Violence and Social Media

INTRO: My paper discusses the idea that violence is spread throughout social media and how impacts people. One of the topics I explored were videos being spread on social media causing awareness to violence in general. It opens our eyes to the hard truths of the world and will maybe make an impact on us to make a difference.

Social media can help and harm people in many ways. It could help by being the last resort piece of evidence for a trial and harm by putting someone behind bars or ruining their reputation. Violence is something that is broadcasted almost every night on the news and throughout social media. Has violence always been a part of our lives, or has it come to light with all the new technology we have? Social Media has been influencing us since it became worldwide. We have access to anything and everything through YouTube, Instagram and especially Twitter; showing us videos of good things and bad things. Which includes graphic videos of shootings and violence. These videos spread around large platforms are truly awful and horrendous, but it brings out the cold truth to our sensitive eyes. People who are and aren’t innocent are harmed almost every day. One hundred are shot and killed every day, and one hundred others have survived but are or were severely injured. Kianga Mwamba was an innocent bystander who saw another man getting assaulted. She then took out her camera and started filming it, but unfortunately, the police went after her as well, causing her to be in jail. In Witness Media Lab, an article wrote, “The story of Kianga Mwamba, however, forces us to ask, how does the truth come out? With all the videos that have flooded our news feeds and turned names of victims into hashtags of a social movement, how many videos have we not seen?”. This story justifies that social media can bring light to the ugly truths of this world; violence. Not only has violence been exposed to the world by the Internet, but it has also changed our perception of certain issues. People are killed every day for their race, or religion or even when they reached in their pocket for gum. When violence had light shed upon it, it also uncovered bigger problems such as racism, oppression, and even hatred for practicing religions. Social media uncovers the truths of the world and what really goes on behind closed cameras. Phillip White was an unarmed man who had been approached by policemen. An article reiterates the story stating, “Phillip White was unarmed when he was approached by Vineland, New Jersey, police officers. The encounter, caught on video by two anonymous bystanders, included officers attacking him with a canine while White appeared to be unconscious. After arresting him, officers took White to a hospital, where he was declared dead“ Violence is exposed throughout security cameras as well as racism for he was killed for no apparent reason except the color of his skin. Because of this, we now can recognize the issue of racism and white privilege throughout countless deaths similar to White’s. WIthout social media and the awareness of these issues, it would take us longer to recognize and try to make better of this issue. Video recordings are solid evidence to bring justice upon others who are not wronged and social media spreads that awareness through multiple platforms that we see every day. In an article written by Murat Mengu they write, “It is undoubtedly the human beings that have created social media and ensured its continuity. It is also the human beings who establish the social and ethical laws of the communication in social media.” This elaborates on the bigger idea of how others use social media for good or bad. We could spread awareness by reposting videos and pictures to show others the real world and start to bring justice to everyone who has been a victim of violence in general. Our usage depends on the message we want to spread. Mwamba had almost been saved from incarceration because she filmed that man getting beaten. White’s story had been spread onto the news and into our phones; close to a worldwide story for everyone to see. Social media helps spread awareness to violence, but it depends on how people perceive it; do we spread awareness or just watch it once and never see it again? We as a whole could make a difference by stripping the world and showing the messed up side of it to everyone. This will help people better understand that these events are real and people truly have evil motives to kill people. Throughout the Internet, the more violence is uncovered and spread, the more issues are uncovered as well which includes oppression. As humans, it is up to us how to take on certain situations. By these types of videos being shared around, we should help make a difference in the world by making others be aware of what happens in real life.