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28th February 2024
04:39pm GMT
It is being reported that Love Island's Georgia Steel is taking some time away from social media amid cruel trolling following her exit from the All-Stars villa.
During her time in South Africa appearing on the reality dating show, the 25-year-old made some bold decisions in her search to find love.
Throughout her time on the spin-off series, she had romantic links to Callum Jones, Tom Clare, and Toby Aromolaran.
Online, many disagreed with her conduct and behaviour towards Callum and Molly Smith - who were previously in a three year relationship - and Georgia's name trended on X (formerly Twitter) on multiple occasions over the five weeks.
They pleaded with viewers to remember that the show was not 'real life' after receiving 'vile threats', and 'nasty messages and comments'.
She [Georgia] was really quite shocked when she heard about the trolling she received while she was in the villa
Source via MailOnline
Georgia is the only Islander who has yet to post online since Love Island: All Stars concluded on February 19th.
A source has told MailOnline that this is because of the online hate she is being subjected to.
"Georgia felt like she needed to take a bit of an extended social detox, she was really quite shocked when she heard about the trolling she received while she was in the villa and wants to keep offline for a bit," they told the outlet.
"It was a really horrible experience for her friends and family having to see such nasty comments and hate on her feed."
The insider added that despite the trolling, the reality star is 'really happy' and is in a good place with Toby, whom she came in fourth place on the show with.
"She also knows she has had a lot of support online and is grateful."
This month marked the fourth anniversary of Caroline Flack's death.
Caroline was a symbol of Love Island and she sadly died by suicide on February 15th, 2020, following relentless media scrutiny and online hate.
Weeks before her tragic passing, the presenter posted an image with the words:
"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."
This is a message that the world reflected deeply upon in the wake of her death, yet putting it into practice often seems to be selective as social media still continues to be a place filled with trolls and hateful messaging.
More often than not, like in Caroline's case then and Georgia's case now, the nasty energy is directed toward a high profile person for decisions they made that don't have (at least they shouldn't have) any impact or bearing on the lives of the viewers.
Opinions are shared carelessly and harshly over mostly trivial matters, and an opinion can invite more of the same, especially when they're negative.
With social media, opinions are contagious; they spread, go viral, and eventually the narrative can spiral out of control, as did they for Caroline Flack.
At the end of the day, Georgia doesn't deserve the hate she is being subjected to.
Whether you agree with her antics or not, what's done is done and nobody was permanently hurt by anything she did.
It's a reality TV show where the aim of the game is to find love, even if it means 'stepping on toes'. She did just that... and the thing is, it worked.
As we saw watching Love Island: All Stars, none of the other Islanders treated her with such venom, so why are strangers?
By participating in the entertainment show, she has been punished, ridiculed, targeted, and trolled to an extremely worrying degree, which says more about the general public than it does about her.
Reporting nasty comments or hateful accounts, countering those comments with positive messages, and commenting #BeKind as a reminder to those who seem to have forgotten can be effective ways in reducing the spread of online hate.
Think before you type.
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