On October 14th, 2019 a 25-year old Korean pop star Choi Jin-ri, better known as “Sulli” took her own life. Police statements conclude that the singer was suffering from severe depression, but was still unsure of the direct cause of death. Since the news broke thousands of fans rushed to social media to share condolences, shock, and grief about the sudden passing. Many suspect that her passion for women’s rights and liberation caused her to bear the brunt of extreme online bullying.
Being a very popular star, Sulli was often the target of mean-spirited and nasty comments, mostly from anonymous users. Though things may have looked glamorous on the outside, the human side of her was struggling. According to a recent government study, South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates and the top causes of death for people under 40.
Social media is currently at its peak with nearly 2 billion people using Facebook daily, and Instagram right behind with around 1 billion users. The popularity and accessibility of social media have created an incredibly toxic environment online. A person can easily hide behind a username and profile picture and leave damaging comments on another user’s profile without even a second thought. In Sulli’s case, she had to deal with this 10x as much as the average person and daily, no matter what she posted.
Instagram and Facebook have recently taken slight measures to filter out hate speech in comments, racial slurs, and bullying – but obviously not enough. Trolls are still alive and well and everybody has a platform now which was not the case 10 years ago. With this in mind, I believe it’s up to each individual to start taking the things they post more seriously. People feel so comfortable doing these things because they can get away with it, seemingly without any consequences.
You never know what someone is dealing with offline and how one mean comment may push them over the edge. Before you say or post something online I urge you to ask yourself these three questions: “Does this need to be said?”, “Does this need to be said by me?”, and “Does this need to be said right now?”. When you take the time to think through the answers to all these questions you may find yourself deleting a lot of unnecessary negative energy.
Since Sulli’s passing the South China Morning Post released a report saying that Korea is considering putting “Sulli’s Law” into place. While the logistics aren’t ironed out yet they say “the bill already carries high expectations to serve as a panacea to the many ills attributed to the prevalence of cyberbullying and its malevolent effects on those bullied.” While this is only a small step in the right direction it’s awesome that the country is even considering placing some sort of regulations on cyberbullying.
Sulli is not the first person to succumb to bullying or mental health struggles, and unfortunately, she may not be the last. We hope that her family, friends, fans, and supporters are comforted in this time with positive memories of her. Remembering that nothing is worth sacrificing your mental health is incredibly instrumental to your everyday sanity. Let’s all take steps to treat each other better online and offline.