What was wrong with posts about the Paris attacks on social media
It was an instant competition for the spotlight
Social media is an inevitable part of our culture. We use it to share thought-provoking articles, personal updates and more recently, news.
The recent attacks in Paris prompted an outpouring of support from social media users, generating the hashtag #prayforparis and the option of a French flag filter on Facebook profile pictures.
The tragedy resulted in the death of over 100 people, many injured and left the world in a state of shock and mourning.
Many weighed in criticizing the availability of only the French flag on Facebook and possible discrimination against less “Westernized” societies.
Attacks in Lebanon and Iraq also began to receive significant social media attention, incidentally, for not receiving enough coverage by the media.
Here’s my take on what’s wrong with that.
Why point fingers at the media?
There are tons of issues in all parts of the world happening every day. The point is, something awful happened, people are mourning and what the media covers and doesn’t cover shouldn’t be the main concern.
The main concern should be the well-being of those impacted, regardless of the location or amount of coverage.
Pointing fingers at social media for lack of equal coverage of all the bombings is not appropriate when people are still heavily grieving. Perhaps it’s an issue for another day, but definitely not right after all this just occurred.
Tweeted just hours after the attacks
Really?
This went viral on Facebook
Competition for spotlight
Bad things happen everywhere.
The Paris attacks should not be pitted against other gruesome events which received less media coverage in a twisted competition for the spotlight.
Somehow word about an attack on a university in Kenya started circulating along with news about the attacks in Iraq and Lebanon. The Kenyan attacks happened in APRIL (it’s clearly stated on the article, did anyone even read it before jumping to share it??).
A pitfall of social media becoming a news outlet is that quick sharing often precedes actual knowledge, and the resurfacing of the Kenya attacks is a prime example.
Sharing these articles has become less about spreading news and more about enhancing social media image.
Of course, this raises the question of the efficacy of simply changing profile pictures and sharing articles, but that calls for a separate debate.
The image of worldliness on social media
Tons of people have been posting about the Paris attacks and have been called out for not addressing the other issues in world that received less media attention.
Real people were hurt, killed, and traumatized and that’s not something that should be exploited into a way to boost image. Let people mourn what and how they want to mourn, it’s an extremely personal emotion and nobody has the right to tell anyone else what they should pay attention to or how to feel.
Bottom line, don’t make this into a competition about who cares more about what’s happening in the world. Don’t criticize people for changing their Facebook profile picture to support one country and not others. Showing support and solidarity for a specific event does not equate to ignorance of other issues.
And please, end the grief shaming.