-
Essay / Bystander Effect: An Impact of Social Media and Education
Media strongly affects the bystander effect and we can analyze it using Max Weber's theory of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is human interaction at a micro-level. The human individual would be at the center of understanding society since social values are formed by individual interpretation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay People assign different meanings to different things and different people, and act accordingly. People are heavily involved in social media, its new technology that gives them the ability to share and disseminate information. Sure, it can make us feel like social activists and it might seem like the bystander effect would probably be reduced. (Keshia Badalge, 2017) Yet this is not the case. If we see a situation happening, we will quickly bring out our cameras and start recording. We may think we're helping, but all we're doing is being a bystander. So because of this technology and the development of social media and the urge that we have to post things, it's actually dangerous and makes the bystander effect worse. We can explain this through symbolic interactionism when we interact with others. We do what others do and look to others to determine what we should do and how to respond. Thanks to social media, the first thing we would do in a negative public situation is take out our cameras and start recording. We now naturally symbolize a shocking situation with our camera phones. This is also what the majority of people present would do, so we would also like to do the same. Therefore, social media and technology seem to increase the bystander effect, as we no longer even want to experience a real moment without pulling out our phones to record it all. So even when there are bystanders in a public situation, we are unsure how to help, unable to decide whether we should help due to the number of people busy recording cell phones and so on. Yes, social environments impact the bystander effect is important because from a psychological perspective we know that if there are more people in a certain area the responsibility of a bystander is distributed equally , and ultimately no one feels responsible enough to resist what is happening. Marx Weber had stated that people make numbers, rationalize (rationalization), and assign different meanings to what they see and observe, which is called symbolic interactionism. We symbolize what we observe and don't get involved in situations because, from our micro-level perspective, we assume that if we get involved we will either make the situation worse or get into trouble as well. So, if we see a whole group of people in public, we would automatically do the same. We fear getting into trouble or unnecessary problems in our lives, which is why the bystander effect is so common in society. People rationalize because rationalization occurs when social actions are motivated by efficiency or benefit, not by wisdom or emotion. If, for example, a camera were seen by passers-by, it is highly likely that someone would be willing to help in a public situation in front of many other passers-by, because they know that if they help and are recorded by the camera, he has a chance of being rewarded or obtaining,.