Byron Esquivel

English 115
Professor Vana
2nd progressions essay

Esquivel 1

Society is as Society Does

Not helping someone is as bad as hurting them in certain situations. On most social media
sites, it is very common to see people trying to help with specific causes. I know most people
will say that social media puts our society into a bad perspective but I dont think so. Obviously
there is a lot of bullying on social media but there are also a lot of people trying to help. People
try to stop bullying by raising awareness on social media. World hunger is also a very common
topic on social media as far as raising awareness goes. Also when someone posts a video, or
picture, or anything of that nature, most users on that social media site will follow and give good
criticism. While I believe some people in our society use social media to further enhance their
bullying ways or to oppress their victims, social media can also show us how caring and
thoughtful people in the world can truly be. The way social media portrays society can be kind of
skewed at times but in my opinion it can truly express our want to help those in need. One of the
most common topics as far as need goes is hunger.
Interest in the extent of hunger in the United States has fluctuated over the years. There
was little public discussion of the subject during the post-Depression era until the mid-1960s
when unscientific but dramatic media exposes of the extent of hunger in the country helped
launch the war on poverty - Eugene M. Lewit and Nancy Kerrebrock. On YouTube I was able
to find a video entitle 60 seconds that will change your life In the video, a young man (Sam)
approaches random strangers in the mall and asks them for a slice of their pizza, they all denied
him a slice. Later on that day, the young man has his friends give a homeless man a slice of pizza
(the homeless man did not know this was planned, Sam then approached the homeless man
asking for food and the homeless man in the simplest way just said sure.The video is basically

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a social experiment on peoples tendency to be selfish just simply because they want to be. The
video is very touching because the man who had the least was willing to give the most. Then I
also found comments on the video from people claiming how nice of a gesture it was and how
heartwarming and touching it was yet I can bet you none of those people would ever waste their
time or money on a homeless man that they did not know. This homeless man has so little yet he
is willing to share the little he has, while the people in the food court have more than enough to
share yet they are denying someone a slice of their pizza. Most comments on the video were
positive with people saying things such as Wow! What a great video, wish there were more like
it or People need to see this and spread the word These kinda of videos give me hope in
humanity Bianca L. (a youtube user) While people may say that Sam hadnt done much, what
he did do was show us a gentler, softer side of the story. Sam showed us something most of us
probably did not know he proved that sometimes those with the least to offer are often the first to
share.
Another huge problem going on today is bullying and stopping it, or lack thereof.
Research has found that bullying is not a harmless phenomenon; rather it is a widespread and
serious problem that must be addressed (Espelage & Swearer, 2003. Hoover & Oliver, 1996.
Nansel et al, 2001; Olweus, 1993) I recently found a video on YouTube entitled The bullying
experiment by Fousey Tube. FouseyTube is a youtube channel created by some guy about 3
years ago. Fousey has over 4 million subscribers on his channel thus giving him a broad
audience. The video is basically just a social experiment to see if strangers will jump in to stop
someone from getting bullied. The results were almost all pretty negative. Whats going on in the
video is that 2 guys; one being a bully the other being the victim will begin the bullying in
front of random people to see what the peoples reactions are. After deciding whether or not the

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person is going to help, the bully admits that its an experiment and will ask the strangers why
they either helped or didnt. Most of the people that didnt help were asked why they didnt and
they pretty much all said It was none of my business that dimmed the light on society but there
were some good examples in the video. For Example, a small girl happened to see the bullying
and immediately jumped in physically separating the bully from the victim and screaming at the
bully to leave. The girl was asked why she stepped in and she said I know Im a small girl but I
cant see someone being abused like that especially physically. This video just shows that there
are still some people out there who will try to help someone in need, I know not everyone helped
but some people did. While the video did not demonstate a %100 success rate there were still
some positives to the video.
Interestingly I found another video about helping others entitled The Kidnapping
Children Experiment. This video is also by FouseyTube, in this video a man attempts to kidnap
a child after the child has ran to strangers for help. The kid basically goes up to strangers and
says Can you please call my mom? I was at the park and this man in a jacket tried to take me
The kidnapper than arrives and grabs the child in front of these strangers or says something
like Hes my son is he lying to you? He purposely says it in a suspicious tone to see how easy
it is to trick someone. This video had about a 90% success rate as far as helping went. It
surprised me to see that most people were willing to help the child. Imagine seeing a mother or
father breaking down after you could have stopped their child from being kidnapped. Picture
how the child must have felt waiting for you to help while you sat idly by without acting.
Children can be kidnapped at any time and sadly cannot help themselves. All it takes to stop a
kidnapping is some attention, just let the kid know youre there to help. This video really brings

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some positivity back into our society by showing that most people were there to help the child. In
one instances, a woman even pepper sprayed the kidnapper so he could leave the kid alone.
I know most people will tell me that I am wrong and that social media puts society in a
bad light, but that isnt necessarily true. People will bring up bullying as the first means as to
why social media makes society seem bad but lets be honest thereal bullying doesnt happen
over social media it happens in the real world. Another negative light is people say well you
cant stop hunger over the internet and well honestly you cant but it cannot hurt to raise
awareness can it? As I showed above, not everyone is going to step in and help but once in a
while you will get that person that isnt afraid to stand up for someone else. Or you will find a
person who isnt afraid of being ridiculed for raising awareness through social media what I am
trying to say is that while not everyone has the courage that some of the people in the videos had
or the heart that Sam had in the first video, there are still good people out there and I do believe
social media helps exhibit that.
As bystanders we can choose to turn our heads or step in, its pretty much the old fight or
flight effect. Social media helps by getting the word out on stepping up for others. Obviously
there were never be a point where 100% of people will step in to stop something from happening
or where all people are willing to share what they have with the less fortunate but I feel we can
come close. In the bullying video I seen a quote that really spoke to me, the line said If you are
on a neutral side and you do nothing to help, you have already chosen the side of the oppressor
that made so much sense and it shows how we can hurt someone even by not doing a thing to
them. I believe, at least in the US, that social media can be a gateway to finally minimalizing a
lot of the big problems we have in the world such as hunger, bullying, or kidnapping. I also feel
like most people on social media do want to help even if it is just by raising awareness. The best

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way to stop an issue is to first get people to understand that there is an issue to be stopped. It
seems as if though when people see someone trying to help they will follow along and they will
try to help someone else and the best way to get the message of helping others out there is
through social media. Our society while being viewed with mainly negative characteristics
through social media does have several big highlights such as the fact that some people were
willing to help those in need. In the instances above I believe I have shown that social media puts
society in a positive spotlight.

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Sources Cited
Espelage & Swearer, 2003. Hoover & Oliver, 1996. Nansel et al, 2001; Olweus, 1993
FouseyTube, YouTube. The Kidnapping Children Experiment Online Video Clip. February 9,
2014.
FouseyTube, YouTube. The Bullying Experiment Online Video Clip. December 1, 2013.
Sam, YouTube. 60 seconds that will change your life Online Video Clip. July 6, 2014.