This week, it was impossible to escape a story coming from the Cincinnati Zoo about a child who managed to get himself into a gorilla cage and came face to face with a gorilla named Harambe. Viral videos and pictures all across the web show this interaction, and eventually, the gorilla was shot in order to save the child. Naturally, the Internet was outraged.
I'm not here to debate whether or not the Cincinnati Zoo made the right call. I will not say that it was the mother's fault, the zoo's fault or the gorilla's fault because you know what? I have no idea. To be honest, most of the population doesn't have any idea. I can only speak for myself. I'm not a zoologist, Dr. Dolittle or anything more than a regular person when it comes to wild animals. I know about as much about gorillas as I learned watching the "Life" special on primates. All I can say about Harambe is that it was an unfortunate situation.
It is therefore frustrating to see my NewsFeed cluttered with #JusticeforHarambe posts and irrational rants about how irresponsible the mother is or how unjust the zoo system is. In truth, I believe that these rants have nothing to do with Harambe or the child. Many of them are unresearched and purely speculative with little to no ground in actual fact. If I might be so bold, then I'd say a lot of the anger and outrage surrounding this event is purely selfish.
It seems to be a trend nowadays to jump on the most sensational news story of the week and adamantly and vehemently support one side of the issue without really researching the issue. The goal of these posts, to me, at least, seems to be less about spreading word of injustice in the world and more about seeing how many likes one can get on a highly impassioned post. It has nothing to do with the actual event. It has everything to do with our own personal sense of Internet popularity.
I'm not claiming that every single post about a current event is meant to be self-serving -- I have seen many posts and messages across the Internet that present valid thoughts and opinions -- I'm simply stating my opinion that these days, more often than not, people seem to be posting less for the story and more for the likes and comments they receive as a result.
So do people really care about #JusticeforHarambe? I don't know. I'm sure some do. Unfortunately, I believe many people are simply jumping on yet another sensational bandwagon for their own personal self image.