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I don't know what to think of this revelation...

MakazeKibaMakazeKiba
Reactions: 1,800
Posts: 224
Member
edited November 2016 in Rants and Raves
So, I was pondering the past events of the last year. Namely:

-Aleppo
-The rising levels of harassment
-North Dakota Pipe Line

I see these all over my Facebook feed, high-lighting the absolute horrors that we are all capable of. Simultaneously, I was looking over my old Social Psychology notes from earlier this semester. I happen to see the scrawls I had for "Diffusion of Responsibility".

The Diffusion of Responsibility is when an event of distress, such as a man having a seizure, is acted upon or ignored, depending on the number of other people around.

At first I thought nothing of it. Then, some time later, I read some of these articles and note the comments in each one, as well as emotions. There were many "Prayers and Thoughts" kinds of posts, as well as the usual outrage posts. However, I don't see these as particularly... effective. It is just a post on a Facebook page article. What weight does it have, truly? I began to see so many of these through that lens of thought, making me grow skeptical of "spreading the word" on social media.

Now, I don't doubt the power of social media, but I am beginning to doubt that the impact of bringing such news to the fore via social media is growing more and more ineffective. If I became so disillusioned and so desensitized to them that fast, what does that tell me about the people who post on those articles?

Then, it hit me- what if the articles are only helping to make such events fade into the background? What if no one is bothering to help the causes because it looks like they are getting help already?

Comments

  • AggraphineAggraphine
    Reactions: 19,415
    Posts: 3,553
    Member
    edited November 2016
    Diffusion of Responsibility occurs when there is a substantially-sized group of people; the majority of them are more likely to think "well someone else will help, so I don't have to". That's why, if you actually need help, you call out to someone directly by an identifying feature to separate them from the crowd(ie, "you, in the red shirt and khakis").

    You could be onto something however. No one really does much because they see it on social media and they think "well this has a bunch of shares/retweets, so I'm sure someone else will help".