Indonesian's Desensitized.

[Vanhelsing]

It's become apparent to me that a traffic accident in Indonesia will see individuals gathered around with their phones raised while a person is in distress, minus a body part or dead, this also seems to happen a lot Cambodia and Thailand. I was wondering how people are able to calmly stand around recording these images seemingly unfazed by the obvious trauma another person is going through. You'll also see a similar scenario when a thief is caught and beaten.

Why are people in Indonesia and South East Asia so desensitized to such scenes?

 

[waarmstrong]

Recording an unusual event (at least to the recorder, anyway) does not seem to be a pass time limited to SE Asian people. Going to the races hoping to see spectacular wrecks is not a recent phenomena; the only thing new -- personal, portable, inexpensive recording technology.

 

[Anglian]

It would seem every event is now recorded by our little hand held devices, no matter where in the world, possibly if the event is a major disaster some financial reward can be given by some news agency for the recording

 

[Vanhelsing]

You'll find many more videos of accident trauma from Asia than from say Australia, or Britain. And there are other aspects of Indonesian life that display similar insensitivity such as the treatment of animals, the often brutal street justice and the beatings of children which you don't find as prevalent in most western countries. I'm not convinced it is just a matter of technology in Indonesia.

 

[Bad_azz]

"Why are people in Indonesia and South East Asia so desensitized to such scenes?"

Because the human species is a vile creature and has about as much natural empathy as a dried peanut.
They will pull others down before build them up, they will push others under the train to ensure they get the last space on it, they will trample others underfoot in a bid to spend small pieces of paper on items made of plastic, they will kill babies and children and others in the name of their fairy story, and its promotion of being the best of the bunch of fairy stories.

As I said vile creatures - not all, I'm quite a decent person- but even I have a darker side- somewhat constrained by my own conscience. Joe public & its handphone has no conscience or empathy... none- not a jot- very much the fk you generation.

 

[waarmstrong]

You'll find many more videos of accident trauma from Asia than from say Australia, or Britain. And there are other aspects of Indonesian life that display similar insensitivity such as the treatment of animals, the often brutal street justice and the beatings of children which you don't find as prevalent in most western countries. I'm not convinced it is just a matter of technology in Indonesia.

A rather colonial interpretation of anecdotal evidence, I think.

 

[Bad_azz]

Yet you didn't attempt to answer the question mr waarmie with or without the SE Asia element.
So is it a quantity over quality couple of posts you made?

 

[Nimbus]

Part of it is because the police and the hospitals (before BPJS) used to hold the helpers responsible for the accident, under the assumption that only the guilty would spend the effort to help. This is one of many despicable things the police do (or used to do) that leads to a culture of apathy. Indonesian outdated law still criminalizes purely unintentional and unforeseen accidents that causes a loss of human life, so if you help an accident victim who ultimately dies and the police processes you for it, then you are potentially going to jail.

 

[Vanhelsing]

A rather colonial interpretation of anecdotal evidence, I think.

A simple man's observation as apposed to any colonial interpretation.

 

[jukung11]

I agree with vanhelsing. I have never had someone offer to show me dead and dismembered body parts from Facebook from the U.S.A. I have had many from Indonesia. Also horror movies seem more popular in Indonesia. Southeast Asia, Indonesia in particular, has one of the highest social media usage rates in the world too. They share this on social media and it gets them more attention and reinforcement. It is a mashup of technology with culture.

I find it weird too that if you google image search many Indonesian words or places you will get pictures of gore. I frequently image search new words or places to get to see how they used in the context of society. Always a few gory pictures mixed in regardless of the word or place.

 

[John_Oates]

I find this true as well. You just have to look at my facebook feed and there is a lot more 'gore' and 'disturbing' content from my Indonesian friends than my foreign friends. If someone from England posted things I sometimes see Indonesians post they'd get a lot of comments asking what the heck they were doing.

There's definitely a culture thing going on. Maybe no watersheds on TV? Film age ratings being routinely ignored (I've sat next to a father and 10 year old kid in a cinema here for an 18 film)...I dunno what, but something is different here.

