“If they had met him, they would have enjoyed him like the others,” says Tina Heschel, Rose’s mother, 37. She says she’s “tired of all the hate. “
“I only him to rest, ” he said.
The embarrassment to other people who are in poor physical condition or not adhering to regulations in a public fitness crisis has been an embarrassment since long before the coronavirus, researchers say, but the speed of distortion and success of the Social networks in the era of the pandemic give practice a new competitive dimension.
“It’s like I’ve just raised the volume of stigmas that already exist,” says David Barnes, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied pandemics and stigma.
People are ashamed or stigmatized when they feel threatened by something, want an explanation and find a scapegoat, this is helping them reaffirm their thinking and make sense of what is happening. This is a vital concept of a pandemic, which would possibly appear indisistent and invisible.
“There has been a society that has moralized the disease,” Barnes says.
Social networking sites like Facebook take this practice, which was previously limited to social circles or geography, and resize it in large proportions, making it unlimited.
“She replaced the expectation of speaking,” says Pamela Rutledge, a psychologist who studies the effect of social media as director of the Media Psychology Research Center. “Everyone has a voice now. “
And voices are used.
When a Florida sheriff said in August that his agents would not be allowed to wear a mask in limited circumstances, Twitter users temporarily called him “#COVIDIOT. “When doctors diagnosed the first case of coronavirus in Ecuador before this year, photographs circulated within hours on social media with the subconscious and intubated retired instructor appearing in her hospital bed.
Rose’s death was reported through national media and visitors from across the country stopped on her Facebook page to post messages or memes that embarrassed her, many also left messages wishing her good luck or scolding those who criticized her.
Shame can help others feel confident that they have done things right and that the other user will have to have made a mistake, says Sherry Turkle, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies social media. She calls it “magic cover” and fantasy. “
“It’s a way to put a wall between us and other people who get sick,” he says.
Social media also provides a quick way for others away from a pandemic to succeed in communities that share their beliefs, and when someone joins a group, this broader identity makes it easy to accumulate.
“You behave in a way that doesn’t behave individually,” Rutledge says.
People may not even realize they’re piling up by clicking on an emoji or leaving a comment as they scroll through their feed. Social media, Turkle says, can make misfortune very addictive.
“They no longer even depend on the content in question. They are addicted to the process of participation,” he says.
In addition, Facebook, Twitter and others offer users a way to make a judgment temporarily, a trial that, according to Rutledge, can create “legal, economic ramifications and all sorts of ramifications that would never have happened before. “
Julian Siegel estimates that the activity was reduced by 20% earlier this spring in place to eat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after he posted a photo on other people’s Nextdoor app waiting for food in his parking lot. social distance rules at Riverside Market; Siegel insists they were.
“It’s crazy. People who have never been here are denigrating us, telling us how we are propagating COVID,” Siegel says.
After that, he began to see other people slowly passing through his restaurant, taking photos or videos with the phones. “We call them warriors of social media. There is nothing you can do,” he said. “We would sign. “
Siegel saw 3 or 4 posts on the Nextdoor app and Facebook, and said discussions would arise about messages about whether consumers were safe. In the end, he believes that other people have defended the place to eat that has criticized him.
Christy Broce used social media to combat the stigma of feeding him. The Pocahontas County, West Virginia resident spent nearly a month in quarantine this summer after she and her two children contracted the virus.
She says the family circle brought them groceries and that she and her children were left alone, but they were despised, especially after someone falsely informed the local fitness branch that she was buying groceries at a grocery store a few days after giving positive.
This led her to make a public call for compassion on Facebook. Hundreds of people liked or liked this message, and many sent cards or support messages.
“People came up and got a little more interested,” Broce says.
Such a reaction does not surprise Rutledge, who says that sharing empathy or social media makes both the donor and recipient feel better and that, like shame or criticism, it can also help reaffirm a person’s opinions or beliefs.
And so is this advantage: “It’s also a way to make the global look a nicer, sweeter place. “
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Follow Tom Murphy, associated Press health editor on Twitter: http://twitter. com/thpmurphy
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