wow. what a video!
Never before has the term ‘joyriding’ seemed less appropriate. Five misguided youths died in a horrific crash last month as they raced the wrong way down a dual carriageway before slamming into a police car travelling in the opposite direction, killing the occupants, two young officers. Less than a week earlier, a further five teenagers were killed in a car intentionally travelling on the wrong side of a motorway in Ireland. Four more were seriously injured in the collision. What on Earth were both groups thinking?
With thirty-seven convictions between them and acknowledged links to organised crime gangs, the five young men in the UK incident were obviously wrong ‘uns who had taken many ill-judged turns in their short lives. A local politician has referred to their like as “a feral underclass” within a community “beset by brazen criminality”. Notwithstanding, this the problem is further exacerbated by the social media platforms of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube who are encouraging a lethal form of exhibitionism and several of the young men had posted clips of themselves driving recklessly, some featuring police chases.
With everything being captured on our phones the question begged is what does this do to our souls?
When an tastily attractive restaurant dish is placed in front of us, a kitten does something cute, a live band plays their greatest hit or a fight kicks-off, we automatically break out the all-consuming desensitising device and record it alongside everyone else. Multibillion dollar industries have been built on the narcissism of people photographing themselves. A seven year study identified 332 selfie-related fatalities where the star of the video was obviously thinking more of the potentially viral global audience and less of their safety in the here and now.
We’re addicted because of the magical digital capacity of turning much of what is frightening, painful or beautiful, or just plain boring, into a movie we can film, edit, caption and share. But beware, as in this moral confusion, death is great content.
