Social media has grown very fast in the last few years. Every day developers are creating new apps for uses to connect with each other. And what we do and say can be put on the internet within minutes if not seconds. Sometimes it's good and then sometimes it can be bad.
Unless your living under a rock then you know that Flint, MI has been without clean water for an ungodly amount of time. Children have been effected by it, people's skin has broken out in rashes and other countless health problems from both children and adults.
I don't follow sports nor am I a big fan of it. So I don't understand the rivalry that fans of both college and professional teams have. But I feel as a human you have to know how wrong this is. I don't understand how anyone found it funny to make fun of people going through something so horrific. I don't live in Flint, but I live in a city very similar where the same thing could easily happen. Nothing about this picture is funny and my heart breaks a little to know that their are people out there who would find it funny. Even if they don't think that's it's funny they posed in front of a sign that mocks a real life or death situation.
In a matter of hours this picture went viral and not only the students but the school as well received a lot of unwanted media attention. Sometimes we think that we do online is for our eyes only or the people that we share it with. But it only takes one person or one slip up that could put the picture/video in the wrong hands.
Sonya, great post! I wrote about something similar this week where an, I'm assuming Michigan fan, posted a nasty tweet regarding the OSU campus shooting that happened this past Monday. Check it out if you get the chance!
ReplyDeleteAs a huge sports fan I know how people can get about rivalries. I myself have participated in bashing OSU because I am a die hard Michigan fan. However, I would never go to the lengths that these fans have gone to, or the lengths the fan in my blog post went to. Unfortunately, social media helps bring this kind of negativity to light.
Hoping the people of Flint find some relief in the near future regarding this crisis.
Thanks for sharing!
Great Post!
ReplyDeleteI came across that same picture while I was scrolling on Twitter this week. I think it is so sad that people are okay with making fun of something as terrible as the Flint Water Crisis. I think that somewhere along the line, social media has made people think that it is acceptable to bully people because it's "just jokes".
I hope that something is done about the Flint crisis soon!