A Qfeast Social Experiment

The Experiment

Today is an era spent inside an electronic screen. People seem to choose to live inside their internet bubbles out of fear. Self worth is at an all time low and the internet is the perfect place for all our nagging insecurities to come out. Insecurities usually come out one of two ways on the internet, either the insecure person lays it all out on the table asking complete strangers to give them worth or they try feel worth more by demeaning the worth of others. The latter of the two seems most common. People say things like, "kill yourself", they call others fat and ugly, they declare their undying hatred for complete strangers,and so many more completely toxic things that they would never say face to face. Maybe they say it because they think it won't hurt anyone, their just messing with people on the internet, it's not like it actually matters, right? Of course it does. The people who have bared their insecurities on the internet for all to see are the favorite target for these cyberbullies. The ones who seek help are met with hate... It's wrong... It's heart breaking. So, I decided to see if our qfeast community was infected by the computer virus of cyberbullies.


For my experiment I used two public questions. They both had the same title photo of a young girl (the same photo seen above) This photo was found on Google images when the words "ugly girl" were searched. The titles of the questions were "Is my face unattractive" and "what can I do to be more attractive". These were questions that i have seen a round the internet before and they are sometimes meet with horrible amounts of hate. I had never stated that this girl was me because in fact she is not. She is a girl who strangers on the internet have deemed to be ugly. (for the record I do not believe she is ugly because she is not. I was just simply using one of the first search results) I wanted to see if this girls photo got the same treatment on Qfeast as she did on the rest of the internet.


The Findings:
Qfeast is a site with many young people who are in a rough stage of life. I have met many users who suffer from insecurities that they don't know how to get over so I was worried that cyberbullying would be plentiful, but over all I was extremely happy to find that most were very supportive and some even shared the same view that I have: The toxic opinions of others don't matter. Self love is the only think that can make you happy and if their your happy their will be a smile on your face.... that is beauty. The following are some of the things said by some of the caring users of Qfeast:

"You are not ugly, you are beautiful the way you are, don't listen to people, people are going to be judgemental, which they really shouldn't be, everyone has their own way of beauty, well this is what I think though. and yes I am being honest."  - @StridersGonnaStride

"You are not ugly, you are unique and beautiful. If that hater doesn't think so then their just jealous cause you are special in your own way" - @LilGaster

"You are beautiful. Whoever calles you ugly is blind or jealous. You are nice and helpful, so you are beautiful inside and out. That person is jealous because of you being pretty in both ways" - @Princess_Twilight

"I think you look pretty the way you are
But if you are interested in enhancing ur beauty than i would suggest makeup" - @Madokidoki

Also a shout out to @breann.west.5 @Lillypad354 and @Sassy_Mime who also said very nice an encouraging things. Things like that can really help someone's self esteem and they are right in saying that the girl in the photo is beautiful they way she is. Thank you guys and I hope you continue to help people like that. I also hope you don't feel lied to. I did kind of troll you a little and I'm sorry if you feel deceived.

There were also a few replies that i didn't agree fully with, but in in particular stood out. This comment is an example of cyber bullying and I hope the writer thinks twice before saying something like this to someone again. the following is the comment, the commenter shall remain anonymous:

"First, get rid of the pimples and zits. That's ha-gross. Then dye your hair brown and fix your wardrobe. Don't be offensive but you need a face transplant. Sorry hon."

Ii am glad to see that most people in our small community are supportive and caring and if you encounter cyber bullying remember not to let it get to you. The only opinion of you that matters is your own. If you allow yourself to love yourself then you'll be able to grow!