It’s no secret that physical confrontations here at Eleanor Roosevelt are a common event. Whether they occur during a lunch period, or outside on campus grounds, every student has at least heard of or seen a fight on campus grounds. The reason for these fights are largely unknown–the stories often becoming increasingly distorted through rumors and speculation. But in truth, you somehow learn to become used to the fights.

Admit it, they’ve almost become normal.  

Some choose to ignore the fights; after all, they’ve occurred often enough that it’s no longer considered breaking news. Others continue to watch the fights from a distance, curious enough to observe them, but not daring to come any closer.

But there are some students who regard the fights as entertainment. And seconds after a fight breaks out, their phones are already whipped out of their pockets and ready to record.

Having witnessed these fights on more than one occasion, I’ve seen up close how these events tend to unfold. As soon as word catches of a fight, cell phones are immediately raised in the air, shamelessly capturing the event on-screen. Some are even willing to run as close to the fights as they can get, all for the sake of receiving clear footage to keep as entertainment for later.

So what happens next once the fight has ended, and hundreds of people have now attained footage of the incident on their phones? Because I assure you, it never just ends there.

Almost immediately, the footage is taken and posted up on various social media platforms, primarily Twitter. Once it’s posted there, hundreds of people are able to view the fight multiple times for their own amusement. By this time, these videos have been shared so many times that it’s utterly impossible to ever retrieve it back. In other words, once it’s released into the world wide web, it stays there.

Truthfully, I’ve always found this reaction to be unusual, if not inappropriate. It’s always seemed clear to me that fights are dangerous interactions, many times bringing severe consequences and even injuries to those involved. Not only that, but these videos tend to paint the ones involved in a negative light, one that is almost never easy to overcome. One can only imagine what it’s like to become involved in such a situation, and to have to face the aftermath.

So why is it that many people have the immediate reaction to run towards the fights? Why are these incidents immediately captured on camera and posted unto social media, forever prolonging what might very well be someone’s worst moment? Why do many view the fights as entertainment, as something to be seen, liked, and re-tweeted on Twitter for others to laugh at and view for their own personal amusement?

The simple answer is, no one will truly know. Just like there will never be a way to stop the fights once and for all, we’ll never be able to stop people from recording them as well. But it would be in our best interests to think before we do. To take a minute and ask ourselves how our actions can affect others, and how these actions can affect someone’s image in the long-run. Because what we’ll learn to find, is that our actions tend to have a bigger effect than what we may have initially intended.

And once the effects of our actions grow beyond our control, maybe that’s when the true lesson will be learned.