When Life Becomes Entertainment: Social Media Abuse and De-Humanization

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    Should someone's final moments be on YouTube? The ongoing social media boom that began in the 2010s has led to radical changes on how we interact with the Internet and its users. This is the first decade where online influencers, particularly social media content creators, can earn a living simply documenting their daily routines. That concept, known as a vlog, is an extremely popular monetization strategy on YouTube.  However, I believe that if abused/left unchecked, making life entertainment on social media has serious consequences. 

    By now, we've all seen the videos of onlookers choosing (keyword: "choose" is an active verb) to film individuals in obvious distress instead of directly intervening or requesting emergency services. For example, a few months ago, a woman was raped on a train in Pennsylvania; witnesses recorded the incident but did not help. From my understanding, the onlookers were reprimanded but weren't officially charged for failing to notify authorities. (More information here) I understand strong emotions like shock and fear cause us to act irrationally, but I simply do not understand how someone's first thought was, "record" instead of something else. Is the lack of legal action setting a precedent in these kinds of situations? 

    The entertaining "shock value" of these incidents appear to be more important than basic compassion. Such videos are often viral and land on websites like Worldstar.com, known for its edgy and risqué content. In fact, in some spaces, it is commonplace to exclaim "Worldstar" before a physical fight ensues in hopes any resulting video footage will #trend (yes, the hashtag was intentional - it is used to tag metadata, which in turn, is considered in algorithms influencing what trends). "Breaking the internet" is a related term used to describe an overwhelmingly popular post or link.

    It seems as if seeking fame or clout through triggering content is ingrained in society. I'm not bashing this practice entirely since widely-shared videos are what led to some accountability in the death of George Floyd (and hopefully, Ahmaud Arbery). I just think this tendency will slowly erode our sensitivity to human suffering if it remains unregulated. How should this problem be regulated? But essentially, where is the empathy these days? 

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