Mob Mentality/Bystander Effect & Racism

Have you ever had an agreement with someone's beliefs on a social media platform just to check the comments and see that everyone else disagrees? Did your opinion change right away?

If so, that's mob mentality; being influenced by a herd of people and going on with what they say, just to fit in. People like this lose their self-awareness, personal accountability, and their identity of what they believe in and what they do not. This plays a huge role in our lives currently because that's the majority of the population now. Hence, many people are corrupted with such hate and anger; why we can rarely get along! 

Social media changes our emotions because of others' perspectives on subjects, and before you shift, do a deep analysis of what's good and what's bad. I get extremely exhausted when I see a huge crowd of people pleasers in a comment section, knowing that this wasn't their opinion before. 

Now, instead of making another blog, I really wanted to speak on how this has a part in racism that's now becoming normalized indefinitely. It isn't just Mob Mentality itself but the Bystander Effect as well. Whenever a black person is successful and posts their achievements online, regardless of whether that's graduating or celebrating, some comments degrade her/him. Such as bringing up DEI programs, black fatigue, "EBT cards", etc. As I was observing the comments and diving deeper, I realized that there wasn't anyone attacking these comments or defending the colored person in the video. Mob Mentality played in this because instead of doing any of those actions, they decided to go along with it. If there weren't any racist comments, then they would've most likely scrolled past the video and gone along with their day, but since they felt "powerful", they had left comments too. Now, to the Bystander Effect.

You scroll past a video with hateful comments because you don't think it concerns you, or you don't care, or maybe you don't want to be mobbed by a bunch of unfunny, geeked-up racists. Maybe you're laughing as you're doing this, because that's not your race, or perhaps you're a colored person yourself and have been influenced as well. This is the Bystander Effect.

This, the Bystander Effect, is what normalizes racism as well, because you're letting it happen! It doesn't matter what race you are, and it isn't a crime for you to stand up to others, telling them that what they're doing is deeply wrong. It's social media, and if they can anonymously spread hatred, then you can anonymously spread love, even if that does sound cheesy as it is.

These two are dangerous to society as it create a mob full of people that are bound to influence others as well, and it hurts morals. As said before, analyze your morals and differentiate between what's good and bad. Ask plenty of friends, family, or do research if you don't trust yourself.