Richard, Students on Social Media & Violence: Boston 25
Communications Studies Senior Affiliated Faculty and BIG FISH PR CEO David Richard, and students, share their perspectives on the effects of social media platforms showing the violent shooting and killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and how people behave on those apps.
“That video had gone viral hours before any news reported anything in terms of the state of events, and that changes things dramatically,” Richard said.
“The toughest part of all of this is that once you get to a point where individuals are on a social media platform and are only seeing messaging and communication that is within their realm, it starts to overwrite everything they learned even going back to kindergarten,” Richard said.
Richard explained that the screen acts as a buffer that isn’t present during in-person interactions.
“It dehumanizes the other side, and it makes it very easy for people to act out in ways that they normally wouldn’t face-to-face,” Richard said.
I think it’s a double-edged sword,” Yutong Yang said.
“People think they can get away with being disrespectful online and because their face isn’t being seen or this and that, it’s just disgusting,” Andre Lazarus said.
“In a certain way I do like that social media lets people just kind of speak their mind but the fact that social media is such an anonymous platform, it always increases negativity, it makes opinions way more extreme.” Dylan Humphry said.
All three college students said they hope social media platforms introduce stronger restrictions and regulations in the future.
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