Downloading Sarahah app was a bad decision, thanks to the harassing messages

Oscar Wilde once said, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth." The phrase fits perfectly when it comes to the new viral app - Sarahah.
Sarahah, an Arabic term which means - 'honesty' is becoming the new internet sensation and is spreading like wild fire. Wondering what is it? It is an application available on both iOS and Android. If you're on Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat you must have seen your news feed flooded with messages posted on those green bordered pop-ups. That's Sarahah.
So, now the question is, if it's a mere app, why is everyone talking about it? Well, it is because of this unique feature of the application where you can send messages to people without revealing your identity. On one hand this sounds somewhat tempting and interesting, but scary too. Scary because people can take advantage of the anonymous nature of the app and bully or troll others. Well, this has been happening in a few corners of the globe.

To be honest, hearing it for the first time, the app may sound like an interesting one, but is actually a risky one to use it and may be risky and lead to depression if you are a person to take comments and trolls very seriously.

According to some reports, Sarahah is being used mostly by teenagers, and this has raised concerns among the parents. This is because some people are are misusing the application for cyber bullying and harassing others. And this is one of the major reasons why I couldn't use Sarahah for more than 24 hours and was bound to remove my account.
It is just the other day that I was online on Facebook, scrolling down my news feed and that's when I came across some posts, followed by the hash tag -- #Sarahah. After seeing most of the people on my friend list sharing Sarahah post's I also got tempted and thought of trying out the app. Probably, that was the worst decision ever.

Saraha is fun and scary both. Scary because people can take advantage of the anonymous nature of the app and bully or troll others. Well, this has been happening in a few corners of the globe

To get it right off the bat, Sarahah is an application that lets you send messages to anyone who has registered with the app keeping your identity anonymous. At one end that sounds crazy, sending messages to someone and that person will not even get to know your identity. This is like those "secret confessions" game that we used to play in our childhood. You can now say something that you always wanted to tell someone, but couldn't. This sounded very tempting and exciting. That's when I decided to download the app.
It is noteworthy, to send a message you don't need to create an account with the app. So, initially I didn't create an account and started sending fun messages to people who were already registered with the app. Until then, sending secret messages to people was fine. But, the problem arose when I decided to download the app myself. Initial few messages that were sent to me were good - basically positive messages. But, things turned to be a little ugly later.
It started to depress me a bit after some people (obviously people I know personally) sent messages pointing at my nature, and how much they hate me, where I lack in life, so on and so forth. It didn't just stop just there, body shamming comments was another reason that forced me leave Sarahah. I started to think, am I really like this? Well, anyone receiving such messages would think the same.

Ever since the app went viral, several women have taken to social media platforms to post about all the body shamming comments they have received

People think differently, some may laugh out after reading such comments, but for some (like me) this may bother them a way too much. This hasn't just happened with me, but with several other people have also been victimised. The proof to this is the Twitter thread of #Sarahah. Ever since the app went viral, several women have taken to social media platforms to post about all the body shamming comments they have received. There are some posts, which even an other woman will be ashamed of reading.
Sarahah was introduced back in February this year as a website, but was later turned into an application. It is the brainchild of a developer from Saudi Arabia - Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq. It was clearly mentioned that the app is for sending constructive messages. So, to be honest the problem lies with the way people are using the app, and not on the developer's part. This is the reflection on how disgusting our society is getting every passing day.
There are many similar applications on Play store that allow people send anonymous messages like Sarahah. These apps should be used diligently, considering that the fact that they are designed for a purpose, mostly for fun. So, using it as a means of cyber bullying is wrong and is a criminal offense. It is also noteworthy that there's no app that keeps your identity a secret. In an instance of cyber bullying, the victim by the law of order can ask the app developer to reveal the identity of a particular person, and they are bound to do so.

Source:intoday

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