Social media: a blessing at its core, a curse in reality. It's no secret that social media has taken the world by storm in these last ten years. Created for a myriad of reasons, social media is used to network, communicate with loved ones, and meet new people. Sounds great, right?

Unfortunately, with everyone constantly updating their lives for the entire Internet to see--that's more than 3.2 billion people, and growing--it makes it incredibly easy to find ourselves at the feet of criticism from people we have never even met. Social media websites and mobile applications have picked up a bad rap with "trolls," which Urban Dictionary describes (quite accurately if you've ever used the Internet, might I add) as "A person who...attacks and flames other members of the forum for any of a number of reasons." So basically, they're assholes who don't have a reason to be throwing hate around like confetti, but they do it anyway for their own sick idea of fun. And probably because they actually hate themselves and need to project their insecurities onto successful people to make themselves feel better. Or they're compensating for ~something~--but I digress.

In fact, there are more of these said 'Internet trolls' lately than there are nice, kind folk. Take Twitter, for instance. Twitter has over "328 million monthly active users" on its site and mobile applications--that's quite a lot of people interacting with each other. Twitter was originally established as "the place to find out about what's happening in the world right now." Of course, just like any other form of social media, it has also become a place where people tweet out their opinions in 140 characters or less. And some of these opinions are quite nasty for those who are receiving the brunt of it.

It's amazing how much hate and derogatory words can be packed in these teeny, tiny tweets. Not to mention, the word 'tweet' itself sounds like it's supposed to contain a nice, little message meant to bring smiles. But in the world we live in today, many tweets are tearing people's self-esteem down--even people who are very successful in what they do.

Take the well-known tweeter @abarty_intheusa. Allie was simply a 20-year-old college student at The University of Alabama--until her Twitter page gained 76.3 thousand followers (and increasing). The reason she suddenly gained Twitter fame? She tweets literally what every college student thinks. Take a look at some of her tweets:

As a college student, I can think of dozens of times that these tweets were relatable and they also give me (and the rest of her followers) a good laugh. So it's no question why she has gained such a following.

And while a lot of her followers adore her, she's recently received an incredible amount of hate--for no reason at all. If anything, it's from people who don't think she's funny, and is that really a reason to send her tweets that call her a "cock eyed hoe?" Seems a little overboard to me.

She has certainly tried to clap back at her haters with tweets like:

And:

But when you are getting flooded with messages that are both attacking the content of your Twitter page a well as your character, it begins to crack your self-esteem until it's shattered in pieces. On July 19th, she tweeted out:

For a few days, she made her Twitter page private and took the time she needed to regroup. A lot of people didn't understand; in fact, someone tweeted telling her that "Shit happens" and that calling out the haters was "bad branding." Or, that she had "finally cracked." This is just mind-boggling to me; sure, it's easy to sit back and tell someone that they're overreacting when it's not happening to you, but when you're getting bombarded with hurtful messages from people who don't even know you, it's definitely enough to need a break to rebuild a solid foundation for your self-esteem. And that's more than okay--we all need to rediscover ourselves and what makes us happy sometimes.

And in case I still haven't convinced you that hurtful tweets belittle your self-esteem, let's all take a look at everyone's favorite ginger angel, Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran is one of the most successful artists today; his latest album 'Divide,' sold 672,000 records in the first week of being released, in case you needed proof of his success. He has 20.1 million followers on Twitter (@edsheeran), meaning his life is pretty much ours to know. Unfortunately, Ed's Twitter bio now reads, "I don't use this anymore." Why, you ask? Because people behind a screen suddenly think they're high and mighty and can say anything they want to ruin other people's days. Ed stated, "I've actually come off Twitter completely. I can't read it. I go on and there's nothing but people saying mean things. One comment ruins your day. The headfuck for me has been trying to figure out why people dislike me so much."

And that, ladies and gentleman, is what gets to people like Allie and Ed. How can a stranger who doesn't even know them personally form an opinion of them and trash them on a public platform for all of their followers to see? It's hurtful, it's wrong, and it destroys confidence--even in wildly successful celebrities.

So the moral of the story is this: both Allie and Ed were right to take a mental health break from Twitter because unfortunately, people feel it is necessary to send hate towards people they don't even know. It's cowardly to sit behind a screen and type demeaning words aimed at another person who is just trying to bring some fun to the world. In fact, half of these people are using their hateful words to gain their 15 seconds of Twitter fame--even more cowardly. If that's how you want to be remembered as--an asshole, to be clear--then keep sending those disgusting messages. Otherwise, I would consider a new tactic.

And to Allie and Ed--keep on rocking. Putting yourself out there for thousands to millions of people to see takes guts; don't let the haters get you down for being more successful than they are.