Frequently we witness our friends, relatives, and colleagues sharing horrifying videos and posts such as YouTube challenges, animal abuse, bullying videos/photos, etc. Often, these people include statements meant to shame or deter others from doing the same. While this is presumably done with nothing but the best of intentions, one can not help to logically consider whether these individuals are part of the problem.
If it were not for the 'glory' that comes with recording themselves eating a tide pod or snorting a condom, perhaps these attention-seeking adolescents would find countless better, healthier ways to spend their free time: volunteering, visiting a grandparent, calling or writing to a loved one, contributing to society, etc.
Sharing their videos only feeds this pitiful hunger for attention regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative. In fact, many of these young, unsupervised YouTubers make money off of their shares. In other words, the adults seen encouraging these activities are being paid through YouTube based on their number of viewers and to share this regardless of your intentions only serves their further compensation.
Your shares matter whether you are attempting to verbally rebuke a person of influence, sharing actual media, or making your own video against a specific fad that has recently gone viral. Think back to the days when once your only bad influence were the local neighborhood kids, classmates, or an older sibling. Today, children are exposed to essentially anything and everything they might be curious about from the moment their parents allow an electronic device to be placed into their hands. While electronics and media pose as extraordinary waves of technological advancement and make it simple to attain knowledge, they lack in providing the user with one detrimental characteristic in surviving modern society. Common sense is the one thing that can not be taught through e-learning and must be learned by example and developed through experience alone. Those lacking common sense are undoubtedly the most vulnerable to having ideas planted into their heads by second parties (i.e. public entertainment industries such as YouTube, tumblr, Reddit, ect.)
Similarly to how parents ignore their child's tantrums knowing that they will eventually stop, this too shall pass if the spotlight is no longer on them. The best way to impede this behavior is by failing to bring this to the attention of others and denying the attention from those that partake in it. Most importantly, think twice about what you share on social media for it may come back to haunt you if one of your followers attempt the very acts you claim to stand against. For in some cases, silence may be the safest method in relaying one's opinion.
