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Social Media Is Making Us Numb to Tragedy
Is the collective horror of the world’s tragedies diminishing the weight of each individual crisis?
In 1999, two teenagers killed 13 people and injured 24 others in what was the third most closely followed piece of news in the entire decade. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and it utterly captured the nation’s attention. Flash forward to 2018 where there were three attacks unsettlingly similar to Columbine:
January 23: two people were killed and 15 more were injured at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky.
February 14: 17 people were killed and 17 more were injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
May 18: 10 people were killed and 13 more were injured at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.
None of these three tragedies will be the most followed story of the decade. Within the confines of my personal media bubble, only the Parkland incident had real staying power — which is, in large part, due to the efforts of the students, some of whom became outspoken activists and made several media appearances.
With every new tragedy, the media cycle repeats itself, but each time it seemingly gets shorter. First, a video will appear — a bystander or victim will almost certainly reach for their phone and start filming after hearing gunshots, and sometimes the shooter even livestreams the event as with the shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Then, the sensational imagery of terror will spread like a wildfire through social media, amplifying the fear that the perpetrator hopes to sow.
Struck by fear, but no longer surprised by such an event, a torrent of people will go through the motions by posting messages of thoughts, prayers, solidarity, and other platitudes to no one in particular on social media. Condemnations of violence and vilifications of whatever group(s) the shooter belongs to will follow, although there will be notably fewer of them if the terrorist is white; a fact that will also be pointed out on social media but will quickly devolve into troll fests and flame wars much to our detriment.
A week will pass. We will forget…
