Social media is of great importance in today’s world to be up-to-date with the latest gossip and news and also for celebrities to keep their fans updated on their lives. When putting your life out there on public platforms for the world to see, you put yourself in an extremely vulnerable position where you are subject to all sorts of judgment and criticism, as well as trolling and bullying. Minal Khan recently appeared on a talk show and urged her followers to stop being judgmental and negative all the time.
Having about 6.7 million followers on Instagram put the ‘Hasad’ actress on social media trials numerous times as a swam of negative comments hover over her posts and stories. Minal was a guest on ‘Time Out With Ahsan Khan’ where she shed light on the importance of social media but also highlighted what she feels are its drawbacks. A few minutes into the interview, Ahsan asked Minal about the “craze” of social media, how seriously one should take it and what role it plays in life to which Minal expressed how it is important to know peoples’ point of view and what they expect of you as a public figure.
“ I think the importance of social media is important. Peoples’ point of view is important. We need to know what people expect of us.” She also added that those expectations shouldn’t form the basis of how we live our lives. “We have our own lives as well. I think some people need to learn how not to be judgmental all the time and to not add fire every time. It’s not important to highlight everything that you think is wrong. You can also choose to ignore it because you don’t know how that affects the other person.”
Speaking more about the subject, she added, “ There’s so much pressure in life where we are always asked about the pictures we post and the filters we use. Now there’s added pressure of how we should take our pictures and how our pictures are compared to other celebrities’.” Ahsan Khan then added that it is a lot of pressure to always try to stay “politically correct” as we always have to think. Minal’s co-guest, Saboor Aly, also added that she was subject to social media bashing over minor mistakes she had made.
The host then pointed out how some negative comments and trolling really affects some people and how usually “dil pe lagti hain” to which Minal expressed that she does not take such negativity to heart. “I don’t take everything to heart. Some, yes. And at times no matter how hard you try to forget those comments, people don’t let you move past them.”
Going back to when Minal’s sister Aiman was a guest on the same show and made comments on some celebrities’ weight, Minal clarified how it was all out of love and concern, especially when it came to Saboor Aly. She said Aiman would always ask her to eat well to stay healthy. She highlighted how different bloggers and influencers chose to highlight just that bit out of Aiman’s interview just for likes and followers.
Minal shared, “I think these bloggers and influencers, have this habit of picking out clips from certain shows and framing them in a way that they appear to be ‘bad’ just for the sake of likes and shares, and for me, this is the gist of social media. Only negativity finds its way online, drawing a curtain over anything positive.”
Minal concluded that people need to use their platforms in the best ways possible, to spread positivity and hope.
