Every morning I spend some time before class scrolling through huffingtonpost.com and most of the time I end up reading a few articles and then signing off. This morning a crazy headline caught my eye, it read “Cadaver Selfie: Alabama High School Student Posts Photo With Dead Body To Instagram.” This was posted yesterday morning. My first reaction was disgust. How could someone actually think that it was okay to do something so disrespectful?
It really got me thinking, does the millennial generation really not know what is and is not appropriate behavior on the internet, or at all? Are we not being taught how to the proper media etiquette? Granted, I don’t think most parents think about telling their children not to post pictures of cadavers while using instagram, but maybe they thought their kids had enough common sense.
News articles like these worry me because it shows just how insensitive people are becoming when it comes to the use of social media. We have no barriers. And while we have all probably written a post or put up a picture that would have been better off left private, stories like these really do show us that some people have no common sense or ethics when it comes to using social media. I think that lots of young adults and teens need to learn that even though social media allows us to sit behind a screen; we still need to be ethical in our decision making.
Perhaps internet etiquette needs to become a part of the high school curriculum. Or maybe parents need to more closely monitor what their children are posting on social media, where the whole world can see them and judge their actions. These are all questions that the generations before us never had to face, but it is our responsibility to come up with some answers. Even though this story was shocking and upsetting, I am hoping that it is just outrageous enough to really make people think about how they can be more respectful and ethical when using social media.
Cadaver selfie: Alabama high school student posts photo with dead body to instagram. (2014, February 06). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/cadaver-selfie-alabama-dead-body-instagram_n_4737833.html
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This is really sad and ridiculous on this girls part. I think this just goes under basic human respect instead of something that needs to be taught in high school. But I do think we could all benefit from some sort of social media etiquette training.
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I’m so glad someone posted about this. I just recently saw this picture, and I agree it’s disgusting. I think you’re right in suggesting Internet etiquette classes for High School students, and maybe even elementary and middle school students.
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