How social media turned a Titans tragedy into entertainment

The Titanic submersible went missing while carrying five people to see the wreck of the Titanic. The Navy reported that the plane suffered a “catastrophic implosion” and five passengers were presumed dead. This is a tragedy. People are grieving. However, instead of showing compassion, social media and mass media have turned it into entertainment. Opinions and theories erupt from ignorant and misguided academics and pundits. The sexual content of social media posts puts a real burden on mass media, which is drawn into this war to maintain ratings. Compassion and empathy are thrown aside when people blame each other, share their own interpretations, and garner views and likes through potential conspiracy theories.why all attention?

Forgetting for a moment (as many seem to do) that real people were involved in this tragedy, this event has all the necessary elements of a good melodrama to inspire. imagination. There’s extreme tourism, billionaires, mystery, explosions, search and rescue missions, and the myth of the Titanic.I found it entertainment Tragedy on social media is disturbing. There are psychological reasons why people readily brush aside human misfortune and turn things like the events of the Titans into entertainment. But it comes at a cost to all of us.

Humans are storytellers

Our brains automatically organize events (related or not) into patterns to create a story that gives meaning to an experience. The human brain is also highly sensitive to danger, so disasters grab our attention. It is an instinctive response to confirm that we are not personally in danger. It’s a massive virtual rubberneck play.

it’s about the rich

The five people on the Titanic had enough money to pay $250,000 for a seat on a submersible to view the wreck of the Titanic. In a world where people are all struggling, such excesses seem somewhere between wasteful and immoral, reducing our empathy.However, many people envy Wealth is mixed with curiosity and envy.ratings based on shows like real housewives Has a voyeuristic fascination with the rich. People also like to see rich people being pulled from power. We feel better when rich and privileged people get into trouble or behave badly and get caught because it shows that beneath it all, they are normal and mortal, breaking through the veneer of privilege. It makes us feel less inferior.

there is a mystery

Hours before the explosion, the submersible lost communications. The lack of communication creates a narrative space to frame multiple different scenarios. Social media is full of sleuthing detectives, seers and “experts” who draw attention to themselves by proposing outlandish theories with enormous authority. Attention is a form of power. Gaining views makes people feel special, important, and can even generate income if you get a big enough following.without reasonable or plausible motive Empathetic. Social media has created a reward-based system that encourages shameless and extreme behavior. Video posts (such as those on TikTok) can improve the credibility of information by varying the depth of processing (Sundar et al., 2021). Sadly, research shows that believing a story is false does not stop people from spreading it (Ceylan et al., 2023). Sharing serves many psychological functions, such as political affiliation, social status, etc., by conveying other meanings. identityor even emotions, such as Lonely or sympathy.

Uncertainty adds to the allure

Uncertainty is uncomfortable and affects our judgment (Tversky and Kahneman, 1982). Conspiracy theories offer a simplistic, reductionist explanation of the phenomenon that makes no sense and often leads viewers to blame someone.Fewer conspiracy theories subscribe anxiety. Being part of a group that believes or is looking for a “clue” increases that feeling by creating a sense of belonging fueled by moral certainty. Social media detectives tried to solve the Gabby Petitto murders and the Idaho murders, but in some cases, wasting law enforcement resources, falsely accusing innocent people and making them targets of social media vitriol has resulted in irreparable damage. When people’s natural urge to avoid uncertainty through information seeking combines with a social media follower’s desire to seek social approval, conspiracy theories create a perfect storm.

Myth gives it additional meaning

The Titanic is the quintessential symbol of disaster at sea. It has become a powerful myth and spawned its own set of conspiracy theories, thanks in no small part to the fact that it is the subject of one of the most successful films of all time. “Titanic” director James Cameron drew an analogy between the sinking of the Titanic and the sinking of the Titanic, further capturing the public’s imagination.Not only does this enhance the entertainment value of the missing submarine, but Cameron’s take on the safety of the Titans is also powerful and therefore easier to believe because halo effect His great success as a Hollywood director was not due to any immediate expertise in specific equipment or marine engineering.

rescue is romantic

Search and rescue activates romantic metaphors.unfilled Dream The love embedded in the Titanic narrative helped elevate Titanic search and rescue efforts. Being rescued means surviving, and that’s something we all have a vested interest in. Successful rescues give us peace of mind because they increase our agency and hope. This is a typical movie plot where the hero defeats an evil villain or a powerful force of nature in time to rescue the victim. People naturally gravitate toward archetypal meanings (Bradshaw and Storm, 2013). The suspense in the unfulfilled wish to be saved is preserved by recounting details, generating conspiracy theories, and creating narrative rabbit holes related to different aspects of the story. TikTok is filled with Titan-related posts, like what’s going on in the submersible, what’s going on in the wreck of the Titanic, or what’s going on in the underwater search.

lack of responsibility and empathy

Social media (with the help of our credulity) removes responsibility. The posts you see are milking the fruits of the Titan tragedy and reflect an agenda of individuals seeking attention, social approval, and self-motivation—even if they claim to be “helping.” They don’t care about the accuracy of the accident, the people presumed to have died in the accident, or the families who stayed behind to mourn them.

While social media provides a useful platform for information sharing, events like the Titan incident highlight the ugly side of content creation without regard for accuracy and certainly not for grieving families. While it’s easy to see how the Titansub incident fueled and fueled speculation, it also exposed a lack of empathy and critical thinking, not to mention excessive arrogance.I think politicians and social media companies will get smarter than policing when People can use social media, start looking how How people use it and enforce some kind of accountability standard. Normalizing a lack of empathy hurts us all.

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