Our digital age has led to the loss of many pillars of humanity: quality conversations, appreciation for the natural world and a proper appreciation for the art of the good old-fashioned heist. Amid a storm of AI-slop deepfakes and crypto scams, the recent robbery of Paris’s Louvre Museum has been championed as a renaissance of classic crime. As a result, many have taken to treating the heist as if it were the goofy subplot of a quirky children’s film, poking fun at the fact that one of the most famous museums in the world was robbed in broad daylight. While seemingly harmless, these jokes are indicative of a rising fictionalization of real-world events that goes much deeper than the Louvre.
Searching “Louvre Heist” on social media platforms like TikTok yields results consisting largely of jokes. I’ve seen one too many videos of people imagining the robbers following typical heist movie tropes, like laying out a map of the Louvre on a table and planning their escape route. Young Adult literature fans have had a field day likening the events of the robbery to the plot of “Six of Crows“, a book series in which a ragtag group of teenagers pull off a heist to prove themselves and get rich. The bottom line: Gen Z is talking about the robbery, but no one is taking it seriously.
Why are we so inclined to treat global events like fiction? The answer may lie in the amount of time we spend on the internet. Higher screen time is positively correlated with increased feelings of depersonalization. In other words, the more time people spend online, the more disconnected they feel from themselves and the world. We associate screens with entertainment. Social media in particular is largely composed of staged highlight reels and misinformation. For most people, staring at their cell phone is equivalent to a lighthearted escape from the outside world. When real tragedies are discovered through our screens, they don’t carry the same weight as if we were to experience them in person. It’s not a question of awareness — we know that crown jewels were indeed stolen from the Louvre. The reason why a robbery in a well-known French museum becomes something to joke about is because we’re so far removed from it. Social media networks like TikTok are inherently unserious channels of communication. Real-life events turn into memes and are quickly forgotten in favor of next week’s big thing.
I’ll admit, I’ve found humor in the idea of the robbers dropping the crown on their way out of the museum and escaping on electric scooters. These events sound like something out of a good-natured heist movie. But what happens when our inability to separate real-world events from fiction extends to more serious happenings?
Many Americans have related the government’s evident disregard for the Constitution to the YA staple “The Hunger Games“. They argue over whether we, the citizens of America, are the capitol citizens (content with their bread and circuses, sitting idly by as their president exploits the masses) or the districts (the exploited). Truth be told, it’s a pointless argument. Whether we’re closer to the districts or the capitol doesn’t matter, because there is no Katniss coming to save us. Romanticizing resistance against a corrupt government takes attention away from the atrocities that warrant resisting. Rebellion is so much more than a union of the masses; people lose their lives. Equating the current protests in our country to a fictional revolution reduces the inherent horrors of our situation and purports the idea that we should merely consume them from an audience perspective rather than involve ourselves.
In “The Hunger Games”, there’s an overall happy ending in which the corrupt government is overthrown. Fan-favorite characters die along the way, but in the grand scheme of things, the corrupt system is eliminated and the world heals. Real life, however, isn’t bound by the same predictable story structure. There is no automatic happy ending. Furthermore, we’re not forced to sit idly by and merely consume the events around us as if they’re a book or a film. We have the option to speak up, protest and use our voices if we choose to do so. Social media’s emphasis on mindless consumption prevents us from acting. Treating tragic real-life events at the same level as fictional media comes with a release of autonomy. It’s crucial to remember that we are not merely audience members sitting by as life plays out before us; we can make the conscious choice to become players.
A grand heist in the modern day is just one piece of the puzzle that is a mass inability to separate the real world from fiction. The most important thing to consider is that we have the ability to engage and make an impact. Life may imitate art, but unlike a pre-written story, we have the power to change it.