What’s With All the Death?
Our society is addicted to scrolling. Whether it be on Instagram, X, or TikTok, it’s always a guarantee to see someone's finger continuously moving up and down their screen. While this is an issue in our world, it appears the bigger issue is what exactly people are watching on their phones: death.
Instagram Reels—a TikTok-like feature on Instagram—has been known to show viewers extremely graphic and violent content. These short videos range from horrific car accidents that end in a fiery crash to murders shooting someone on camera. We can’t entirely blame the media due to the “content warning” on some videos, but it doesn’t stop people from clicking the “see reel anyway” button almost immediately. In a survey issued by the Wind-Up, 55.9 percent of the SJHS students who responded stated that they get Reels showing people dying very often. 60.7 percent of those who answered they were shown videos often answered “no” when asked if this stops them from watching Reels. It seems as if these videos have become so normalized that it doesn’t even affect the viewers emotionally at all.
This has always been a recurring issue on Reels; however, it got so bad in February that Meta was forced to apologize. As Instagram Reels went “rogue” (their algorithm glitched), one user—who has a biking-related account—recounted seeing “a man being set on fire; a man shooting a cashier at point-blank range; videos from an account called ‘PeopleDeadDaily’; and a pig being beaten with a wrench,” according to TheGuardian.com.
While Meta blamed this on Reels being recommended when they didn’t fit the algorithm, the question as to why videos this violent are on people’s algorithm in the first place arose.
“I think it's an issue [of] how desensitized we've become from watching stuff like this. If you've been on the internet for more than a couple [of] years, it's pretty much inevitable that you find a murder video or gore or some other tragedy. I remember seeing an ISIS video when I was in 7th grade and being scarred for a week. If you've somehow avoided that content, I would imagine you're in the minority of all internet users. Social media rewards our urge to look at something gruesome, the same way we turn to glance at a car crash on the side of the road. You just can't look away,” Ramzi Dumke, 12, said.
Instagram isn’t the only social website guilty of allowing sensitive videos to be broadcast; X (formerly known as Twitter) has had its fair share of disturbing videos. In addition to their Violent Content Policy, they now have a “Moment of Death” form. This can be used as an attempt to get a video of a loved one's death removed from X. To do so, you must have the deceased family member’s ID and death certificate, and take a selfie with it. A statement X released accompanying the form stated, “X values the maintenance of a robust public record, especially for significant historical or newsworthy events. This value is weighted against our commitment to honor your request to maintain the dignity and privacy that should accompany death.”
So, yes, there is a way to delete violent footage from X, but you must go through a plethora of steps before the deceased can regain that dignity. And how likely is it that all of this footage is “historical and newsworthy”? Arguably, someone losing their life in a car accident seems to only be viewed for entertainment purposes, not with respect and an intention to educate.
With a lot of our time being spent on social media platforms, it should be prefaced that a handful of what people are exposed to should never be seen. It appears that apps like Instagram and X tend to use the trauma of victims as a source for a quick laugh. The precautions deemed to be “protecting” us are not saving users from the harm of Reels; the desensitization on our screens only seems to be increasing.