to bring this up because it is very relevant. I was older when I got on social media but I have a younger sister (Rysa) who is just 15 and she is already on social media. Trolling and bullying has become a norm on social media and people are not aware of the ways to deal with it. So, it’s important to create awareness and let people know that they are not alone,” shares Ananya.
The social initiative platform, would create engagement to inform the public about the existing actions to emerge out of the issue. Ananya’s initiative, which was launched yesterday, is centred around extending support and providing guidance to people to collaborate with helpful entities such as government officials and lawyers.
“Through this initiative, I want to build a community which is against social media bullying. I will be posting details about bullying and also put out information about what people can do to report bullying. We would lobby for social media empathy and constructive criticism with this initiative. For example, how they can report and block bullies on social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. I will also give out numbers of certain counsellors who they can get in touch with, besides creating a direct line with me to talk sometimes about the issues they are facing,” she adds.
Ananya had a personal bitter experience of bullying recently, when a girl, claiming to be her schoolmate, went on a social media tirade against the actor for lying about her admission in University of Southern California among other things. The accusations eventually turned out to be false after Ananya shared proof of her admission.
Talking about the ugly episode, the actor says, “The false information misguided a lot of people, making them believe that I didn’t get accepted to the university. And the situation got amplified because of social media.”
“At first, I thought of ignoring it but then I realised that social media bullying also affects people around you. Because everything happens on a public platform for everyone to see. I made the clarification because of my parents as they felt that I had worked hard to get the admission. It is important to stand up to bullies.”
Ananya says that she has been thinking about an anti-bullying initiative for a while but this personal episode made her more determined to kick-start So Positive.
“When I was being bullied, I didn’t know how to go about the whole situation and had there been a platform like this, it would have been easier for me,” she concludes.
WhatsApp us