While watching a live stream, what if instead of a person relaxing in their sunroom talking to their friends, you see a gunman firing at civilians in a mosque?

On March 15th, 2019, a gunman opened fire on two Mosques in New Zealand, Australia and live-streamed it on his Facebook account. Despite the video being removed, it spread like wildfire. Facebook reported that upon removal, they had to delete an additional 1.5 million copies of the video due to re-posting. Mass shooters are hijacking the attention of viewers, and distract them from alerting authority.

Kids like to watch and share videos so they feel connected to society. However, the freedom that live-streaming gives comes with side effects as there is little to no monitoring of  videos being posted. At Hall High school, students were negatively impacted by the terrorist attack in New Zealand and their opinions on live streaming were forever changes. One student named Jack Varney believes that “[social media companies]  should make an effort to try and look over what someone is doing on social media”. “You ask yourself what was the reason for him doing it?” He asks “It doesn’t make any sense”.

Social media platforms have expanded the way we use live streaming in general. It has become the new way to watch TV and a platform to show others everything about you, even if it’s disgusting, wrong, and hurtful. In the article “Why you Should Care for Live Streaming in 2018” Nell Patel of Washington Post states that live-streaming “[gets] your brand out there and engaging with your audience.” “It’s the prime time for live streaming,” He says. “If you miss the boat, you could be missing out on huge traffic numbers and the ability to create a viral buzz”. In the article “The Attack that Broke the Net’s Safety Net”, the Editorial Board of New York Times determined that live streams monopolize human attention, by catering to our lust for ‘shock value’. “With social media and live streaming, mainstream media is no longer needed,”the Editorial Board said. “Criminals, murderers and terrorists have found that they can go directly to a seemingly eager audience to view crime as it happens.”

When someone is live-streaming with others, it should be a pleasant, memorable experience;  your sunroom shouldn’t be split with hearing the piercing screams of civilians gunned down by serial killers. Old things dies while new things grow, however if we don’t monitor these disturbing live-streams on social media, this new trend is only going to grow to a point where it can’t be stopped.