A late night rambling of a rabbit hole I found myself in.

[rogueslayer452]

It's not a secret that the true crime online community is quite controversial for numerous reasons. From being horribly invasive and exploitative to spreading misinformation, whether intentionally or accidentally from not doing proper research, and even treating real life people of these serious and horrific events as something fictional or even something to idolize, it's understandable that people are uneasy and disgusted with the unethical and deplorable way some in the true crime community have conducted themselves in various online spaces by crossing that line in taking things too far.

It is also understandable why people gravitate towards these kinds of topics. I, myself, am no stranger to the subject of true crime and unsolved mysteries, having watching shows such as City Confidential and Forensic Files and even watched some YouTube videos covering similar topics every now and again. There is an inherent fascination, or rather morbid curiosity, surrounding it. Not only of being aware of certain cases (as one would naturally be if you're watching news coverage in real time) but also trying to understand the why. Why would someone do something like this? What is going through someone's head? Could they have been helped? What could have been done differently? It's the same thought process one might have when watching a horror movie, which is probably where the line blurs for some who do unfortunately treat true crime as something fictional to fixate on, or similar to that of a "train wreck" or "car crash" incident where your curiosity to such disasters lead to some viewing it as a spectacle than anything. While it is natural to try to understand the darker side of human nature and the psychological elements of that to better understand our world and who we are as human beings, there needs to be an understanding of boundaries and practicing basic decency, respect, and sensitivity when approaching these particular topics. Sadly, this doesn't always happen by those who are just looking to monetize content.

Whether it be in official documentaries or YouTube videos or any kind of online post, it's best to take them with a grain of salt since most of them are done with a certain bias, and doing your own research by cross referencing information is better to get the full picture than just relying on the words of a singular source.

Comments

[wearing_tearing]

Sadly, this doesn't always happen by those who are just looking to monetize content.
Yup!!! I've become very selective of the kind of true crime content I consume because of that. Official documentaries can be as harmful as online speculation sometimes.

[rogueslayer452]

Yeah, I've also become quite selective as well. I can usually tell judging by how someone presents the stories right off the bat whether they genuinely are interested in the case or are just covering it for clicks (either reading from a Wikipedia article or just repeating other people's coverage of it and offering nothing new), although even those who are interested can also be interested for the wrong reasons and you can only figure that out if you listen to how they talk about things, like are they presenting their findings in an unbiased manner or are they stating their opinions or speculations as fact, and things like that. It can range from being overt to subtle, so it's something to keep a close eye on.

And yeah, it's interesting how some think that official documentaries are more legit than a random person online when they can be just as harmful with having a particular bias and spreading propaganda around. Super Size Me is a prime example of this.

[naushika]

It's so true. I loooove true crime and spent some time in that community, and I eventually left because I couldn't take how far the bad seeds would take it. The worst, in my opinion, was the off the wall theories people would come up with that pointed the finger at innocent people, or even VICTIMS. It could get so bad sometimes. These are real people, not characters on tv. Stick to tv if you want to make up theories about how they are secretly evil murderers.

[rogueslayer452]

he worst, in my opinion, was the off the wall theories people would come up with that pointed the finger at innocent people, or even VICTIMS.

Oh yeah, the victim-blaming does get really bad, which is astonishing to see but sadly not at all surprising. I get wanting to understand some cases, especially ones where there's limited information or is extremely complicated and trying to piece things together for things that are unresolved or inconclusive, but people do tend to take things too far. This isn't even exclusive to the true crime community, as people online in various spaces tend to try to be amateurish sleuths and more often than not they're just incredibly bad at it or come up with the wildest conclusions and are very invasive and insensitive to something that they shouldn't get involved with in the first place.

And I agree, in these kinds of situations people need to take a step back and just focus on analyzing and theorizing fictional crimes rather than actual true crimes.

[elizalavelle]

I think this is why, while I do enjoy the true crime community in terms of reading books about it or watching documentaries etc, I do not want to be in the fandom-y part. For me I think it's an anxiety thing that makes me like learning about crimes as it helps me feel more ready to deal with bad things if they happen to me.

I appreciate the more recent push from idolizing the criminals to being more victim centric and noting that the killers are just losers and we don't need to give them attention.

Excellent point about bias. I think that gets forgotten a lot and people think a single documentary is gospel about what happened rather than being one angle of it.

I'm seeing a disturbing lack of media savvy online right now around that Good American Family tv show. So many comments where people don't understand that the show is fictional, that those are actors so of course their Natalia looks older, the actress can't de-age herself and makeup and wardrobe only go so far, a lot of people didn't get the gimmick they were doing of showing one side of the story first and then the other and were talking about the first half of the show as if it was the truth. It makes me realize that as a society we are getting a lot more dumb.

*I didn't even watch the show, I've just seen clips online and didn't like how exploitative it felt. But I at least tracked what the show was doing and what the real case was vs the fictionalized show.

[rogueslayer452]

For me I think it's an anxiety thing that makes me like learning about crimes as it helps me feel more ready to deal with bad things if they happen to me.

This is definitely one of the aspects of it for many people, especially women and minorities. IIRC there's been studies about how women are more often drawn to this kind of subject matter (true crime, horror) because it gives them a sort of comfort, an insight of what to do should they encounter something like that in their own lives.

I appreciate the more recent push from idolizing the criminals to being more victim centric and noting that the killers are just losers and we don't need to give them attention.

I've noticed this shift as well. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing and a step in the right direction.

It makes me realize that as a society we are getting a lot more dumb.

