I read two news articles yesterday that deeply disturbed me. They both concerned technology and social media outlets.
One of the stories had to do with Carrie Fisher's medical emergency during a flight to Los Angeles from London. TMZ was the first to report the story saying that she'd had a heart attack and had stopped breathing for ten minutes. They said that there were EMTs onboard who performed CPR on her until the plane landed and she could be taken to the hospital. They listed her in critical condition. They got this information from tweets that had been posted from the airplane. And that's where my issue with this comes into play. The person (or persons) that tweeted about it had several options available to them and the one they chose was to exploit someone's medical emergency, possibly because the person with the medical emergency was a celebrity, I don't know. Whatever their reasons, it makes me sick. What bothers me more is the belief that someone, somewhere, has a video of the incident. Maybe they've already posted it online but it wasn't known before the report I read was posted. Or, maybe it's being shopped around to the highest bidder. Who knows? But, sadly, that's what our society has come to.
There was a time when people would stop and render aid to someone in need. Somewhere along the way people became more passive and walk by someone in need because they didn't want to get involved. However, with today's technological advances we've gone back to stopping when we see people in need. We don't, however, render aid. No, instead, we video their misery and post it online and feel justified in doing so. I just don't get that. When did we lose our humanity and good will towards our neighbors?
The other story that I read had to do with someone hacking Lucy Hale's phone, stealing topless photos from it and posting them online. She addressed it basically saying that another female celebrity had been violated and stolen from and she didn't appreciate it. She made no apologies for having these photos saying that she had a right to live her life the way she wanted to. She thanked her fans for their support and told whoever did this to kiss her ass. All in all, I liked what she had to say. My biggest issue was with one of the comments to the story. It said that anyone with a computer and internet had no expectation of privacy. Excuse me? Seriously???!!!?! Because I have a computer and internet means that ANYTHING I have on it is public domain? I don't think so!
Look, I think taking nude photos on your phone is risky at best and not the best decision you can make but that doesn't mean anyone who knows how to hack your phone has a right to lift the pictures and have them posted. We did not forfeit our basic rights when we got a phone / computer and internet. It shocks me that people seem to think we did somehow.
I'm all for technological advances but it seems to me to have somehow caused humans to lose their common sense and decency and if I had to choose between the two, I'd give up the technology. Since that's not likely to happen, I'd like to see stiff penalties for people who abuse it to exploit others and their rights.
One can hope.
And on that note. Merry Christmas! :)
