Ask yourself: Is this video making the world safer? Or are you just enjoying the pain of a stranger?
Consider the video of the young driving instructor (a teenager) who was rear-ended by a truck driver. She got out, crying, and the truck driver screamed at her. When that video went viral, the discussion flipped entirely: "Protect her." "Hire a lawyer and sue." "Who yells at a child?" Ask yourself: Is this video making the world safer
And perhaps, that is the most dangerous driver on the road today: not a teenager, but a global audience of millions, racing to condemn someone else’s mistake to avoid looking at their own. Have you seen a video like this go viral? Share your thoughts below—but remember, the person you’re talking about is likely reading this. She got out, crying, and the truck driver screamed at her
Humans have a neurological reaction to witnessing failure, known as Schadenfreude (joy at another's misfortune). However, when the subject is a young female, the reaction is often amplified by expectations of "maturity." Society expects young men to crash cars (stereotyped as reckless); when a young girl does it, it breaks the frame of "caution" and feels more shocking. punishment without trial
Social media has democratized narcissism. Young girls who have grown up on TikTok and Instagram often treat real life like a performance. When they get into a car accident, they sometimes livestream the aftermath. This "meta" layer—watching someone document their own disaster in real-time—creates an infinite loop of irony that the internet finds irresistible.
The social media discussion surrounding these clips is a hyper-compressed version of our worst impulses: judgment without context, punishment without trial, and entertainment derived from the humiliation of youth. While the young girl in the video will eventually (hopefully) learn to parallel park and pay her insurance deductible, the internet never forgets.
But why? Why does a video of a young female behind the wheel—or arguing about being behind the wheel—capture the global imagination so intensely?