Last week the world was left reeling after two gunmen entered the premises of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and opened fire in an act of terror, killing 11.  But hold on, no time to retweet the latest story we’ve got another tragedy on our hands that needs your attention.  Over in Nigeria ‘too many bodies to count’ lie dead and discarded as a result of an Islamic extremist attack, and only days later two child suicide bombers launched an attack on an open-air market in Potiskum killing and injuring even more innocent bystanders.

Two horrific and unjustified acts of terror in their own right.  But what amazed me, beyond the utterly harrowing nature of these atrocities, were peoples’ reactions, or rather, transitions from one event to the next.

Whilst people were still discussing, showing support for, trying to get their heads around the Charlie Hebdo attacks, others had ‘moved on’ to discussing the Nigeria crisis.  Each to their own, right?  Except that social media doesn’t exactly perpetrate this idea.  In some cases the attacks in Nigeria were being used as a kind of guilt fodder against those still focused on the situation in Paris.  As if by some cruel default those who were still sharing articles and news posts about Charlie Hebdo were directly implying that it was more important that the Boko Haram attacks, or that they were just simply and naively unaware of the whole damn situation.  I mean come on people, get on trend.  We’ve moved on!  Blasting at one another across social media platforms these mindless idiots battled it out for top tragedy of #2015.  Death tolls appearing alongside banal listicles as if quantitative proof that one is better than the other.  Better, how can one be better?

But funnily enough these supposedly more “culturally aware” more “morally up-to-date” folks are the complete antithesis to the humanitarian they profess to be on Facebook and Twitter.  Ignorantly bashing away at their keyboards getting a hard on at the thought of schooling their lesser chums, these people are basically suggesting that Charlie Hebdo is somehow redundant now we have another incident to focus on.  That like fashion, iPhone apps and Justin Bieber’s Calvin Klein ad, they are suggesting we move on as soon as the next big thing (or in Justin’s case digitally enlarged) comes along.  Like moving ruthlessly on to a praline after the caramel in your left over Christmas choccie box becomes too sickly, it’s constantly onwards and upwards.  Gee, I mean it’s been like two days surely we should be over this whole Nigeria business by now!

Using one tragedy to trump another is disturbing behaviour and entirely belittles the events themselves.  The attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices have received a hefty amount of media coverage and the public’s response to this atrocity has been incredibly humbling.  And so yes, when you compare that to the lack lustre coverage of the civil unrest in Nigeria, you might argue that the media has failed this struggling nation, but that doesn’t mean you should throw that in people’s online faces.

Whilst I’m not saying people should stop sharing information online I think we need to revisit why we are sharing certain material and we should adjust our rhetoric accordingly.  Back in May/June 2014 when the laws criminalising FGM were strengthened, a friend of mine made the comment (this is not verbatim) ‘everyone is so concerned about FGM laws but what about all the cases of Male Genital mutilation that go under the radar’.  A fair point, poorly articulated.  Instead of this ‘Yes, but…’ rhetoric I want to encourage a ‘Yes, and…’ movement.  So instead of saying ‘but what about MGM’ we should say ‘great work on the FGM laws also let’s improve the situation for men aswell’.  So less Paris vs Nigeria, and more ‘whilst everyone is still reeling from the attacks in Paris let’s also spare a thought for the victims of the attacks in Nigeria’.

Both deserve our attention and both should be laid to rest in the public consciousness in their own time and not just because something worse or more culturally controversial has come along.  We should also be conscious about why we are sharing certain materials, it should be a means to inform and educate and not for sadistic shock value.

For further reading, check out this Guardian article ‘What made the Paris attack more newsworthy than Boko Haram’s assault on Baga?’