 

[colroe]

And the crowd cheering and taking hp movies as the masked thug whips victims!

 

[rabbit_39]

A rather colonial interpretation of anecdotal evidence, I think.

I don't think so. For sure the graphical scenes shown on many publications and spread around social media within Indonesians (mostly) goes way past any threshold I'm used to in the USA.

 

[waarmstrong]

A rather colonial interpretation of anecdotal evidence, I think.

Yet you didn't attempt to answer the question mr waarmie with or without the SE Asia element.
So is it a quantity over quality couple of posts you made?

I thought I offered an opinion on that question in post #2, but true -- as to why the human spirit craves the sensational, the unusual, and is titillated by the pain of others, I don't know. Perhaps schadenfreude is simply part of our nature.

 

[waarmstrong]

I don't think so. For sure the graphical scenes shown on many publications and spread around social media within Indonesians (mostly) goes way past any threshold I'm used to in the USA.

A rather colonial interpretation of anecdotal evidence, chapter 2.

 

[sumyunggai]

I think death is more normal in Indonesia. At least where I am, the average people person attends a funeral at least monthly, and every week you will see evidence of one taking place. The family are involved with digging the grave and burying the deceased, which is not the case in many Western countries.

When someone dies, if the opportunity present itself, there is a common desire to take a photo of the body and upload it in rigor mortis on Facebook. I have seen photos from different sources of the same body in a clinic, and I am by no means the best connected on social media.

People taking vague photos of accident scenes in England without any visible gore (but where someone has died) are often the subject of criticism, but I have never seen a word of criticism against Indonesians uploading someone's dead family member to Facebook, so presumably they do not see it any problem with it.

 

[Daniel50]

Yes, someone I was talking with affirmed this as well, more graphic pics circulated. They postulate that perhaps people are just not educated/aware of it being not appropriate. I am not sure what some other societies/cultures would have been like, if they had social media at the time .

 

[waarmstrong]

Yes, someone I was talking with affirmed this as well, more graphic pics circulated. They postulate that perhaps people are just not educated/aware of it being not appropriate. I am not sure what some other societies/cultures would have been like, if they had social media at the time .

A usually reliable (and verifiable) source, as in "all my friends have a similar opinion, so it must be true" sort of circular reasoning.

 

[john madden]

... perhaps people are just not educated/aware of it being not appropriate.

Who gets to decide what's "appropriate" - the deceased, the community or society in which they lived, those from other cultures?
I gotta confess - I hate the word "appropriate" - usually mealy mouthed code for "I don't like ..... but am not able to justify my opinion."

 

[Bad_azz]

Slightly off topic but as sumyunggai mentioned this point I am adding to it.
I think the Western viewpoint of what is appropriate & the Indonesian views are very different. Westernised deaths tend to be much more "sanitised " as if death has to be kept away from life for fear of it being contagious perhaps. Roman times saw burial grounds being placed on the edge of towns- yet some places have burials within the walls of the buildings, death & burial practices throughout history are fascinating for me.
Re my observations of Indonesia: death is a much more communal event here, it could be down to lack of funds for the ones still alive - why spend a fortune on disposing of a body when the ones left behind need every penny to survive? I have attended several funerals (all Islamic) here in Indonesia & it has been very hands on for the families involved- from seeing through the passage of life to death, cleansing the body and digging the grave. Small children through to adults are present and involved- the demarkation line seems to be gender based rather than age. Men will attend the cleansing of the corpse of a male relative, women will attend to the female corpse.

I believe death is very much seen as part of life - as I fully believe, it should be. None of us get out of here alive.

But I still think that posting gore & body part & corpses all over social media is a bit tasteless more because of teh intent behind it- just to get some social attention and a moment of gory glory is not acceptable.
Posting a (non-gory) picture to a selected audience such as family / friends who aren't able to pay their respects in person is arguably acceptable as the intent behind it is to inform and include in the "life-event".

Anyway that's my two-penneth.