With the rise of social media and its trends, we are all being forced to contemplate the impacts it has had on people’s ability to operate in public. It’s been known since the creation of social media that the more outrageous your content, the more likely you are to go viral. Over the 15 years that it’s been around, we have seen countless people use this method to attempt to get attention online, with the most recent and personal example being on our own campus at Storrs. Two University of Connecticut students were arrested two weeks ago after entering a dining hall and filming themselves threatening other students, using their phone as a prop gun. This is based off a supposed current trend on TikTok.
The reaction to this event seems to be relatively mixed, with many stating the response is over-the-top and dramatic. Some have said it’s ridiculous to ruin the lives of two students over a stupid prank, whereas others believe that there should be serious consequences to serious threats, even if they’re “pranks.” This event not only begs the question of how to respond to such actions, but also how and why they’re even happening in the first place.
Without social media, the two students likely wouldn’t have gotten the idea for the prank, nor had any incentive to do it. So why are people unable to maintain their rationality when it comes to social media usage? Not only has our generation been instilled with the knowledge of a digital footprint, but we’ve also hopefully been taught that threatening others and pretending to have a weapon, especially at school, is a horrible idea. There must be something else at play.
Our perception about what is acceptable behavior in public has clearly been altered greatly by the rise of social media such as TikTok, where participation in trends can result in a previously unknown person becoming an overnight sensation. This means that we are encouraging people to behave this way by interacting with their videos and giving them attention for their actions. If they are able to get away with it with no consequences, as some people are saying would be best in this situation, one can assume others will be encouraged to act out similarly.
Along with the dangers of encouraging destructive behaviors, there is a concern of privacy. Since the rise of TikTok during and after the pandemic, I have personally been filmed and posted online without my consent. To me, this action makes no sense, and I, like everyone else, should be allowed to go out in public without being concerned that I’ll be filmed and put online for people to comment on. However, I can understand why someone who uses TikTok or other social media like it may think it’s normal, seeing as they come across countless videos that do the same.
Social media is normalizing breaches of privacy and acting out, meaning people are more likely to believe it’s not a big deal and recreate them. Especially for students on campus, you have to be out in public, you generally have to eat in public at the dining hall and you should be free to do so without being threatened for a video or put online without your consent. Incidences like this should remind students that the people around you are human beings who deserve privacy and to be treated with respect.
It seems that many people forget that others on campus are real humans with feelings and livelihoods. Recently, there seemed to be a rise in referring to certain people as “NPCs,” meaning non-playing characters, or essentially, robots. This concept is clearly harmful, but is completely normalized, and seems to be continuing based on this incident. This concept is dehumanizing to those around you, to the point that you can do what you want and treat others without respect. This may seem harmless and like a joke, but it can easily become harmful when people’s outlooks on life and others convince them that they are the only person with sentience and others are not impacted by their actions.
We saw this on Nov. 7, when two students treated those around them as though they were just background characters in their stories. When people value attention more than the wellbeing of their fellow humans, one can be rightly scared and concerned at the possible repercussions of this outlook.
You are free to enjoy and make content, but we should evaluate our actions and their impacts. Filming others without asking permission to do so should not be normalized, and furthermore, threatening people around you for a trend should certainly not be normalized. Social media is only becoming more pervasive in our society, and it continues to be important to stay on top of our understanding on how to navigate it.