Treating catastrophe like comedy: Why natural disasters are no laughing matter

While Hurricane Matthew may have skirted Broward County, other regions were not as lucky. This storm ranged from a category one hurricane to a category five; however, it only made landfall between categories one and four, sweeping its path of destruction all the way through the Caribbean and all the way up the eastern coast of the United States.

Contrary to the predictions of meteorologists, Hurricane Matthew completely bypassed the southeastern coast. The most damage Broward County received was some light rain and wind. High schools students county-wide were overjoyed because they missed school on Oct. 6 and Oct 7. And what do Floridians do when things do not go as planned? They simply make memes and exploit them to no end over Twitter.

Not only does this reveal the disdain high school students feel for their classes, but it also reveals the type of insensitivity that social media users display within the content they post.

Twitter user @scubasteveotf even posted “To those offended by the hurricane Matthew jokes and memes.. The internet is not a place for you.”

To many millennials in southeastern Florida, the whole hullabaloo turned out to be an absolute joke. A Twitter account personifying the storm even arose, gaining immense popularity throughout Oct. 6 to Oct. 9. Exploiting tragedy while other people suffer is a disaster within itself.

While Floridian teenagers on social media post pictures of puddles on the ground with the hashtag #NeverForgetHurricaneMatthew, a Haitian teenager worries if they will get cholera from their drinking water. When unaffected high school students profess their delight for having two days off of school, a Haitian teenager wonders if they will even be able to go to school again because their school’s building was compromised by life-threatening rain and wind.

Unscathed Americans feel free to poke fun at how Florida’s government freaked out over nothing. However, the Caribbean population mourns the loss of their family and friends who did not have the resources that they needed to withstand the ferocity of Hurricane Matthew.

Instead of making jokes and posting ‘funny’ things for the retweets, fortunate people who benefited from not being negatively impacted should use their platform of power to aid those in need. Instead of using the wide audience of Twitter and Instagram to gain personal popularity, they should be promoting life-saving organizations and charities.

Too many positive opportunities have been squandered because of people’s concern to gain recognition. Albeit, not everyone is taking advantage of a tragedy for their own selfish reasons. Some use their position of power to promote disaster relief efforts. Let it be up to this enlightened generation to end the exploitation and comedication of heart-wrenching events.