BOSTON — The deadly shooting at Utah Valley University that claimed the life of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was caught on video from nearly every angle and posted to social media almost instantly. The discussion that has followed online and in comment sections has presented some hard truths about how our society responds to tragedies.
David Gerzof Richard, a communications professor at Emerson College and CEO of Big Fish PR, said news spreads faster today than it ever has before.
“That video had gone viral hours before any news reported anything in terms of the state of events, and that changes things dramatically,” Richard said.
With political divisiveness at an all-time high, these instantaneous videos were flooded with comments that go from one extreme to the next.
“The toughest part of all of this is that once you get to a point where individuals are on a social media platform and are only seeing messaging and communication that is within their realm, it starts to overwrite everything they learned even going back to kindergarten,” Richard said.
Richard explained that the screen acts as a buffer that isn’t present during in-person interactions.
“It dehumanizes the other side, and it makes it very easy for people to act out in ways that they normally wouldn’t face-to-face,” Richard said.
Students on Emerson’s campus said they were not at all surprised by the extent of what they saw, and the attacks taking place in comment sections.
“I think it’s a double-edged sword,” Yutong Yang said.
“People think they can get away with being disrespectful online and because their face isn’t being seen or this and that, it’s just disgusting,” Andre Lazarus said.
“In a certain way I do like that social media lets people just kind of speak their mind but the fact that social media is such an anonymous platform, it always increases negativity, it makes opinions way more extreme.” Dylan Humphry said.
It’s an aspect Richard believes needs to be address both on the side of the user and the platform.
“At the end of the day, we as humans need to understand when we’re dealing with the forces the forces that are outside of us,” Richard said. “These are all things that if you go back to kindergarten, you realize that we’re all human, we all wake up in the morning, we all go to sleep at night, we all need to eat 3 meals, and we should be sharing those meals with others.”
All three college students said they hope social media platforms introduce stronger restrictions and regulations in the future.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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