Essay On Bystander Effect

As social media use increases, the bystander effect becomes more common amongst younger generations. The bystander effect is a psychological experience, where witnesses refrain from helping another, as a result of the presence of others. In this new age, it has become very popular to record almost every aspect of our daily lives, from a baby’s birth to the last moments of a victims life. With popular social media outlets like Twitter and Instagram, it has become normal to post individuals fighting or partaking in reckless activities. However, this raises the question,“ if these recording bystanders had intervened or reached out for help, would they still have a video to post ?” Too many times has an incident occurred that could have easily been prevented, had cameras not been rolling. While social media is new to the 21st century, bystanding has transpired in multiple events throughout history. The bystander effect occurs as an unconscious psychological act of conformity, diffusion of responsibility, in conjunction with other factors. A prime example of this phenomenon, is the popular story of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed several times in her Queens’ neighborhood. In Genovese 's case, bystanders voices could be heard, suggesting that they initially heard her plea for help which scared the

In some states like California and Illinois, legislators have proposed bills that will penalize recording bystanders, because their actions, regardless of the intent encourage the evil acts. After all, when individuals post these videos online they contribute to the growing cyber bullying threat. This is not to say, that all individuals that post online, intend to cause harm to victims but to make them more aware of their actions and cause them to think before they act and possibly,