Despite an ongoing international search for the missing Titan submarine, it has already been found. documentary about tragedy It will air on Thursdays at 7pm local time on UK channel Channel 5. This comes just hours after the clock stopped due to a lack of oxygen on board the ship, which disappeared near the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday, and five people on board, including a father and his 19-year-old son, were killed. You will slowly suffocate to death.

Even if Titan is located, rescue is increasingly likely to be technically impossible. The unimaginable tragedy has drawn the strange media frenzy we’ve become accustomed to in the 21st century: claustrophobia, frozen limbs, chaos, and mood swings that may be happening inside Titan. Explained minute by minute—it’s about the size of a sardine minivan and has one small porthole.

Exploitative coverage of death and terrorism unfolding in real time is compounded by the public reaction on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. Griefle makes fun of the video game controller used to pilot the Titan, laughs at the billionaire inside the submarine, jokes about the effects of lack of oxygen on the human psyche, and replaces fart sounds. It best describes the intent of many of the posts, such as A knocking sound that the rescuers may have heard underwater.

Let’s not forget the disturbing digital trail of missing passenger Hamish Harding’s son-in-law, Brian Zass. Zass attended a Blink-182 concert during the search and posted about how music helped him through a difficult time. Rapper Cardi B criticized him, he hit back, and a highly useless online beef went viral and countless strangers flocked for the wrong reasons.

Like the digital Tower of Babel, social media is evolving into an increasingly ugly and chaotic space. It is a real-time repository of our worst impulses, uninspired musings, scatological humor, and inappropriate thoughts that should be kept secret. It’s the Online Mall of America. A sprawling, empty, relentlessly commercial, soul-sucking mall. And in times of immense political, environmental and social crisis, it has become a dumping ground for sordid comments broadcast in public, which is exactly what we are doing now. Because that’s what it is.

There is much to be learned about this particular incident on the Titan. That includes the fact that a boat carrying 750 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece five days before the submersible disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean. Only 104 passengers survived. Nothing in this horrific accident came close to 24 hours of relentless media coverage as much as Titan.

The unfortunate name of the company that built the Titan submarine is also “Oceangate”, but it inherently smells of scandal thanks to that suffix. The Titan was piloted by the company’s CEO and founder, Stockton Rush, who allegedly ignored potentially dangerous conditions on board in favor of profit. Tickets for the eight-hour voyage cost $250,000 each.

Finally, there are the charms, mysteries, and legends of the Titanic itself. This ill-fated ship is synonymous with arrogance, and is known for exposing the dastardly impulses of the super-rich who fled a sinking steamship in life rafts and let their quarantined third-class passengers die. That tragedy occurred in 1912. The year saw US presidential elections center around the issue of economic inequality, culminating in his 1929 just before the stock market crash and the Great Depression.

Income inequality today is even worse. According to the 2022 Global Inequality Report, there are nearly 3,000 billionaires in the world, making them wealthier than half of the population. No wonder the public on social media is rooting for a killer whale attacking a luxury yacht. There is real outrage at the wealthy and their way of wasting money on vain projects like commercial rockets to the moon while the earth is literally on fire.

Nevertheless, as one sensible commentator posted on Twitter, it is possible to make room for both drowned immigrants and missing billionaires. In fact, all levels of human suffering and death must be respected in order to preserve any degree of human decency.

And social media can be used for good if you put in the effort. Some users have tracked maritime traffic in the area via satellite and posted their results. Others are actively trying to combat the widespread misinformation surrounding Titan’s disappearance.

Imagine for a moment that you have a camera inside Titan that allows you to observe the increasing despair of its hull. Would we make a joke if we actually had to see the pain in the eyes of dying people?

I hope not. But as the gap between our brains and our online avatars becomes dangerously perforated, I suspect we seem to lose touch with the flesh-and-blood vessels that house our minds. .