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| photo by camilo jimenez from insplash |
After the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, leaving many dead and hundreds of thousands injured, and many left without homes in the open, social networking sites were preoccupied with the incident while some influencers decided that they will devote their accounts to coverage and aid as much as possible under one unified hashtag.
But oddly enough whenever a huge event occurs, many within the platforms criticize anyone who did not speak or participate in the event, starting an open debate about whether this behavior is bad or not, with this being said many questions arise, like should everyone join the trend? Does participation in social networking sites determine the person’s interest in the incident? Does the frequent trend determine people’s interest in humanitarian issues?
When any event occurs, you cannot stop yourself from entering social media, as each person becomes an independent journalist on his own, who often expresses his political, social, and geographical analysis views as well, And this effect quickly moves from the virtual world to reality, becoming the number one trending topic on people’s daily conversations, and in case you do not have accounts on social media, you will definitely hear and see whatever is being said and published by those around you
and with this huge influx of information that accompanies the event contributes to the person’s impact on the event, whether you like it or not.
but the tremendous speed of news often leads after a while to oblivion, no matter how great the event was, if it was an explosion that destroyed half a city or a man who slaughtered a woman at the entrance to the university, all of that fades a few days after the end of the event, or at least it ends in the virtual world as if nothing had happened.
It is normal of course for any person to be affected, react and interact, at the same time, but today the world has transformed natural interaction into a fake one denoting a vacuum and a desire to appear, leaving us with a question…
Have the humanitarian issues become linked to the event only?
With the emergence of the feature of quick stories on social media, people started to share everything from the time they wake up to when they go to sleep every detail that they do, and every idea that comes to their mind, it helped in a way promoting individuality and selfishness, leaving the concern for the human condition aside
for some it becomes more like a work that generates thousands for those who publish and, promote, in fact, some people flocked to portray the incident without any regard for the event in an ugly way that denotes inhumanity
Where some feel they have to participate, and often find it difficult to dissuade themselves from being affected by any trend. So what is the reason?
In 2004, the term “FoMO” appeared for the first time, which is an acronym for “fear of missing out”.
The term was initially used in the field of marketing, but it knew the peak of its popularity with the spread of social media. Even if the “symbolic death” is our disappearance from the public space.
Just as we worry about missing out on an opportunity, or participating in a party with friends, we worry about missing out on everything new, even if by just commenting on it, as gaining recognition from others is a pivotal reason for our presence on these sites and expressing ourselves through them
and because people share daily they are expected to share everything that is happening, especially when an event occurs, the individual becomes under great societal pressure that compels him to publish, and he may not find a real interest emanating from within, and here the individual makes the first mistake, which is not being honest with himself and his co-ordination with the societal momentum, as the actions of society create some individuals bear many faces, claiming an interest in an issue that will cease to be talked about after some time after the event
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| photo by Souvik Banerjee from unsplash |
The era has created a kind of certain standards that tell us that this is what society values and you are accepted according to these principles, It is like a game if you follow its steps, you win, and if you do not, you lose, So mostly people become either to make money or to get people’s approval leaving anything else as a side thing
Where these reasons created a false image of what is published about humanitarian issues, and a categorical ruling that whoever does not publish does not care about anything, this continuous advertisement on communication sites have made people take such a judgment, and the reality may be completely different from that.
The topic takes another dimension if influencers did not participate in publishing about the event, as people criticized one of the influencers for not publishing anything after the recent events in Palestine, accusing her of double standards because of her continuous coverage in advance of the situation, and no consideration was given to the person’s circumstances, rushing to challenge and hurtful words.
Despite the importance of the participation of any influencer in an event because it reached a wide audience, not everyone has the same ability to express and disclose the same circumstances, especially when talking about societal grievances.
As it is not required of everyone to express his opinion on all topics all the time unless he is knowledgeable and acquainted with it, we have to recognize the person is not a media platform and he is not required every day to publish and talk about the situations.
Anything can happen on social media
speaking about the fake sharing, In a scandal that spread recently about voluntary tourism carried out by some individuals paid by major foreign institutions in Africa, where teenagers come from Western countries and reside for several weeks in a certain African city and volunteer in work such as teaching English or building houses, then they take pictures with children and publish them on websites Communication and go home
It is an industry that generates billions, as it costs between 3–10 thousand dollars, but the funny thing is that most of those who pay do not reach the poor in the first place, as teenagers are offered to pay and volunteer for them in exchange for helping the poor, even the construction work that they photograph to show off, as workers come during the night in the area and rebuild and demolish again
it becomes in the interest of the workers of the shelters contracted with volunteer tourism to keep the manifestations of poverty, so that every time with the arrival of a new group of volunteers, the first thing they see is the children, their appearance has worn out, suffering from hunger.
And social networking sites become an opportunity to use children as material for publishing, increasing followers, and helping to appear as a benevolent person
As the idea of the trend did not differ much before the entry of social networking sites, the news used to take place as well in people’s conversations, but in different ways and it ends after a period of its occurrence and was limited to smaller groups, but today it is taking place on a larger scale, and this phenomenon has proven its existence strongly with the entry into the world of social communication in our daily life excessively, which made it take a central place in our private and public conversations alike.
Despite the negative aspects of social networking sites, they contributed to the communication of issues to a wide audience of people and moved public opinion, and changed reality bringing people out of their human isolation to know what is happening in other parts of the world
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