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| A person pays tribute to those who passed away in the Itaewon crowd crush incident at the collective memorial altar located outside of Noksapyeong Station, Monday. Yonhap |
By Lee Yeon-woo
Indiscriminate sharing of photos and videos via social media of the tragic crowd crush in Itaewon during the weekend has taken a broader toll as concerns rise about the fallout on people's mental health.
"The Itaewon tragedy kept playing in my mind and I can't stop thinking of it. I even had a nightmare last night after watching all these videos," one social media user wrote on Twitter.
As many details of the fatal crowd crush have been described in the news and social media on Saturday night, a growing number of people claim they are suffering from depression, anxiety and anger.
Since Saturday night, short videos and photos taken by witnesses and onlookers flooded social media. Some of them showed what happened during the chaotic night so vividly that some viewers say they are traumatized.
Video footage of emergency rescuers performing Cardiovascular Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on victims lying on the street spread fast. Photos of the deceased covered in blue blankets were also uploaded. There were even videos that captured the moment the crush occurred, showing people collapsing and losing consciousness.
Some mental health experts warned that circulating such detailed, disturbing footage of the incident could cause trauma not only to the victims and their families, but to others as well.
"Harrowing videos and photos from the tragedy have been shared through social media unfiltered. They could violate the privacy of the dead and survivors and can lead to further pain for the survivors. Moreover, they could trigger psychological trauma to a large number of people," an emergency statement issued by Korean Neuropsychiatric Association on Sunday said.
The statement urged the media to abide by the ethics of disaster reporting, saying, "The media should protect individuals' human rights such as the dignity and privacy of the victims in the process of reporting, and try not to cause collective confusion or anxiety."
The association also urged social media users to stop sharing videos and photos and to refrain from making hate comments.?"Hate speech appearing online in a disaster situation aggravates the trauma of the bereaved family and those who were at the scene and are in great pain, hindering them from recovery," the association said.
It also recommended that people refrain from watching scenes or news excessively, as doing so could adversely affect one's mental health. Experts explained that seeing many photos repeatedly is likely to cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by exposure to very stressful, frightening or distressing events that make a person relive the event through nightmares and flashbacks, or experience feelings of guilt, according to the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom.
"People tend to keep searching for information about the accident although they know that it will be frightening and horrifying. A scene can be felt vividly in progression if people keep getting news about it, even if they are not directly related to the accident," Chung Chan-seung, chair of public relations at the Korean Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (KSTSS), said in a recent media interview.
"You might have encountered all of the objective information you need. Now it's time to refrain from watching news media and protect yourself," Chung said.
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| A person writes a message of condolence to the deceased at a memorial located in front of Itaewon Station, Monday. Yonhap |
The KSTSS issued a statement as well, urging people to see a doctor in the case of trauma. "Everyone is resilient. Even if you are now suffering from trauma, you can recover well if you get treated in a timely, scientific manner."
Meanwhile, some social media users who took photos and videos at the scene of the tragedy were criticized.
"You could have given a helping hand instead. Why on earth did you take out your camera in the middle of such a tragic scene? You don't have to share everything on social media," an office worker based in Seoul, surnamed Choi, 30, said.
One Twitter user, who said she is a nurse, said she was heavily shocked by the videos of rescuers doing CPR. "My job includes doing CPR, but I was so shocked by a video showing a rescue scene from the Itaewon crowd crush. Please never upload those videos."
"When doctors do CPR, it is the most urgent and serious moment, even for a place like a hospital where the situation is controlled and resources are abundant. The video shouldn't be consumed inappropriately through social media," she added.
