Finding Humanity Among Technology

Imagine a man crying out for his life when he inadvertently slipped and fell into a Tiger's inclosure at a zoo. No guards in sight or zoo keepers with stun gun's at the ready in case a grizzly accident such as this was about to occur. Now imagine onlookers trying to yell and throw stones at the giant cat to divert it's attention, while others rather then running to get help or do more than just yell, are simply recording the whole horrific scene on their smart phones for the sake of live footage of the man about to meet certain death.

Although I can't imagine even the thought of witnessing said event, much less actually recording it. I had the unfortunate opportunity of being introduced to this video when my mother saw it posted on her Facebook news feed and asked me if I'd heard about it one evening and I, thinking it was a hokes and wanting to set the story straight by calling it out and didn't think that anyone in their right mind would want to purposefully post such a tragic thing online much less on anyone's news feed on a social networking site. To my horror this was in fact a real and true event and there were more credible news stories affiliated with it after further research as well as unseen footage, which again I couldn't turn my eyes from and watched in stunned horror as the smart phone camera followed the tragic events that unfolded before my eyes as the tiger drug the unfortunate young soul's once full of life body to sure death.

Now, I ask myself this question time and time again, why are we so fascinated with horror, tragedies, real-time footage, hell, all out depressing situations?? It seems every time I read or watch the news there's always some type of disparity going on. I feel hopeless sometimes because this is in fact the world we live in. We are so disconnected with ourselves and humanity in general that when a tragedy such as the one mentioned above, we don't know what to do besides whipping our phones and gadgets out to record the situation and letting technology take over rather then let our humanity take the reigns and do something survivalist. It's like people don't know how to react to situations anymore, your phone sure as hell isn't going to save your life in an event like this. What would have happened if all those people collectively tried to reach out or throw something substantial in the tiger's lair? Once creature diverted, pulling together to get the man out. Where in bloody hell were the guards and Zoo staff with stun guns or rifles or blow horns or ANYTHING??!! I just don't understand why this happened and for the amount of time it went on for, which was about 10-15 minutes the reports said.

I remember reading a story that took place in Australia where a man had a freak accident and got his leg jammed in between the train car entrance and side boarding platform. All the passengers pulled together and pushed the train to one side so the man could get his leg out. They didn't wait for protocol or the security guards they just used common sense and used their "humanity" and did what instinct caused them to do. Again, another tragedy that happened with all those Korean students that were going on a vacation with their teachers on a ferry that sunk, they were told to stay put, down below in their cabins...which was the least safest spot, until further instructions from authorities on the ferry, half of whom had already fled! Where's the reasoning in that?!! Instinct would tell you to get the hell out of there, and as close to the surface as possible! However, these students had distractions as well, there was no "fight or flight" mode, there was I'm posting on Facebook, texting, taking pictures, I'm on my smart phone mode. They never truly felt the sense of urgency until it was morbidly too late.

In this fast paced, computerized, high-tech, social networking, all out digitized world we live in where we are so connected to everything and less degrees of separation then ever before, we are totally and hopelessly disconnected to the one thing that really truly makes us who and what we are...our humanity.