In the wake of the sudden death of One Direction star Liam Payne, several of his fans have livestreamed their reaction to his death. A TikToker was recording a video wearing clown makeup when her mother walked into her room and informed her of the news of Payne’s passing. Amelie Brown, who has 2,000 followers on TikTok, still posted the video online to share her shock at the news.
The 18-year-old from England has been a fan of the group since she was 4 and said that posting the video of her reaction, which now has nearly 4 million views, seemed natural to her, the New York Times quoted her as saying.
After Liam Payne’s untimely demise in Argentina, where he fell from his hotel room balcony, several videos showed up on social media where fans filmed themselves crying and reacting to news of his death. (Also read: Liam Payne’s drug source was a hotel employee, indictment likely)
One video captured someone being told on the phone that the pop star had died while another showed a musician who was livestreaming when the news broke abruptly end a song and shows viewers that she is shaking. Fans even recorded themselves telling their friends who were followers of the boy band the tragic news.
Grief goes online
Realtime reactions to hearing even the most devastating news are increasingly being posted to social media. Its common to see videos of users recording themselves getting laid off, getting injured or even experiencing natural disasters like earthquakes and floods.
A few weeks ago, as a devastating hurricane hit Florida, a man recorded himself kayaking in a flooded living room. Surrounded by water and in a dangerous situation, he filmed himself and posted the video instead of evacuating his house during Hurricane Helene. (Also read: Florida man kayaks in flooded living room during Hurricane Helene. Viral video)
These videos usually go viral on social media quickly and are quick to catch users’ eyes as they offer an insight into deeply personal moments. One of the first examples of inappropriate moments being shared online was in 2018 when YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video of he and his friends finding the body of man who appeared to have died by suicide in a forest in Japan.
Nothing too grave to not be filmed
In a report by the New York Times, Casey Lewis, who writes the youth culture newsletter After School said that such videos are normalised and YouTube has taken away the shock value of some of these reactions. “YouTube did the legwork of making that sort of content feel normal and how you sort of work your way through things, and then TikTok put gasoline on the fire,” she said.
“We see people write on loved ones’ Facebook walls and, you know, they’ve been dead for 10 years, but there’s still some something in there that they feel the need to express themselves on a public forum,” she said.
