After 3 incidents in the past 3 weeks in which violent attacks or deaths were filmed, experts say smartphones and social media may be shaping — and slowing — the human response to emergencies and tragic events.
, prompting two men to jump onto the tracks to save the girl while others recorded the event on their phones.
But some sociologists and psychologists cautioned against an urge to cast social media users as narcissistic, callous attention seekers after such unsettling events.“We see these terrible stories, and they are terrible, and we all immediately wonder, if this were happening to me, would people come to my aid?" said Keith Hampton, a professor in the department of media and information at Michigan State University.
“Technology is like fire,” said Jeff Hancock, a professor in Stanford University's department of communication. “It’s deeply involved in our lives now. It warms our home or it can burn it down. Both are true.”may illustrate such a possible variety of intentions. Some classmates who videotaped the Sept. 10 incident at Blake Academy, a public school in Lakeland, might have been interested in collecting likes, shares and retweets on social media. But others might have been gathering evidence.
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