First Responders or First Reporters?

Some years back, if you got into an accident—say your car spun out on a wet road or you slipped and broke your ankle—the first thing you could count on was a crowd of first responders. Maybe they weren’t paramedics, but somebody would jump in. A stranger would grab your hand, rip their shirt to make a bandage, or shout, “Hang on, help is coming!” That human instinct to assist first, question later was the norm.

Fast forward to today, and what do we see? The new generation of “helpers” are armed not with gauze and CPR skills, but with iPhones set to 4K resolution and captions already forming in their heads: “OMG tragic accident 💔 #Prayers #BreakingNews”. Instead of dialing 911, they’re going live on Instagram. Instead of compressing a chest, they’re compressing the zoom button.

We’ve somehow shifted from first responders to first reporters.

And here’s the sick humor in it: imagine gasping for air, looking up, and the last thing you see is someone angling their phone just right to avoid glare. Not a hand extended, but a TikTok draft being saved. Humanity really downgraded itself to ring lights at car wrecks.

So I have to ask—what type of people have we grown into? Because if the bar for compassion is now “at least I didn’t post it with a filter,” we’ve really hit rock bottom.

The Law Needs to Catch Up

Here’s the kicker: this behavior isn’t just cruel—it’s criminal in spirit. If you can stand there recording while another human being is dying, you’re not a bystander, you’re an accomplice in cowardice. Society should be bold enough to call it what it is: accessory to manslaughter.

Imagine laws that said: “You chose to film instead of assist? Congratulations, here’s your court date.” Grave punishments—pun intended—should be on the books. Heavy fines. Jail time. Social media bans that actually stick. Because let’s be honest: when people fear losing their freedom or their followers, they might actually put the phone down.

Social Media: The Thief of Our Humanity

Social media didn’t invent selfishness—it just gave it a global stage, a soundtrack, and a “share” button. It’s rewired us to care less about saving lives and more about saving content. People now think empathy is spelled “engagement.”

And while I say this with a bit of humor, it’s a tragedy we’re all complicit in. We scroll, we like, we shake our heads at how heartless people are—but then we watch the clip anyway. We’ve lost our human side, one retweet at a time.

A Wake-Up Call

This isn’t a call for nostalgia. We don’t need to go back to the Stone Age to remember what it means to be human. We just need to remember that when someone’s life is on the line, saving them should come before saving the footage.

So next time you see an accident, don’t be the “first reporter.” Be the one who still has a pulse of humanity. Because one day, the person bleeding out might be you—and I promise, you won’t care how many likes the video gets.