The Normalization of Horror: Genocide in the Age of Social Media

About the Author(s)

Zaina Jahanzaib

Author is pursuing BS International Relations at GCU Lahore. She believe that writing can be a great tool to make a positive impact on the world as well as to make people aware of the things they otherwise would not know. Author introduce new ideas and issues that should be given more importance.

Introduction:

Since October 7th, people have been constantly engaged with the violent content. The images and videos of people being brutally killed are wide spread on every social media platform. Every person, from children to elderly are using social media. One of the catastrophic short-comings of social media is that it shows every post to every one without distinguishing between different age groups, patients and sensitive people.

More and more people have begun to talk about what is going in Gaza but the topic that is given very less importance to, is the impacts these live watched atrocities are leaving even on the people living thousands of miles away from Gaza. Psychologists like Hala Alyan, Halina Brooke, Erika Felix have been working on how to aware people on how they can remain informed while not getting overwhelmed with the pictures and videos on social media.

Boiling Frog Syndrome:

Countries especially from the global south should be aware of the fact that this content is producing hopelessness amongst their people on a devastating level. Public from these countries is more likely to face unmanageable trauma because they have already been disappointed from the political and economic situation. So, the policy makers, especially from the global south should keep in view that this is the time to introduce some limitations on social media when it comes to violence.

Social Construction:

Besides all the effects on mental health, the major and long-term effect is going to be the social construction of normalization of watching violence, accepting it as a reality and decreased resistance towards it. because this trauma has been experienced collectively, I have tried to explain it through the lens of social constructivism. Which says that knowledge exists in the historical and cultural context. In this age, cultural is what social media makes of it. in other words, 80 percent of the culture depends on and is created by social media. What this means is that a crime like genocide is going to be culturally accepted. People who have criticized Rwandan genocide and holocaust, and could not see a person dying in front of them, are now getting used to watching children losing their lives. This is building a norm of lack of empathy towards their fellow humans.

Illiteracy:

Before using social media, it is very important for every person to learn to use it in a balanced way. It has tons of information; you have got to choose what information you are going to consume whether its in the text form or in the form of imagery. Not every information is for you. Since most of the people are unaware of the impacts, it is the responsibility of the policy makers to aware their public about it.

Of course, I do not mean that we should stop getting the information or stop raising voice against this horrific crime. All I mean is, we need to maintain a balance in our consumption patterns. As well as select the content in accordance with our mental capacity.

International Institutions and People’s Sense of Insecurity:

Where we are watching devilish crimes, we are observing the institutions also. Institutions that have been made to stop these crimes. How ever, common people do not understand the intricacies of these institutions. They do not understand the technicalities and compare it with the national institutions. But the main difference between national institutions and international institutions is that the international institutions deal with the sovereign states.

South Africa went to the international court of justice against Israel. And all the videos of hearings are on YouTube. Unlike before, people are now having direct experience with the international institutions. And a large number of people have already lost their trust on these institutions. Because Israel have been violating the rules and is getting away with it.

The governments should take measures to safeguard their people and to prevent them from being so pessimist. Because pessimism leads to unproductivity. Children from 9 to 16 years of age are the ones being most effected. The parents should not allow their children to watch war-crimes.

The Palestinian genocide is no longer just an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians it has become a crime that is now affecting every race, nation, group and so on. In short, it has been affecting every one whether its enemies or friends.

The normalization of violence is a huge threat to the characteristics of a society.

Social Contract:

Social contract theory says that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behaviour. In order to create a better society, people have to cooperate with each other. And to do this, they should have a sense of empathy towards each other. To save the societies, we will have to make choices.

Conclusion:

To conclude, genocide in the age of social media will have devastating consequences. This topic has been under rated and no news channel or psychologists have been talking about it properly. Therefore, the public themselves will have too aware each other as much as possible. As well as the policy makers and think tanks should work on it.

This does not mean that people should stop resisting or completely ignore this issue. This just means to maintain a healthy balance. Keep telling your children that this is a crime and also keep them away from horrific imagery