The bystander effect and social media

This week we discussed the bystander effect and the thought that certain personality types/people will wait for social cues to see if they will intervene in situations. If a bystander   see’s others around they are less likely to act due pluralistic ignorance. We see this in our everyday lives specifically on social media. Incidents are streamed of people getting shot,hurt,fighting as opposed to calling the police or stepping in to assist. Views and letting people know I was here is more relevant than the act of doing. This new era of see everything do nothing transcends through all avenues. Another example is social media activist. These are the people that only complain,rant,or question things on social media. They don’t go into their communities and do any work,they don’t start outreach efforts,contact people in power they just watch. The question comes in to play how can we stop people from watching and have them start doing? I don’t think we can. Certain people possess empathy,and urgency and others don’t. I personally believe this stems from personality type,and makeup. A way we can diffuse pluralistic  ignorance is to stop glorifying the watchers. There was a news story about a man who scaled a building that was on fire to save his mother. He did this with his bare hands and was deemed a hero. We should be commending this behavior and giving it more than a 15 minute segment in late night news. Where people on social media get millions of likes and repost.

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