[Rants] World Tragedies, News, and Social Media

[lizfu]

When the 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan, my Facebook and Twitter feeds were flooded with both news and support for the nation. When the Casey Anthony trial ended with a verdict of not guilty, both feeds were blowing up with indignation and shock (with a few posts pointing out the facts of the trial and how the state of Florida had kinda fucked this one up). Yesterday, a bomb is detonated around government buildings in Oslo, Norway, and not too long after on a nearby island, a right wing Christian fundamentalist posing as a police officer opened fire on a youth camp, killing 84 (and counting) teenagers, who ran into the woods or dove into the sea to try to escape. Twitter was practically on fire with news (okay, this might be an exaggeration - even Twitter was a little slow in taking it up), but on my Facebook feed, there was nothing but the usual narcissism.

What the fuck?

I posed this observation on Facebook, and so far a majority of the replies have been, "Well, it was all over the news, so everybody had already heard about it." So there was no need to post anything about it, not even sympathy?

Ugh.

Comments

[firedreamer]

To be fair, I didn't post about japan or that trial either.

I followed the stories on my own. I always have.

[lizfu]

I know. I just found it very odd that there were a lot of responses for Japan and the Casey Anthony trial, but NOTHING for Norway.

[firedreamer]

The guy that did it....He played WoW. The people that hung out with him in WoW were stunned. (He stopped playing months ago)

I told my stepmother about the news from norway when it happened, because the television didn't cover it!

[lizfu]

The news didn't mention that he played WoW. I'm kinda glad they didn't; it would be misdirecting people's attention away from the real problem (his fringe right-wing political views) and making a scapegoat out of gaming. I can totally see more than a few pundits doing that too (most of them on Fox).

NPR very briefly reported the news about the bombing in Oslo during the Diane Rehms Show, which was how I first heard about it (I got off work very early that day). After that, I didn't really listen to the radio or watch TV (I was trying to stay cool), but I read about the shooting on my Twitter feed. My friends in Norway (Beate - a native - and Jon, who's visiting) called on Skype and I asked them what was going on. They didn't know much, but they knew a little more than what the news agencies were reporting.

(lesson from all of this: The Internet is amazing)

[firedreamer]

The thing about the WoW playing. It just goes to show you, people can seem nice.......