Sloan Jambor ‘26, Copy Editor/Social Media Manager
Car accidents, broken bones, and traumatic occurrences are common themes in videos or content in general displayed on apps like TikTok, X, and Instagram. While the videos are often disgusting, sad, or even upsetting to watch, they often end up as the videos with an abundance of likes and views. But why is it that the same people that comment how disturbing these videos are, are the same people that have these videos show up on their Reels or For You Page?
On the surface, many see it as a problem they have; however, Matt Hardigree, a researcher from Jalopnik, discovered it is more an underlying issue dealing with morbid curiosity and the idea of oneself being in that context. Morbid curiosity is defined as, “seeing or describing something so morbid you can’t look away from it.” Our brain functions in a way where we often put ourselves in the painful situations we see portrayed online—hence, why we continue to watch them. Morbid curiosity is similar to the way you rewatch videos of yourself or continuously look at the Instagram post you just released; it is human nature to rewatch the things that could or do feature you.
However, though some people may not want to always see the videos, the longer they interact with posts, the more their algorithm will comprehend the types of videos they tend to watch. It is commonly known that when one favorites, likes, or just rewatches a video, the app they are on will continue to show similar content. So, while one may try to get away from the disturbing content they are watching, without hitting the “not interested” button, the app will continue to show grueling videos.
Even though most will claim that they do not want to willingly watch these videos, there are often people that say that yet are still fascinated by the videos they are watching. Friends are often seen laughing over others’ pain because they think it is funny to see these situations happen to anybody other than themselves. A creator posted a video on TikTok of an accident he was in when he was eleven, and the comments were as follows: “LMAOO the little girl in the back… The way the glasses flew off… THE SILENCE AFTER”. Not once did the people care to express concern and instead just laughed, commented, and likely continued scrolling. The societal problem is, if the people watching these videos were in the accidents, they would not be laughing. Why is it okay to laugh at others’ expense because it is not you in the video, and why is it okay for these social media apps to leave these videos up? There are videos being taken down of people simply making a joke, no harm done, but the deaths of others stay streamed on the web. The videos of the TikTok trend to the song “Watch Me” taken down because one person jumps in the middle of their friends and is not caught, so they fall; however, the videos of the accidents on the highway remain played on people’s phones. Make that make sense.
For some, they choose to watch the videos out of entertainment purposes. For others, they laugh out of the need to fit in with who,ever they are watching. According to Xavier Lopez from PBS, it is common for those put in stressful situations to laugh out of nerves or an excessive amount of emotions. When there is a horrible scene being displayed on the screen, people’s automatic instincts are to laugh; the nervous laughing often happens during horror movies, accidents, or even when one breaks a bone; this is why the laughter and initial thoughts that the videos are funny are the knee-jerk first reaction.
As people continuously watch videos filled with distress and pain, the trauma slowly numbs and becomes normalized. There should be no reason that watching death unfold on camera should be glazed over, and the apps and people that are streaming or watching these videos should take action. It is one thing to watch a CGI filled movie filled with car crashes, and it is inevitable that car accidents occur on a daily basis, but why are people recording and posting these videos for public attention and hoping to go viral?
The pain that others are facing is not a joke to be laughed at; however, this obsession with the plights of others, and many have become a part of human nature, embraces these videos as just another like on the internet. From not being able to tear one’s eyes away from the screen, to the app itself not taking down these disturbing videos, car crashes and injuries are prone to appear on people’s screens, but that does not make it right to continue to fuel these posts. Laughing at somebody else’s expense is funny until it happens to you, so remember, next time you see one of these videos, try to scroll before they consume the entirety of your feed.
Lyon Life 