That sadly has become more and more common over the years, the lack of media literacy and understanding the nuances, or even differentiating between fact and fiction, is quite concerning. I see so many cold takes on things even from people whose entire purpose is the analyze media that leaves me completely baffled. I don't know whether this is social media brainrot (as in taking things at face value without questioning or thinking for themselves, using common sense) or just people not paying attention in school.

[elizalavelle]

I think the media literacy issue really ramped up with reality TV because people genuinely can't tell what might be scripted and that even when it's not exactly scripted the producers are setting up scenarios to make certain things happen, none of it is organic. It's been uncomfortable to see that shifting to scripted TV and people just not able to understand that that is fiction.

Social media likely is part of it. People who want to go viral want to be quick to post the first hot take on something so they have less time to critically think about what they've watched/read and just want to say something and then people reacting to random TikTok's the same way they would to a verified expert. I'm not sure if it's that they're not learning how to judge sources of information in school or if they just don't care. I've explained to younger co-workers that ChatGPT is not a search engine, and have shown them how it gets things wrong and makes up sources. They all still use it and think I'm just an old person who doesn't understand things.

[rogueslayer452]

It's been uncomfortable to see that shifting to scripted TV and people just not able to understand that that is fiction.

I think there is an interesting "reality television to social media influencer" pipeline with this kind of viewing and mentality, as well, because while reality television certainly has become far more scripted or manipulating the results to bring in views (same with competition shows, like American Idol and The Voice and America's Got Talent, etc), influencers are the social media equivalent to those things. Instead it brings a fake authenticity to create something a relatability to the viewers that creates this unhealthy parasocial element that it becomes even more damaging, imho. While I do think a lot of people are smarter than most to know the difference, the way people act online tends to suggest otherwise.

I've explained to younger co-workers that ChatGPT is not a search engine, and have shown them how it gets things wrong and makes up sources. They all still use it and think I'm just an old person who doesn't understand things.

Obviously this is the newest trend so everyone is hopping on it, but sadly I don't think this will be a passing fad as it has already infiltrated so much already as such an alarming rate. And seeing so many young people get in on it to the point where they're disregarding the genuine and legitimate concerns about it is, while not surprising (because youth, the whole "adults just don't understand" mindset) it's still disconcerting.

On an uplifting note though, not all younger people are thinking this way. Just as there are those who use ChatGPT and genAI, there are those who are against it. Just like adults, some are educated on the matter and others aren't/don't care.

[elizalavelle]

Agree on the social media influencers. So often no one gets that what they show isn't reality. I really want schools to add a social media literacy class to their required teaching. Talk about how things go viral, about bots, about how to spot bot/factory farmed comments, and teach kids how making influencer videos works. Let them see the work that goes in behind the scenes. That you need to spend hours of work to make a few minutes of content. Talk about how it changes life when everything you do becomes content.

I like to think most people are smarter and then I think back to my first office job where a woman who was in her early 50's I think told me that Judge Judy was the smartest lady on television. Not in a "she figured out the industry and made a pile of money" kind of way which I do respect, but in that this woman thought every minute of that show was real and not staged at all.

Agree that there are young people who are seeing that AI is something to be wary of. Likewise there are older people (some management at my work being prime examples) who don't really understand AI but who think it's the best thing ever and want to hand every task over to it. I'm watching them try to figure out how to hand my job over to an AI and that's a super uncomfortable feeling.

[rogueslayer452]

Oh, since I forgot to say this initially, in addition to what you said in your first comment about how you appreciate how there's a push to focus on the victims in true crime cases I also want to say that I've seen a lot more pushing to calling out authorities in law enforcement for their negligence or outright being culpable in these crimes. Especially ones where, if the police did do something criminal themselves, calling out how lightly they were punished to give how unfair the justice system is.

And since I often get recommended these police bodycam channels where it's obviously very heavily pro-cop biased, I appreciate those kinds of sentiments in true crime even more to say, yeah, cops are often the bullies and culprits in many of these cases.

[elizalavelle]

I also see that push to call out the authorities for not actually doing anything to protect people. How many times do we hear that someone went to the police to report a stalker and the police say there's nothing they can do since no harm has been done. The whole system needs to be overhauled.

Yes, we also see a lot of police who are abusers and because of the thin blue line nonsense their violence is hidden and not punished. I'm sure there are decent cops out there but the system they're working in corrupts most of them to at least enable the worst ones to keep getting away with being abusers.

I really think the idea of defunding the police and building a new system would be great. Where I am it feels like the police will protect the property of the wealthy but a lot of basic law enforcement isn't done because they don't have the time to do it... and yet they keep getting raises every year. It feels like a shakedown.

[silverusagi]

I can't say that I was ever really in the true crime community, I never got into the whole youtube side of it. I did listen to a true crime podcast for over a year, but eventually I just got so tired of the formula of the episodes. And not that documentaries and news organizations aren't trying to make money, but there is something a little off putting to me about everyone and their dog having a youtube channel about real life murders, when everything online has to be ~content.

[rogueslayer452]

but there is something a little off putting to me about everyone and their dog having a youtube channel about real life murders, when everything online has to be ~content.

There's a lot of grifters on YouTube that do this, just whatever is trending they'll hop on that bandwagon and try to do anything for clicks and views (ex: "essayists" have become the hottest thing in recent years where everyone thinks they are capable of putting out 4+ hour long videos about something, when they're just saying a whole lot of nothing during that time). It's unfortunate because I do think true crime can be discussed and handled in a mature, sensitive way, but there are far too many people who just look to content farm rather than be genuinely interested in the topic.