Why do people passively watch the transmission of violence in social networks?

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With the growing popularity of streaming services, such as Periscope and Facebook Live, users have increasingly resorted to them to demonstrate acts of violence.

Hundreds of people witness transmissions of murder or suicide, but few try to stop them. Moreover, many even encourage these shocking actions. Edition Broadly explored this global effect of observers of human suffering live.

In 2008, 19-year-old student Abraham Biggs entered the now-defunct platform. Livein Streaming Justin.tv and took a lethal dose of opiates and benzodiazepines. Twelve hours later, one of the observers identified the location of Biggs, which could be determined by broadcasting and called the police, whose arrival was also recorded by the camera.

Biggs' suicide is one of a surprisingly large number of examples of how streaming technology can be used to broadcast human suffering. His story caught everyone's attention because many people anonymously watched Biggs suffer and encouraged him to continue and persevere. Moreover, before that, he communicated with users of the streaming portal forum and told them about his suicidal plans and thoughts.

Eight years later, similar incidents, as well as murders, attacks, and other violent actions are increasingly transmitted through various streaming services.

In April, 2017, a 18-year-old woman named Marina Lonina, was brought to trial on charges of kidnapping, rape and sexual abuse after her 29-year-old friend 17-year-old Raymond Boyd Gates was reported to have been raped. Periscope. Her accusations were almost as heavy as those brought against the immediate perpetrator, although she did not take part in the rape and simply recorded what was happening.

Violence on the air often causes apathy in the audience, and they do not try to interfere with what is happening, they are even more apathetic because of the transmission of suicides.

In 2007, 42-year-old Kevin Whiterick hanged himself live, watched the broadcast around 60 viewers, some of whom expressed support for him, but no one tried to stop him.

Dr. Becky Lois specializes in suicide prevention and says claims of suicide should always be taken extremely seriously. Even if you think the person is doing it for dramatic effect or doesn't actually mean to kill themselves, it's worth taking it seriously and seeking professional help.

In addition, the belief that people who are seriously preparing for suicide do not report it, and that only those who are trying to attract attention are speculating on this, is a mistake.

The American Association of Suicidology regards talk of suicide as a sign of "acute risk"; The National Institute of Mental Health calls the “threat to hurt or kill yourself” the first warning sign before suicide. Anyone who talks about suicide is at a very high level of risk.

Although people tend to be compassionate social beings, group apathy towards individual suffering is a well-documented phenomenon. In 1964, a young woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered near an apartment building in New York, and 38 people witnessed this horrific incident. She screamed and asked for help, and people on the street and from the windows silently watched what had happened. The attacker raped her, killed her and ran away, and none of the witnesses did anything to prevent him. However, many witnesses to the incident later noted that they were not fully aware of what was happening and thought that it was just a quarrel between lovers or drunkards.

Psychologists call this phenomenon “bystander apathy”—people are less likely to help someone in need or suffering if there are other people nearby. The anonymity of social media and the ability to express your thoughts about the horrors happening on the screen without harm to your reputation only increase the apathy of those around you, and even if a person appears among the audience who wants to help, he succumbs to the general apathy of the audience.

In 2003, 21-year-old Brandon Veda announced his intention to take several different types of drugs live. Having outlined a plan for taking a large amount of antidepressants and alcohol, he also asked viewers to call on his mobile phone if he "starts to look like he is dying." Instead, users asked the guy to "eat more" and said they just want to see if he will survive or just die. The guy died, and not waiting for the call.

But the group effect does not absorb the whole system of human values. You can passively observe violence in a group of people, even if you individually deeply object to passive observation of violence, in this case, many understand that something is wrong, but they think that since most of the other people in your group think that correctly, it is worth agreeing with this.

In fact, most people in a group may believe that this is wrong, but it does not necessarily matter. Psychologists use the term “pluralistic ignorance”, which describes the condition of several people in a group who may be a majority in it, but do not know about it and are therefore afraid to go against what they consider to be the collective opinion of the group.

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