Cyberbullying: An abuse turned fun in Ghana – The case of Wendy Shay

Cyberbullying can be defined as a form of harassment through electronic means.

With technology improving on the daily and access to mobile internet gadgets rising up the graph, cyberbullying has been more frequent than ever.

In history, cyberbullying has almost always been associated with children. However, Ghana has recently seen a host of cyberbullying that is now the new norm tagged fun.

Despite a host of abuses on the internet involving Ghanaian celebrities, the case of Wendy Shay has been different.

When RuffTown records introduced Wendy Shay to the world, Ghanaians were in pain. Their favourite female musician had left earth in a sad way without notice.

Death had rocked hard and people were still bereaved. Ebony Reigns was an interesting act, and she was no more.

Not that the ‘Maame Hw3’ hitmaker had not had an unwanted share of abuse on the internet. The 2018 Artiste of the Year in Ghana music was slandered for showing too much skin when she dresses. Her bold performance was slammed. Her every move was questioned. Just that, she was dead now and typical Ghanaian always show love to the dead.

Wendy Shay came like ‘a thief in the night’ and never got through to many Ghanaians who felt she came to replace the unfillable hole left by the late Ebony Reigns, a school of thought that has ignited disdain for many in what she does.

The first song released by Shay after Bullet, her manager introduced her was ‘Uber Driver’. With the same controversial lyrics that pushes songs coming from the camp of RuffTown Records, ‘Uber Driver’ thrived.

Then, things started to change.

From the ‘dump question’ interview, her performances, alleged snub on stage during the VGMA to the ‘beef’ with Kelvyn Boy, Wendy Shay has almost always been treated unfairly in all.

In the last year, Wendy Shay has been one of the most cyber bullied personalities in Ghana. The latest which has seen her top trends in Ghana shows how the musician is unfairly dealt with.

On June 26, 2019, Wendy Shay posted a photo of her in a purple dress and white coat hanging on her shoulders. The photo that had no caption has seen lots of abuse under the reply section with a few defending the ‘New Artiste of the Year’ at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.

pic.twitter.com/hPyS6gpk9f

— Wendy Shay (@wendyshaygh) June 26, 2019

Twitter is the place for clout and many have been influenced by saying what seems cool. If you’ve looked at trends, many follow many (mostly wrongly) and quickly take a shift in opinions once the though that looks cool changes direction. Hypocrisy has been the summary for it.

Wendy Shay’s photo post had earlier comments talking about her looks in an unfortunate manner. As the number of comments on her post increased, the love for hate when it comes to the young lady increased and unpleasantly so.

Miss Shay has proven to be strong in all the times she has been bullied online. But to when should the sheer ignorance and ill-mannered attitude of people be tolerated?

People always feel it and react when it’s closer to them. However, cyberbullying should not be tolerated in any form or manner and branded as fun. Just as it’s not cool if it’s your sister, girlfriend or mother, it’s also not cool if it’s Wendy Shay.

Here are some facts to know about cyberbullying:

The most common types of online harassment, according to US students, are mean comments (22.5%), online rumours (20.1%), and sexual remarks (12.1%) – (Cyberbullying Research Center)

Internet trolls are most active on social media. 38% observe trolling behaviour on such platforms, while 23% have seen them frequently ‘operate’ on video-sharing websites – (Statista)

70% of students report frequent bullying online. Posting positive feeds on your friends’ timeline can boost morale.

People use a cell phone regularly, making it the most common medium for cyber bullying.

68% of teens agree that cyberbullying is a serious problem.