With the growing importance of the 'virtual world', the importance linked to social media has somehow managed to increase at an even faster rate than it was before. It no longer just serves as a means of communication and connectivity but has somehow formed a rather fluid life of its own. Social media has branched out into numerous platforms ranging from means of earning like Instagram modeling, vlogging, social media marketing all the way to social media activism. The possibilities are now endless.
The growing importance and accessibility of social media has given it a very vital role in today's rapidly modernizing, 'woke' society. Various people take onto social media as a platform to make information and incidents public, and pretty much anyone can go viral. From videos displaying racism in America getting viral all the way in South Asia, to Pakistanis using social media to raise awareness regarding the case of forced conversion of a minor, the whole idea of gaining attention or going viral has been monetized as a tool.
This accessibility and wide usage has set social media up as means of accountability in a sense, especially with the newly founded 'cancel culture'. Whereby a number of marginalized groups come together using social media platforms such as Instagram or Twitter in order to either vocalize their experiences or construct safe spaces for themselves. These safe spaces can exist in the form of private accounts and groups, a long list of mutuals or even public accounts and spaces on social media platforms that condone only 'woke' behavior and pretty much anything and is backed by and supported through the existence of cancel culture, whereby saying or getting caught doing the wrong thing may get you 'cancelled'.
However, while on one hand, the concept of safe spaces is being created, there is also another more private community of 'edgy' or 'dark' humor enthusiasts and supporters, who basically consider concepts of basic respect as shackles to their advanced sense of humor. And thus social media acts as a safe space for them to invade other people's safe space through the creation and promotion of 'edgy' jokes. Where the use of 'edgy ' is just an umbrella term for jokes that are openly sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and on and on and on.
And while a number of social media rules and regulations exist, alongside 'woke' and 'cancel' culture, I do think that its beyond impossible to prevent this kind of material from being regulated. We have become so immersed in creating safe spaces that we forget the world beyond isn't safe, and more often than not, 'edgy' and 'dark' mindsets prevail.
I completely agree! Where it once was stand up comedy that used to be seen as a free-for-all, anything goes platform - evading any, and all forms of political correctness, now its niche meme culture that has filled this vacuum, and its more than a little concerning to see their popularity despite social policing and wider awareness around tolerance and diversity.
Interesting read and a phenomenon we see time and time again. In my opinion humor is highly subjective an cant really be regulated and controlled but to expend that kind of offensive humor in spaces where its possible that you may hurt or trigger someone, is highly problematic. At the end of the day, there is a stark difference between tasteful dark humor and flat out bigotry in the name of comedy
I think you've portrayed both sides of the coin well. Even though one get a lot of help online, there's so much that we should avoid. On almost every post related to racism or sexism, there are so many comments underneath making r*pe jokes, or sexist jokes, and if you try to explain how this could be triggering for someone and why it's wrong to take these things lightly, you are met with replies that are absolutely unfathomable. People call this "dark humour", but there is a way to do these things fruitfully, and without going over the top on something.
I guess that’s what happens when a generation sets the norm for online regulation around humour. You shelter trolls and problematic people like these under the guise of ‘you shouldn’t take things on the internet too seriously’
Honestly, the amount of people I've met who make misogynist, racist, bigoted, sexist jokes and then put it off as "dark humor" is terrifying. Whenever someone tells me they have a dark humor, my brain imagines a spectrum ranging from jokes about existential dread at one end and rape jokes at the other with various jokes about death included. It's very important that you pointed this out!!