What's the most someone can be prompted to do in wake of the Manchester bombing?
#prayformanchester
We live in a world of ten second Snapchats and endless pictures down the Instagram feed, we've become adept at scrolling and swiping - not spending more than four seconds glancing over a post before we move onto the next. This needs to end.
We've become desensitized, human suffering has become a hashtag and violence and chaos have become a newsfeed novelty. We, as a human race, need a severe wake up call.
I've been argued for the hashtag point. I've been told that it's bringing awareness to the issue, which is the best thing to if you can't donate money to the cause or physically be there to help. While I agree that the first step is to be aware, it seems these days that's where our involvement ends.
No, not everyone can donate money or volunteer at the scene, but for god's sake we can do more than make an Instagram post about it. Lives have been lost, and we should be aware of it and why it's happening - we should be educating ourselves and others.
Years ago, if there was an attack that resulted in a large loss of life, we would read about it in the newspapers or hear it on the radio. We would talk to each other about it, we would feel it far more deeply then - when it wasn't followed immediately by a quick video ad for bling'd out fidget spinners.
Most people will hear about an issue, make a social platform post about it and how horrible it was, how they feel so deeply for the victims, but then they can't even explain to you why it happened. I've seen so many comments in response to these posts along the lines of "omg crying," or "this breaks my heart I can't even." But honestly, those commenters probably just posted a quick response so they felt like they weren't ignoring the issue, but didn't give it any more time than that.
We owe more respect than that. We should be poring over endless research on terrorism and motives for cruelty, it's background, human conflict and violence, and what can be done. We should be in constant, progressive dialogue about the issue, the crises that take place around the globe. Instead of posting a quick crying emoji and announcing how sad the loss of life is, we can be forcing ourselves to think; why did this happen and what can we do to prevent it in the future? How can that change start with me, right now?
Social media is killing our empathy, pure and simple. It has taken away a level of human connection and compassion by blending news, real or fake, with every other kind of socially relevant fodder the internet can come up with.
Our world is facing a serious problem with human violence and cruelty. I think we can afford to do a little more than #pray about it.
