How Far can People Get

Ethics, Online Persona, Social Media 0 comments

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña of Volcán Masaya

from El Ventarrón, Ticuantepe, Masaya, Nicaragua (2015)

How Far can People Get

In their pursuit of views and notoriety?

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
Head of Curriculum Development Academic Department Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano	Senior Language Professor School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Friday, July 31, 2020 Post 355

How far can people go in pursuit of views and notoriety? How far can people get for the sake of likes or retweets? In every country across the globe we all have examples of people who, for the sake of getting an outstanding selfie, do risky stuff. These activities are often against the law, common sense, and the basic ethical values of respect for the authority and the weighing of one’s decisions that can affect other individuals.

Rachels & Rachels (2010), in their “minimum conception of Morality,” state that “Morality is, at the very least, the effort to guide one’s conduct by reason -that is, to do what there are the best reasons for doing- while giving equal weight to the interests of each individual affected by one’s decisions” (p. 13). Daredevils on social media are examples of the persuit of views and notoriety, and these perilous acts contradict reason and equal weight to the interests of anyone who can be affected by unreasonable decisions. Daredevil’s online personas do not meet the minimum conception of Morality stated by Rachels & Rachels (2020).

Back in April 2019, Mckeena Knipe, while visiting the area of Jaco Beach, in the central Pacific Costal area of Costa Rica, decided to get a Russian roulette selfie, a daredevil. For the sake of likes on Facebook, Knipe became viral and famous for posting a video about her trip to Costa Rica, but fully focused on her visit to Tárcoles River (INDICEPR, 2019), a river infested by aligators. Knipe found her daredevil fun especially when she got suspended from the bridge over the alligators. Her companion just held her with the strength of his right arm, while his left hand grabbed the bridge fence (their supporting point) to prevent them from falling down. While suspended in midair, Knipe turned to her camera with a smiling face (Mc Quiddy, 2019); then her video was posted on Facebook.

Based on this desire for notoriety, Knipe did not guide her conduct by reason because there is no sensible justification for risking her life as well as her companion’s. Knipe did not give equal weight to the interests of her companion and any other people she cared for at the time of this selfie. And what about the respect towards the laws in Costa Rica? She did not measure the implications of her decisions and how they could have affected people if something had gone wrong in this dicey act.

To conclude, “The reasons for why individuals would take risky selfies are likely closely intertwined with individuals’ reasons for using social media and in particular the posting of selfies” (Sung et al., 2016) (also quoted by Chen, Schreurs, Pabian, & Vandenbosch, 2019). Many social media users are in pursuit of views and notoriety for the sake of projecting a given identity and of popularity needs. “These drivers of social media use may in particular be gratified by the practice of posting risky selfies” (Chen, Schreurs, Pabian, & Vandenbosch, 2019), but this gratification seems to be ephemeral. People like Knipe want to be recognized as adventurous and exceptional in the eyes of their media followers. People like Knipe “may post dangerous selfies to enhance [her] social ties and more specifically [her] popularity status” (Chen, Schreurs, Pabian, & Vandenbosch, 2019), her notoriety.