A couple weeks ago the world was struck with a great tragedy. To most people, this was new; they had never experienced such violence. To others, it hit where it hurts. It reminded them of the time when terrorism put them in a similar situation. When Paris was struck by the terrorist, the world reacted immediately. This was not the first time the world had been under attack. Help came from many countries, and their governments, but also from their people. The first place to reveal the news of the incident, the social media, became a place to express your support for the victims. The problem is that over the next few days it started to bring out the wrong side of people; it became a place to criticize the way people show support and even to blame
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Whether it was the hashtag #PrayForParis or just adding a french flag filter to your profile picture, these helped the people show compassion. In the article, “##PrayForParis: When Empathy Becomes a Meme” by Megan Garber, the problem with these options is that to some it seemed so be selfish, she says, “there is something self-centered about this conversation of empathy into smarmery…” (Gerber 6). These messages of support were taken negatively, but not everyone thought that way. To most people, it was what it was meant to be; a way to show empathy when nothing else could be done. In times like this all we can do is let them know that they are in our thought because nothing else will help. Another problem that arose with this situation as well is when people did not change their profile pictures they were automatically labeled as people that did not care. They were seen as insensitive people, in the article “Paris attacks: Social media mourning shouldn't be a blame game” by Radhika Sanghani, she says, “this collective social media reaction is more problematic than it looks. Those who don’t join in - or worse, say the 'wrong' thing - are criticized, and even bullied.”(Sanghani 7). For examples of this, she writes about a french woman who refused to change her profile picture to a french flag filter. Why? Because France was not the only …show more content…
Islam was the main topic for debate when it came to the attacks, and it still is. Millions of Muslims were blamed for the attacks. In the article, “One Tweet Explains Why You Should Never Blame All Muslims For Terrorism” by John Haltiwanger, he shows numerous tweets of people putting the blame on Muslims and their religion; arguing that it is the religion that teaches them to be violent. That is not the case, Haltiwanger says, “But even if ISIS, or another organization linked to Islamic extremism, ends up claiming responsibility for the attacks it doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s Muslims are complicit.” (Haltiwanger 6). The act of few can not blame the religion of many. We know that not all of the members of the terrorist group “ISIS” are Muslims; some are Christian, others Hindu and more, but that does not mean that all these religions are bad. It means that the people practicing them have the wrong beliefs and are using religions to justify what they are
Whether it was the hashtag #PrayForParis or just adding a french flag filter to your profile picture, these helped the people show compassion. In the article, “##PrayForParis: When Empathy Becomes a Meme” by Megan Garber, the problem with these options is that to some it seemed so be selfish, she says, “there is something self-centered about this conversation of empathy into smarmery…” (Gerber 6). These messages of support were taken negatively, but not everyone thought that way. To most people, it was what it was meant to be; a way to show empathy when nothing else could be done. In times like this all we can do is let them know that they are in our thought because nothing else will help. Another problem that arose with this situation as well is when people did not change their profile pictures they were automatically labeled as people that did not care. They were seen as insensitive people, in the article “Paris attacks: Social media mourning shouldn't be a blame game” by Radhika Sanghani, she says, “this collective social media reaction is more problematic than it looks. Those who don’t join in - or worse, say the 'wrong' thing - are criticized, and even bullied.”(Sanghani 7). For examples of this, she writes about a french woman who refused to change her profile picture to a french flag filter. Why? Because France was not the only …show more content…
Islam was the main topic for debate when it came to the attacks, and it still is. Millions of Muslims were blamed for the attacks. In the article, “One Tweet Explains Why You Should Never Blame All Muslims For Terrorism” by John Haltiwanger, he shows numerous tweets of people putting the blame on Muslims and their religion; arguing that it is the religion that teaches them to be violent. That is not the case, Haltiwanger says, “But even if ISIS, or another organization linked to Islamic extremism, ends up claiming responsibility for the attacks it doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s Muslims are complicit.” (Haltiwanger 6). The act of few can not blame the religion of many. We know that not all of the members of the terrorist group “ISIS” are Muslims; some are Christian, others Hindu and more, but that does not mean that all these religions are bad. It means that the people practicing them have the wrong beliefs and are using religions to justify what they are