Many memes or viral moments come from off-the-cuff moments captured on video – but should these incidents be posted to social media just because they have entertainment value?

On Newstalk Breakfast, Irish Independent columnist Saoirse Hanley said that she has increasingly seen ordinary people mocked online for no real reason.

“It's something that I just feel I've noticed so much more lately online on social media - on X or on any of these things - that every week there's some new person to be pulled apart,” she said.

According to Ms Hanley, this habit may have developed from online celebrity culture.

“We've gotten very comfortable – or at least somewhat comfortable - with this concept of recording something or picturing something and then having it up [online]," she said.

“Then obviously when people jump on it, it becomes a big talking point.

“At the end of the day, I think maybe it stems from the fact that we do this with celebrities all the time.

“To a certain extent, they've kind of given that up by being famous, that they will be seen in public – but the rest of us are just going about our day, we never signed up to that.”

Mental distress

Ms Hanley said while these videos may seem funny at first glance, many have captured and mocked people who are in clear mental distress.

“There are people out there who have issues with psychosis, or they have all of these other awful things that happen and that can happen in the public sphere," she said.

“It would break my heart to think of anybody recording them in that state because it's just not really right.”

Private mockery

Ms Hanley said that while we all have a laugh at other people’s expense in private, it is a different matter to bring this into the public sphere.

“I've definitely sent a picture to my best friend of someone's shoes, say, in public and been like, ‘Oh, my God, aren't these shoes gas,’ – but it's very different to then start posting these things online," she said.

"I think it may be started incrementally and it's just become more and more the norm.”

Ms Hanley said that while some recordings, such as dashcam footage, can be useful, we should all stop and think before posting online.

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