Content > Humanity

We lost our Bonda Malaysia 2 days ago. Tun Siti Hasmah was an icon, and most Malaysians across generations, have nothing but good things to say about her. Many of us grew up with her quiet, nurturing presence alongside Tun Dr. Mahathir during his first tenure as Prime Minister. Many more saw the playful and affectionate side of this power couple during his short but turbulent second tenure not long ago.

At her funeral, while her grieving family paid their last respects, the cameras – both media and mobile – were trained on the centenarian who had been her husband for over 70 years, focused on his personal grief. This was the image and video that was posted, copied and reposted over and over with various commentary by online media and individuals.

Individuals who went to pay their respects took the opportunity to take a selfie with the grieving man, in what may be the grossest intrusion of personal space at the most private moment.

Online ‘experts’ have also emerged in the last 2 days with social media posts about the late Tun Siti Hasmah, sending out content that is but a list of facts that could be easily googled, or in this age of AI, ChatGPT-ed. Suddenly, everyone was a Tun Siti Hasmah expert for that 1-2 days.

The only thing I could think of when I saw all this was – where has our humanity gone?

When has one man’s personal grief become so much fodder to feed the masses who are hungrily consuming content? When has one person’s life been reduced to an Instagram carousel of information tidbits, intended to keep you scrolling, so you continue to help feed their algorithm to boost their accounts?

When has humanity given way to that insatiable need to create content?

It isn’t only in this situation that I’ve noticed it, but it has been the most apparent in recent times. In the past, in the day of newspapers, some of the vernacular papers indulged in sensational news and photos like these – photos of accident or crime victims used to be splashed across the pages, for content, because sensationalism sells papers.

These days that everyone has a mobile phone, and is a ‘content creator’, sensationalism has gone mainstream. Everyone wants to ‘go viral’, to insert themselves into the news cycle. Everyone with the help of AI is now an ‘expert’. Everyone who has a script and a DJI mic in hand can now yap before a camera on all sorts of topics du jour.

Tomorrow, a new piece of news breaks and these content vultures descend on their next victim, tearing it to shreds to feed their hungry content machine – humanity be damned.