MILWAUKEE- Social media has connected us in ways many of us couldn’t have imagined a decade ago, but outside of sharing viral content and keeping tabs on your friends and family, much of that connectedness isn’t for the better.
For survivors of traumatic events, social media, and its never ending thirst for more information, can be a blessing as much as it is a curse.
“In the modern era, social media, which is everywhere, can become the new version of staring and pointing,” says Milwaukee County Behavioral Health psychologist Dr. Steve Dykstra.
Dr. Dykstra’s comments come on the heels of Barron County teen Jayme Closs, missing for 88 days, rescuing herself, spurring days of non-stop news coverage and an endless number of experts discussing her situation. Dr. Dykstra, though, says the discussion is much broader than Closs, and Barron, Wisconsin.
“We get the sense that we’re entitled to this information, and we’re not,” Dr. Dykstra added during a recent interview with WTMJ. “We’re going to get some information, but we owe it to her, and everyone around her, to treat that information as responsibly as we can.”
Since Jayme’s escape last Thursday, her name, #JaymeCloss, photo, and story, have been shared on social media more than ten thousand times.
