We know social media has taken over our lives. There is proof everywhere that shows how much our lives are governed by likes, shares and retweets. Around 10 days ago, Ludhiana witnessed another tragic incident that shows how low humanity has plunged. One that’ll force us to think about the kind of the world we are living in.
On January 6 this year, 5 youngsters were driving around the Detwal village near Mullapur Dakha in Ludhiana. And because the area had seen some rainfall in the previous days, the road was not the best to drive on, and the teenagers met with a bad accident.
The area wasn’t a very secluded one and people soon gathered around them. However, what is appalling is that instead of helping them out and taking them to a hospital, people took out their phones and started taking pictures and videos to share on social media. This went on for a good hour or so, while at least two of the youngsters were still alive, badly injured.
Even the immediate family members of the kids came to know about this when one of the friends of a girl involved in the accident saw a social media post. Finally, one of the passers-by, who was driving by the spot, decided to do what the others should have done long back. He helped one of the victims into his car, and asked people to take others to a hospital too. By the time they reached the hospital, 4 of the 5 were pronounced dead, and one was left paralysed.
The postmortem reports show that there was absolutely no alcohol in any of the victims’ blood. Their only crime was that they were over-speeding. Yes, a terrible mistake to make on a slippery road. But not a mistake large enough to lose your life over. Also, the fact they were over-speeding does not, in any way, absolve those people who went about taking pictures at the site of the crash and did nothing to help the victims, who might have been saved had they been taken to a hospital on time. The crime committed by those people is much larger than the one by the youngsters in the car.
One of the victim’s sisters, Asavari Bhardwaj took to Facebook to post about this tragic incident and what followed, thereafter. She spoke to ScoopWhoop, and told us that even when people came to mourn the deaths, they took out their phones and started showing her family members the social media photos and videos of the kids enjoying in the car.
Not a single person came to help. That’s how sad the state of our world is. Everyone was busy putting up social media posts asking others to save these kids, when they could themselves have helped them right there. They were alive for a good one hour. Just imagine if the whole world is there taking pictures of you and not helping you while you are struggling in pain fighting for your life.
It’s time to wake up people. It’s time we become empathetic towards people around us. No amount of shares and views on the internet are equal to somebody’s life. And if someone is lying in front of you writhing in pain, helping them out is not a deed of bravery, it’s just basic humanity. And if we can’t do that, there’s something terribly wrong with us as a society.