An actual example of the bystander effect

DGS students have the tendency to share videos on social media when fights break out. Throughout the years, the act of taking out your phone seems to immediately has become a norm when a fight occurs.

Senior Claudia Kattke believes students record fights in school because even with the aspect of fear and injury, it can be related to the thrill of watching an action movie.

“People will sometimes even have the urge to run up to the fight and record it. If they know about a fight happening they will want to be there to take a video and share it to their peers. I think people record these fights because it is kind of just like an action movie where you watch violence and find entertainment in it. [Recording the fights] is messed up, but it is how teenager’s minds are sometimes,” Kattke said.

Junior Stefan Tambik believes the recording and media attention of fights shines a bad light on DGS as a whole school — not just on the students involved.

“It just makes our school look a lot less inviting. Other schools probably have higher fight rates. But since they aren’t being recorded as much, the fact [that] they have more fights doesn’t hinder their reputation. I think it’s the physical evidence of the fights that connects more to people as threatening,” Tambik said.

Senior Scottlyn Williams believes the recording of fights is something that represents the violent nature of society overall.

“Taking a video and showing people like it’s a trending show numbs us to the underlying causes of such built up anger and violence in not just our student body but in our society as a whole,” Williams said.

Although bystanders are told to get security officials right away, instead they take out their phones to capture the moment, going against all of the rules students are told to follow.

Junior Samantha Hanek believes bystanders only make the situations worse.

“Very rarely do any bystanders try to stop a fight. If anything, they help hype it up and make it more out of hand,” Hanek said.

Kattke suggests that viewers of fights can sometimes take sides and add more fire to the fight.

“People are adding more negative energy into the environment where the fight is happening and they are hyping it up. They will sometimes pick a side and hype the other person to fight them or beat them up,” Kattke said.