Is social media is to blame for so many riots and violence around the world?

 

Is social media is to blame for so many riots and violence around the world?

As a journalistic observer, I say social media has caused more violence than it has stopped over the last 7 years. There was once a time in history when there was an accident on the highway, traffic would bottleneck so that everyone passing by could see the gory details of the accident to discuss at home that night or at work the next day. Today we don't just have bottlenecking we have amateur journalists with their phone's hanging out the window recording it for their TikTok or Facebook feed to garner thousands of clicks and maybe even money for posting it. Same goes for street violence. There was once upon a time when someone was being beaten or attacked on the street that someone would come to their aid and help them, but not anymore, instead of helping people are pulling out their cell phones and recording or taking pictures of the situation for the same social media outlets. What is wrong with people nowadays? 

Then we have situations like what is happening in Paris, France right now with the riots, looting and destruction of historical buildings and property because someone was so irresponsible to film and take photos of a teenager being shot in a nearby section of Paris. They not only and post it up online whereby citizens took offense that he was shot and killed, and people were outraged. Not only were they outraged, but they began to call upon their friends and associates within their community, an ethnic community of refugee's who saw what happened with the George Floyd riots and emulated that outrage and destruction and took it upon themselves to copycat those same reactions and begin to torch the city of Paris. They have no knowledge as to what happened and the reason why the young boy was shot and by who? All they have is the video from some idiot and their voice over stating that it was the cops that did this to an innocent. Was he really innocent or was he committing a crime? We will never know because no one wants to hear the truth anymore, after all there is video that says clearly it was not a crime but an innocent who was killed. REALLY?  So when the Gen-Darmes (French Police) do their job and the video accuses, puts them on trial and judges them, then condemns them all within the time frame of the video, without any other evidence but the film. This is not only irresponsible, but also very dangerous. 

People need to learn to   leave the criminal system to the courts that's why we have laws and a justice system to weigh the evidence and hear the witnesses to conclude with a final verdict and not become the judge, jury and executioner as citizens without the benefit of the law behind them instead of a video taken by a teenager or some Karen with a camera phone. We as a society must start to demand that people begin to get back to basic civilized decorum and moral thinking and stop being the bottlenecked photographer passing some car accident on the road taking pictures and not stopping to help our felling citizen. 

Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, and journalist. business professional, creative artist, and life coach consultant. Ms. Kilbride holds a Master's in Criminology and a BS in Business Management she stepped out of the loop for a while but is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. As a life coach, she is available to counsel individuals to enjoy their dreams and a better life. Ms. Kilbride loves to travel, and photograph her surroundings and is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.