by By Eileen Montejano
Take a look at social media apps, and you are immediately met with videos of people being harmed, whether shown in the news or in someone’s personal story. A glance at the comment section reveals people laughing, writing off the situation as “just the way the world is,” while others express terror.
Through the global connection of modern social media, our feeds no longer reflect what our neighbors or local communities are experiencing. Instead, we are exposed to people across the globe, from a random event in London to a “day in the life” in Tokyo. Social media acts as the engine of rapid globalization through short-form video and photography. But because life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, this global video also exposes us to dark, violent, and tragic situations daily.
A User’s feed is dependent on what they engage with; clicking on just one or two videos featuring violence triggers the algorithm to keep showing similar content. This repeated exposure triggers a desensitization effect. Over time, people begin to care less and less, eroding the empathy they once felt, much like how repetitive advertisements cause consumers to tune out what is being sold.
Intensifying this issue is the prevalence of digital anonymity. Across platforms like Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and X, burner accounts and online personas allow users to detach their online actions from their real-world identities. When people feel invisible, their accountability vanishes. Combined with algorithmic desensitization, this anonymity is a breeding ground for toxic comment culture in which users openly declare that they simply do not care, often turning the victim into the offender to justify their own response.
This lack of empathy is even harsher when someone who is actively struggling has done something morally wrong. On social media, empathy is rarely extended as a baseline. Instead, it is treated as a reward only reserved for those who are deemed “perfect”. The moment the internet uncovers a flaw in a person’s actions or past, compassion vanishes entirely. Users quickly leverage that person’s mistake to justify public execution, using someone else’s hardship as an opportunity to signal their own moral superiority.
Social media may not be the sole reason society is losing its sense of empathy, but it plays an undeniable, massive role. As millions remain glued to their screens, we spend less time engaging in face-to-face interactions, the environment where genuine empathy is created and learned.
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I enjoyed reading your blog and feel that it is very relevant to social media content I see all the time. Social media has become so large with so much user generated content, that we are constantly being exposed to new ideas and information. Algorithms are so interesting because they can be harmful in certain cases, but they can also help us find content we relate to and enjoy. In the case of violent content, algorithms can be very harmful because the more we interact with that content the more it will be shown to us and the more desensitized we become. Your blog really highlighted this and made me think deeply about how platforms and algorithms shape our experiences online.
Hey Eileen, this was a super interesting article and something I have also noticed while being active on different social media platforms. Especially on instagram, many people leave the most outrageous commentary on a video thats degrading etc, even on videos that are meant to support or bring up another person who’s struggling just because the commenter knows they have digital anonymity if they chose. I also feel like with the amount of freedom to post graphic content that just desensitises just about anyone. I have also noticed myself becoming increasingly desensitised to videos/images I see online because its become more common. There must be a deeper issue here that connects the two.