When Does Social Media Posting Cross the Line?
November 4th, 2010 § 4 Comments
My Twitter stream was interesting today. More so than normal, at least. It was reported that a woman in Seattle was threatening to jump off a downtown building, causing police to come to the scene, streets to close down, and passersby to stop and watch. My Twitter stream with the #Seattle tag I follow was moving at rapid speeds. All of a sudden I was seeing people tweeting about this woman, what was happening at the scene, live, and what other people were doing. It didn’t just end at Twitter though. 
Someone began UStreaming the entire spectacle. I then noticed outraged people on Twitter in disbelief about people UStreaming this incident. The debate began.
Has this new concept of Web 2.0 and being able to do everything in real-time (often times using our mobile phones) crossed the line of being morally correct?
Some may make the argument that news reporters report on these incidents all of the time. They use helicopters and vehicles to record polices chases, for example. Why can’t the average Joe do the same when it comes to reporting something going on?
Others may argue that setting up a UStream, standing by the scene, and just watching as someone debates whether to live or die is just wrong.
What are your thoughts?
I think part of it is conditioning by the current media, as just about every newscast now includes some blurb about “reporting news as it happens”, and sending it to the station, either in picture or video format.
Social media is also just an extension or amplification of the individual. So, it’s probably natural for one of the 100 or so people that were at the scene to capture what was happening.
I am, for the most part, okay with that. I would however take issue with someone if the commentary turned negative; For example if the guy with the cam were to make the comment ‘just get it over with’ etc. then I would have an obvious problem with that.
Good thought provoking post Kim.
10 years ago the individual could have had a DV cam.
I think this is more of a question of individuals morales rather than accessibility of technology. Certainly information travels faster these days, but the morale question is still that of ‘what’ information travels.
I agree, Justin. It is more a question of people’s morals vs. accessibility to technology. However, I do think that since technology has made it so much easier to upload and share information, that people tend to take advantage of that. If someone had a DV cam, it might be “too much of a hassle” to post that to the Internet, so they didn’t do it. So is it easier to see what people’s morals are because of technology? Kind of a weird question.
this: “So is it easier to see what people’s morals are because of technology?”
weird, possibly disappointing. vOv