The Moral Dilemma of Social Media: Who’s Responsible?
BENEDICT KOK, CHERYL JUAN, AND MALAIKA ALADDIN explore the decline of morals in today’s social media, and the responsibility of influencers.
There are many influencers out there who produce content for their fervent fans on a daily basis, but sometimes, these content creators might overstep their moral boundaries in the pursuit of virality.
Over the last few months, the “Devious Licks Challenge” made headlines after its emergence on TikTok where it involved individuals stealing public property, with both influencers and smaller creators jumping on the bandwagon for the thrills and views.
With some of these minor influencers being thrown in the spotlight for their illegal and irresponsible deeds, it brings into question the moral responsibility that influencers hold, and the level of influence they have on their followers.
Leonika Ong, 18, is a frequent social media user who describes social media as “an echo chamber”.
“Whatever you consume, whatever is around you, it leads to you taking the content in thinking that it’s right,” she says. Though she does admit that these challenges like the Devious Licks Challenge are amusing and may be seen as encouraged behavior for viewers like herself, she says that there’s no doubt that the challenge was irresponsible.
The moral dilemma of social media goes beyond the Devious Licks Challenge. With Singapore having a more conservative culture, moral values are upheld to a high standard in society, with actions that might seem disrespectful or completely ignorant of other individuals being deemed as “socially irresponsible” to post - such as those depicting underage drinking, smoking or public shaming of individuals.
Kimberly Tham, 18, is an influencer who believes that influencers have a responsibility to curate their own content. “Influencers should be more aware on what boundaries there are and practice to remain behind it. So [as] not to cross and hit any of the trigger points,” she says.
TikTok influencer Kimberly Tham posing for a shot for her TikTok page. Influencers like herself are sometimes pressured to create attention-grabbing content.
PHOTO BY: Kimberly Tham
Though it’s one thing to be aware of the boundaries, it’s another issue to stay within it.
“I do feel pressured to create content that are just uncommon in the general public because you know, it catches views and it sparks a lot of attention,” she says. She adds that it can be difficult for influencers to fight the urge, but there are boundaries such as the law that shouldn’t be crossed.
However, not all influencers think likewise.
Some of Isabella’s TikToks that hit virality at 7,552 and 9,603 views respectively.
PHOTOS FROM: @isabellasatoo on TikTok.
Isabella Sato, 17, is a TikToker with 7,482 followers. Her content mostly involves her lip syncing to TikTok songs while doing dances and trends. Her content on social media may be touted as morally irresponsible to some, with depictions of crude language and references to drinking and smoking.
She said that she did not feel her social media posts have had any unintended consequences for herself or her audience, and that she had no issues with the type of influence she was spreading.
There could be several reasons as to why youths disregard morales in their pursuit of virality. Ms Geraldine Sim, 33, is a marketing manager whose work heavily involves the use of social media. “This is likely due to youths not yet having the maturity and discretion to understand the true dangers behind any tool,” she says, “Trying to gain acceptance and attention is nothing new in all humans - but what's different is social media allows for even more attention to be garnered, at a faster pace.”
Adding on, she says, “In fact, it's human nature that negativity spreads faster than positivity.” Hence, it could be why some influencers thrive on producing negative content.
However, the responsibility of moral social media usage lies not just in the hands of creators, but also the audiences themselves. Ms Sim says that there needs to be demand and support for morally responsible social media content, while a supply of such content is also required.
“As much as what they did was wrong, you can't control everyone's actions,” Leonika says, hence, as a frequent user of social media, she believes that everyone has to be responsible for themselves and their actions.
While creators should ensure they put out responsible content, the audiences have to be wary of letting the negative influences of social media manifest in their lives, and try to make it a point not to replicate irresponsible acts seen online.
As Ms Sim puts it, “It always takes two hands to clap.”