But a truly great nation is built on the courage to do right. In this age of social media, let compassion be our most shareable quality, writes听听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听听
SMARTPHONES are now ubiquitous fixtures at emergencies and disasters. The moment something terrible happens, a bus crashes on a Dhaka highway, a school building erupts in flames, many bystanders reflexively raise their phones. Instead of rushing to help, some want to capture every horrifying detail for likes and shares.
In recent months the phenomenon has been impossible to miss. When a bus veered off the Padma Expressway in March 2023, killing nearly 20 people, videos of the wreckage circulated widely online. Among the stunned crowd at the scene, countless fingers pointed smartphone cameras at the twisted metal and the wounded, treating the disaster as content rather than crisis. Instead of becoming first responders, they became documentarians, framing gore for clicks. It is a sad irony that one of South Asia鈥檚 most lethal road corridors became a stage for this spectacle.
The horror of the Milestone School jet crash in July underscores the problem. An Air Force training aircraft went down onto the school grounds, killing dozens of children and teachers. As flames roared, Maherin Chowdhury, a 46-year-old English teacher, repeatedly braved the inferno to pull students from burning classrooms, even as her own clothes caught fire. Meanwhile, snippets of the crash and its aftermath were broadcast live on social media. Cameras clicked, focusing on the burning building and terrified students, as the tragedy played out like a live movie for viewers at home.
This obsession with recording tragedy is not confined to the Milestone crash or bus accidents. Any time calamity strikes in Bangladesh 鈥� a ferry sinks in the Buriganga, a train derails near Narayanganj, even a building goes up in smoke 鈥� one sees the same pattern: crowds gather, not to clear debris or tend the injured, but to capture every agonising moment. Its a stark symbol of how social media has warped our priorities.
Bangladeshis have always been known for compassion and solidarity. In crisis 鈥� floods, cyclones, fires 鈥� neighbors drop everything to help others, even risking their lives to save a child. But that generous impulse is now frayed by our smartphone obsession. When tragedy strikes, some of us tweet or film first and help later; the impulse to 鈥榞o live鈥� has come to outweigh the instinct to rush in and save the wounded. This is no small shift 鈥� it鈥檚 a moral turning point.
To change course, we must demand a return to basic decency. Media literacy campaigns and education programs can remind people that sharing someone鈥檚 suffering online is no virtue. Above all, we need to spark empathy again. We should remember Maherin Chowdhury and the many unsung heroes who risked everything for the injured; honouring them means letting empathy become as contagious as any viral video.
Bangladesh鈥檚 future will always be bright with youthful promise. But a truly great nation is built on the courage to do right. In this age of social media, let compassion be our most shareable quality. Because in the end we must choose care over clicks. That choice will decide whether our humanity ends up on the cutting-room floor of the internet or lives on in the hearts of those we help.
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Dhruba Sarker is a teaching assistant at BRAC Business School at the BRAC University.