A reason why social media outrage happens: No swift corrective response/action

I was thinking about this the other day.

I used to get in trouble a lot as a kid. When doing the bad deed, I may not have known what I was doing wrong, but I knew exactly what I did wrong when there was a reaction that wasn't what I expected.

I think this quick and swift reaction before anything can build on itself is what is missing between real life situations and social media. As a result, then, we have people blow up over small things and adverse results such as people getting fired or receiving death threats.

Here is a little of what I am talking about:

Peter Sagan, after finishing in the top 3 in the Tour de France this year took his trophy and used it as a machine gun. This was in the heart of Paris, France. In this video you can see the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. LINK

Of course, this is where much terrorist violence and loss of life had taken place very recently.

HOWEVER, another racer quickly stops him right there. And then, Sagan probably now realizes in all his excitement that that may not have been the best idea.

But where is all the outrage? This would be a social media firestorm!!! .....if no one had stopped his action. Right then and there, a simple gesture by another person let him know that wasn't OK.


But, here and now, on social media, we do not necessarily have cues like that to let the progress of something bad stop. And what is even worse, it is up for a person that can only interpret what they see by text or a pic to react to it. Their reaction could be completely out of context of the originator.

And what is even worse than that, people sometimes demand a reaction be had that is equal to what whatever the person did. Such as lose their job, be put in jail, or even killed.


Off the top of your head from links posted on just the OT over the past month, you probably can't think of something worse than a guy taunting a recently-terror-stricken crowd of Parisians behaving like they have a machine gun. Yet, you can list tons of instances in the last month where people's lives were changed due to something much less they said or posted on social media.

Again, it's all due to lacking that quick needed reaction to fix an action. And when that's not there, people can go all wild in their response.