The bell rings at 3:30 p.m. and students pull out their phones, eager to scroll after a stressful school day. Upon opening Instagram, they are greeted with a jarring upload: an AI-generated reel of convicted sex offender Jefferey Epstein dancing to Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia.” Instead of scrolling past and ignoring, many choose to laugh. They repost and share it in group chats. Some like the posts and read the comments, giving unnecessary attention to mockery of a painful situation. Memes like this are seen as humorous. They exemplify the internet’s way to cope with the atrocities taking place in the world. Instead, these types of video content and social media posts desensitizes people to horrific events, turning serious situations into attention-seeking dopamine hits.
Although mockery of heavy situations has happened for years, it skyrocketed with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a famous right-wing conservative who debated college students at campuses across the United States. While debating at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, Kirk was shot in the neck and pronounced dead the same day.
Initially met with horror, shock and disgust, the internet quickly turned a tragedy into a meme. Content creators made videos mocking Kirk’s death through edits and AI-generated footage, with the most famous example being the AI-generated song “We are Charlie Kirk” by Spalexma. With over 5 million views on Youtube, the song seemingly celebrates Kirk’s achievements over his career. Yet, mockery is evident. The song is not meant to honor Kirk, but rather laugh at his death. Instead of mourning the death of an American citizen, the internet celebrated. This is utterly disgusting. Regardless of one’s beliefs, turning someone’s death into a trending audio is cruel and shows lack of respect. It demonstrates how numb and desensitized people are to America’s gun violence and political extremism; they would rather ridicule a man who became victim to polarization than maturely discuss the implications of the shocking assassination.
Desensitization follows the investigation into late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who became notorious online for his crimes detailed in the material dubbed the “Epstein Files.” The files, which began release in November 2025 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, include an assortment of emails and official documents that detail Epstein’s involvement in serial sex trafficking of young women and the political figureheads who had knowledge
and involvement in these actions. Following the initial release, people online quickly turned the abhorrent topic into a plethora of memes and AI- generated content.
Videos mocked the severity of Epstein’s crimes, with some users idolizing him in comments sections: some commented in an Instagram reel “why bro kinda hot” and “womp womp.” These accounts’ content minimizes the pedophilia and sexual abuse that evidently pervaded the upper eschelon of elite society. The gravity of abuse was turned into light-hearted jokes. People lack understanding of the gravity and impact, causing ignorance of the appalling nature of such heinous crimes.
However, is the internet’s spread of mockery and disgusting content the root cause for global desensitization? The New York Times highlighted that about seven out of 10 children had unrestricted access to the internet by 2010. The National Center for Educational Statistics indicates in 2021, this number increased, with an estimated 97% of three-to-eight year olds having unrestricted internet use. Alarmingly, a generation seemingly accessed the internet before being able to attend school. Through exposure at an early age, children are desensitized to horrible news online before they fully understand what they are seeing. Violence, gore, pedophilia and graphic images are now available at one’s fingertips, and this effect is pervasively felt today. What should be a shock is normal by adolescence. Children never learn or realize how wrong the content exposure is, so humor becomes a way for young minds to digest current events. This willful ignorance becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of desensitization to terrible situations.
Humanity needs to quit social media and touch grass to combat desensitization. Collectively, people need to realize that the humor surrounding these atrocities only undermines the severity, and to discover empathy for the tragedies these situations represent. It is understandable why some turn to humor: many feel they do not have power to change anything going on in the current world. Taking one look at the news can be disheartening. Laughing at atrocities is less stressful than fully understanding how horrible the world has become.
The internet is a tool that should be utilized for change; petition websites and social media can be used to kickstart societal improvement. For example, feminine hygiene company Always launched a social media campaign #LikeAGirl in 2014, transforming what used to be an insult into a statement of confidence for young girls. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge featured people posting videos of themselves dumping buckets of ice water over their heads, raising awareness of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and $115 million dollars towards research of the neurodegenerative disease. Desensitization to horrific events will only cause more harm in the long run. After all, advocacy and awareness can be spread online with the same number of clicks used to spread mockery and hate.
