Horror and the Moron Snowball
The question that immediately went through my mind when I first viewed the Pit Break Up video was, "Would I have watched?" This disturbed me, mostly because the more and more vividly I imagined myself walking past a huge group of people transfixed on a screaming couple surrounded by video cameras, the answer was, "Yes."
Some might call this impressionability. Others: mob mentality. I call it the moron snowball.
Curiosity jams, lynch mobs, and any variety of aggregated rubberneckers attracted by public spectacles involving injury or dramatic pain are nothing new, but the Pit Break Up video phenomenon seems to have struck a vein. It's been exposed as a hoax, but the people yelling at each other, sincere or not, aren't the ones I'm worried about. It's the people watching who make me anxious. And, it was orchestrated with the aid of new media. We all know: new = unknown = scary = scapegoat. That's the Puritan equation, right?
But why not watch? An angry relationship split with an a cappella soundtrack is something you don't see every day. Aren't we all seeking things that cause our daily drudge to swerve? What's wrong with a little freak-gazing?
I'm not saying that the video doesn't disgust me, because it does. Not so much the video, but the guy, and the guy's backers who chant "slut, slut, slut" at the girl and encourage him to slap her. I like to think that if I had been witness to the Break Up and had earned a good vantage and physical access to some of those folks, the whole thing would have been broken up by cops and I would have been carted off swinging. But the absolutely shameful hate that some in the crowd displayed is not a symptom of any one thing, and neither is the fact that they gathered in the first place. Like fundamentalists to a stoning, high school students to an after-class scrap, or the world to the video of a dictator's death, we're all drawn to the drama of conflict, suffering, and violence. The fact that Facebook and YouTube helped facilitate in this instance is inconsequential. It's merely another indication that the glaring spotlight new media cast upon us will continue to intensely exhibit how horrible (or beautiful) we humans can be.
Comments
I wish I could take credit for the quantum leap we've taken in blogging this semester. I am not sure that I can, however. Anyway. My question here: Is the facilitation of this pit breakup event by new media entirely "inconsequential?" Or... does the new media, in fact, cast a glaring, new (and somehow brighter) spotlight on the human condition? That would be something that just might actually have some consequence. You've just claimed both, I think.
Posted by: Rick Musser | March 2, 2007 10:55 AM
I think we're saying the same thing. New media can't be blamed as the catalyst for people gawking at others' misfortunes, but it certainly may affect how we understand such phenomena. The fact that the Internet can help put peoples' ugliness on the table for all to see is what has consequence. The fact that people are ugly is one that's always been there.
Posted by: Nate Martin | March 2, 2007 11:02 AM