Media Frenzies, Missing Submarines, Drowned Migrants, Class Warfare, and Social Media: Do We Have a Problem?

KNEE JERK ALERT…in fact, BIG TIME. Save the politics, these topics have already generated enough vitriol and venom on social media to fuel an end to any energy crisis.?

The search for the OceanGate Titan, the submersible that seemingly disappeared as it descended to the wreckage of the Titanic, ended on Thursday. The five passengers aboard were declared dead following an apparent implosion that left pieces of the ill-fated ship scattered around the ocean floor near the very wreck it had planned to see.?

The story sadly was made for and fed the typical 24/7 always-on news cycle of our time. We saw story after story about the passengers…the talking heads of various marine salvage experts speculating, interviews with descendants of Titanic passengers, and the solemn lead-ins by various anchors pontificating in order to keep us all tuned in.?

A side-bar, of course, was the social media frenzy that frankly got ugly as reported by Jessica Gelt, a Los Angeles Times staff writer:

"Like a digital Tower of Babel, social media is evolving into an increasingly ugly and chaotic space — a real-time repository for our worst impulses, uninspired musings, scatological humor and ill-formed thoughts that should be kept to ourselves. It is an online Mall of America: vast, vacuous, relentlessly commercial, and soul-sucking. And in a time of immense crisis — political, ecological, social — it has become a garbage dump of vile commentary publicly aired because that’s just what we do now."

To truly understand the issue, I believe we must juxtapose this story with the tragedy of a leaky bucket of a fishing boat that sank in front of a Greek Coast Guard vessel last week. It had a death toll of possibly more than 700 migrant men, women, and children.?

That story, horrific as it was, barely registered on and in news channels in comparison to the OceanGate eliciting accusations of racism and disdain for the poor and oppressed.?

Yet, the story of the kids trapped in the flooded cave in Thailand gripped the world for days…we followed the rescue efforts in Turkey after the recent earthquake, and who can ever forget the photograph of the drowned 3-year-old, a Syrian Asylum seeker with his parents who was one of 300 who perished at sea in 2013 off the coast of Italy?

What gives??

What makes one story so compelling that we must know every detail and remain glued to its coverage, while another story of equal importance and scope, simply scrolls by in our newsfeeds?

I asked for no politics (please!)…KNEE JERK ALERT…it's way too easy to confine the answer to idiomatic dogma, and as I point out above, many stories have consumed us, in equal measure, that would suggest it's too easy an out.?

Plus, we have yet to address the social media issue as well, for which there should be no excuse…

It seems to me there are a number of factors at play here that we need to understand in order, not to diminish one story, but rather to upgrade another.?

1. The problem: Big numbers of deaths are horrific but hard to comprehend versus 14 boys trapped in a cave, a few survivors pulled from the rubble, a drowned baby, or yes, five people in an imploded sub.?

The solution: As social activists, our job is to connect people to the humanity of any tragedy. Find the emotional triggers…the people's stories rather than the sad mind-numbing numbers.

1. The problem: We need to fight “Compassion Fatigue”—that is, what happens when the same story occurs time after time? Frequency is a damper…make no mistake, it doesn’t lessen the appalling nature of the events but it does sap people’s desire to help.

The solution: Same fix as above.

Yet, social media, propelled by its own algorithms, didn’t take on the Greek Tragedy. Instead, it took down the search for the Titanic submersible with many weighing in on the social and economic disparities between the two stories in ways that were devoid of compassion or humanity for those they felt didn’t deserve it.?

I will leave it for you to find and read the posts…frankly, I have no desire to share them or give them more reach.?

While some did make the connection and bemoaned our obsession with the monied few while we ignore the suffering of millions…most of the posts that filled the various social media channels were heartless and crude:?

“It’s crazy to think we might only have another 30 hours or so of being able to make fun of the people on the submarine," someone said, referencing the ongoing countdown of how much oxygen the passengers may still have.

Or as one guest on a news channel said:

"Next time some rich white person wants to take Sam Alito on an expensive trip, please take him to see the Titanic," referencing the Supreme Court justice who was the subject of a?critical ProPublica report?this week.

Neither of these helps to generate emotion or concern for the drowned migrants or the slaughtered in Uganda, two stories that failed to capture global imaginations.?

Do we have a problem?

I think so.

As the famous line from back in the 1960s said, “I have met the enemy and it is us.”

1. We are losing empathy. The constant bombardment of information, real and fake, is numbing us all.?
2. Human drama that I can relate to—a person, a team—elicits more emotional connection than sheer numbers…no matter how horrific. There was a father and son from Pakistan on the OceanGate. It seems there were a number of Pakistani nationals who drowned in Greece…no doubt other father and sons. Yes, the class issue is at play here, but so is the family tragedy. There is a story.
3. We need to educate and set our own (not regulated this time) standards of social media behavior. The “narcissism” of getting likes for posts that troll is a sad by-product of our world today. #THINKBEFOREYOUSHARE and give no oxygen to them.
4. We needn’t conflate. Tragedy is tragedy. We can overcome “Compassion fatigue” by embracing all in the same way. Curating leads to hatred.

There is a lot to unpack here. And, none of the stories are finished. Money and privilege aside, the vessel that the five adventurers were on, in the end, was no more sea-worthy than the boat that sank. Let’s start there…a lot of people have to be held accountable…all over.

…But let’s not curate and thus lose our empathy…?

What do you think?