Kelly Given: Gen-Z and the response to tragic Titan deaths

But not in the typical way you’d expect from a tragedy.

There are a few notable strands of the response – empathy and shared grief, outrage that the attention afforded to this disaster was astronomical in comparison to the disappearance of hundreds of refugees just a week prior. Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly – dark humour.

The internet has been swamped with memes about the submersible in what has been a very strange yet defining cultural moment – and it got me thinking about why.

Of course, there is a collective disdain for billionaires amongst the general population. Rightly so, as has been pointed out many times over the last week, no-one becomes a billionaire without the exploitation of others.

But is that enough to warrant an almost gleeful celebration of their death?

Have we simply just become desensitised to human suffering post-pandemic? Or is this how Gen-Z have learned to cope?

I’ve seen far too much simplification, and none of the analysis has really got to the heart of the issue. The loss of human life in any scenario is a tragedy, and no-one should be left to die at sea. A relatively non-contentious fact.

Despite some explicit statements to the contrary, the vast majority of people sharing memes about the Titan are not actually celebrating the death of other human beings. The frustration and anger fuelling this discourse are embedded much deeper than the surface display.

Gen-Z are the prime operators of social media in the modern age. And we have come of age in an era characterised by uncertainty and suffering. Marked by events such as economic recessions, political polarisation, climate change, and the Covid pandemic.

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These collective challenges have created a pervasive sense of anxiety and disillusionment amongst young people, and it manifests clearly across the coping mechanisms of our generation.

On the same coin – growing up in an era of instant information and exposure to the darkest corners of the internet, we have all become desensitised to difficult subjects in a way never seen before.

Finding humour in the face of tragedy is not necessarily an indicator of a terrible human being, but simply an indicator of the fact that it serves as a comfort. Humans better cope with disturbing or uncomfortable realities when light can be found within them. Transforming them into something more digestible and manageable.

Dark humour has long been a coping mechanism in the offline realm – it provides a way to navigate by creating a psychological distance from difficult subjects – but it feels more shocking to see it online in black and white.

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To reiterate, it is not the loss of human life that’s the source of the humour. It’s the sheer injustice the event is enveloped in – and the collective rage – that inspires it.

It’s the vast wealth injustice causing more people in Britain to experience poverty and insecure housing than ever before, while billionaires are dropping the cost of a house for a seat on a glorified bath toy – to explore a mass grave that claimed the lives of primarily poor people.

It’s that refugee children perished in the Mediterranean because their lives have been so undervalued by political motives that they were effectively looked in the eye and left to die – and there wasn’t $6.5m spared at the drop of a hat to save them.

Whilst the loss of life is tragic, the circumstances paint perfectly a picture of how backwards our society has become. That level of injustice is difficult to bear and feels insurmountable. Hence why there’s such a vast need to make light of it.

The internet and social media have shaped experiences and fostered a strong sense of community, particularly since the pandemic when it became the primary method of communication.

This sense of dark humour has acted as a shared language in times of discomfort and unites those who find solace in it by sharing perspectives and validating each other’s sense of struggle and injustice.

The world feels increasingly unfair and unmanageable, particularly to young people.

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It’s harder than ever to live securely and we are constantly being told by politicians with absurd amounts of personal wealth how we should and should not live and enjoy our lives. Following a pandemic and the suffering felt across all aspects of our existence, there’s little enjoyment to be found anywhere of late.

The very nature of dark humour relies on satire. It uses irony and sarcasm to expose hypocrisy and injustice. Driven by a desire for social change, it’s merely a tool to challenge oppressive systems and social hierarchies.

By subverting conventional narratives and highlighting the flaws and contradictions of the world around us, dark humour is a mechanism to assert our agency and find empowerment in a world where it is not well enough shared.

On the other hand, the internet has also provoked a rise in widespread outrage. It’s never been easier to take a simplistic view of world affairs, and it’s never been easier to share that view with thousands of people at the click of a button.

Instant gratification is a never-ending gift to confirmation bias – and this is the perfect topic to express outrage about.

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Who’s going to argue about the fact that the loss of human life isn’t funny? No-one, because that would be despicable.

And very little effort will be made across the board to challenge that thought process once it’s established. But critical thinking is applicable here.

While some memes have been taken too far – and there is of course life to be remembered in among all of this – there are various psychological, social and cultural factors at play in the internet’s response to the Titan tragedy.

It may not be universally embraced or understood, but it serves as a powerful tool to process anxiety, find camaraderie and express dissent in an increasingly overwhelming and complex world. I think we can afford to cut it some slack.