The Internet is connecting people now in ways that we couldn't connect before. It allows you to see everything that everyone is up to. And it allows people to spread their opinions wider than ever before. The more time I spend on Facebook, the more negative things I see. The reason you should stop hating online is simple, yet overlooked. And it has nothing to do with the golden rule and being nice to everyone.

Lately, I've seen way too many rants about how much people hate someone or something. Even more excruciating is the multitude of paragraphs explaining why their opinion is valid. What most people don't realize is that your post is increasing the popularity of that person or thing. The "trending" section of Facebook just reinforces this. Political candidates and certain celebrities are constantly posted about--which adds them to the trending list. (I don't want to mention specifics and further their status.) If we just ignore them, eventually they won't be newsworthy anymore, their popularity will die off. Imagine never seeing a news article or rant about something/someone that you hate. Never again will you have to scroll through the depths of your feed to find something happy or original.

If you don't have something nice to say, don't give them the pleasure of knowing you used up precious time thinking about them. This means you should also not acknowledge any hate that your friends post, whether or not you agree with it. This will only further their post and add to the craze. Don't comment on their post, don't like their post. Just scroll right past. Plus, if everyone stopped posting about the things they disliked and posted only positive things, imagine what could be trending! We could have nice stories about people doing good things and cute animals and funny jokes.

Plain and simple, the best way to stop hate on the Internet is to ignore it. You shouldn't post or acknowledge "haters" on the Internet. By posting a hateful status, you're acknowledging the subject of the post. This means all 300 or 500 or however many friends you have, they're going to see it. Don't even give the satisfaction of your attention and the time it takes to type up a long rant. Just skip all of that. Don't post any hate and don't acknowledge any of your friends' posts either. Share this with them and enlighten them. Together we can make dumb trends and people disappear from our lives.