This week in social media, a line was crossed. A photo of a boy who was a refugee from Syria, was found dead on the shores of Turkey this past week, according to an article by guardian.com. The boy and his mother and siblings had drowned and washed on shore and a photo was taken when the bodies were found. The most famous picture was this photo (shown right), that shows the boy being taken off the shores where his body was found. The boy was wearing a red children's t-shirt and some denim shorts. That description right there is enough for me. To know that a child, who was only trying to survive and stay with his family, had to pay the ultimate price because he was not allowed to be free, unlike us who are free everyday. To make things even worse, the photo was shown and went viral on social media, especially Twitter. In my opinion, there is a line in the "social media world", that shouldn't be crossed and when that picture went viral, it was crossed. I can understand the argument that social media can be used as a news outlet to relay the news to the general public, but when the picture that has gone viral is a picture of a dead boy being carried away, that is more than news being shared. Unfortunately in our world today, those kinds of things are being accepted and the photo that is being shown here is actually not the worst of the photos. The worst is a close up shot of the boy laying on the sand as his body just lays there. There is one potentially good thing that I can think of coming out of this; The leaders of the world and the leaders of the middle east and in countries like Syria, Hungary and Turkey will see the disasters like this that happen and will see that the people that use social media won't stand for it and will voice their opinions until a change is made. I hate when all we hear in the news today is just stories about evil, tragedy or strife, but I couldn't believe that social media actually made this photo go viral.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Social Media: When is enough, enough?
This week in social media, a line was crossed. A photo of a boy who was a refugee from Syria, was found dead on the shores of Turkey this past week, according to an article by guardian.com. The boy and his mother and siblings had drowned and washed on shore and a photo was taken when the bodies were found. The most famous picture was this photo (shown right), that shows the boy being taken off the shores where his body was found. The boy was wearing a red children's t-shirt and some denim shorts. That description right there is enough for me. To know that a child, who was only trying to survive and stay with his family, had to pay the ultimate price because he was not allowed to be free, unlike us who are free everyday. To make things even worse, the photo was shown and went viral on social media, especially Twitter. In my opinion, there is a line in the "social media world", that shouldn't be crossed and when that picture went viral, it was crossed. I can understand the argument that social media can be used as a news outlet to relay the news to the general public, but when the picture that has gone viral is a picture of a dead boy being carried away, that is more than news being shared. Unfortunately in our world today, those kinds of things are being accepted and the photo that is being shown here is actually not the worst of the photos. The worst is a close up shot of the boy laying on the sand as his body just lays there. There is one potentially good thing that I can think of coming out of this; The leaders of the world and the leaders of the middle east and in countries like Syria, Hungary and Turkey will see the disasters like this that happen and will see that the people that use social media won't stand for it and will voice their opinions until a change is made. I hate when all we hear in the news today is just stories about evil, tragedy or strife, but I couldn't believe that social media actually made this photo go viral.
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Casey- When this story went viral I saw it on Twitter for the first time. It is crazy how quickly news travels through social media. It is an important component in today’s society. I agree with you that some stories cross moral lines but unfortunately stories like this will always be reported on. Stories like this draw an abundance of attention because of the conflict and impact it could cause on people’s lives (not to mention it pulls at the heartstrings). Living in America I forget how lucky I am to be free and when I see stories like this it reminds me of everything I have. Hopefully shocking news stories like this will ignite leaders to make a difference and prevent tragedies like this one.
ReplyDeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteI first saw this, along with other pictures, on Twitter and Facebook. I feel that a lot of what is shared on Twitter and Facebook anymore is graphic or violent. It is sad to see that social media is used to get stories like this out. I do agree with you that it crossed the line, but I hope this story receives enough spotlight that something positive can come from it.