The Titan submersible passengers who spent days presumably lost under the sea have received an outcry of concern and support from many. But the same can’t be said for most social media users who have seemingly made a mockery out of the underwater tragedy.
On Thursday, June 22, the five passengers aboard the submersible that went missing while attempting to explore the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean were presumed dead by the expedition company, TMZ reports. OceanGate Inc. released a statement saying those aboard the Titan vessel “have sadly been lost.”
The passengers on the 21-foot sub were British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman Dawood; French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Inc.
“These men true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement about its now-deceased CEO and the other four passengers.
The statement came after officials located a debris field that they believe indicates the vessel imploded while en route to the Titanic wreckage. However, even before the deaths were confirmed, social media was already busy responding to made-up scenarios that seemingly made light of the tragic incident.
One Twitter user kicked off the series of insensitive tweets among Black Twitter users by asking what they would do if aboard the submarine in the event it got saved.
Many responded with comical memes, video clips, and quotes that showed just how desensitized we have become in today’s social media-driven era.
There were others who made sarcastic remarks about the irony of the passengers in the Titanic subversive and those who died on the actual Titanic back in 1912.
“They went down there to see the Titanic and ended up creating the sequel,” one Twitter user wrote along with a video of Soulja Boy laughing.
Another Twitter went more in depth with their shady response to the passengers being presumed dead after days lost underwater.
“Dying in an ocean as deep as your pockets…in a vessel as tiny as the shanty houses you turned your noses up at….In a darkness as expansive as your ego…going to see the final resting place of the souls whom you disturbed with your curiosity, but they still eagerly welcomed you,” they wrote.
One user sent out a tweet the week prior asking a general question about the “greatest comeback of all time.” But another Twitter user used the tweet as an opportunity to make fun of the submersible passengers saying that the greatest comeback would be, “The Titanic claiming lives 111 years after people thought it was done.”
As morbid and disturbing as many of the social media responses have been, and continue to be, it highlights an even bigger issue around how desensitized society has become in the wake of a global pandemic, two recessions, inflation, controversial political plights and the list goes on. After making it through 2020, it looks like social media doesn’t even take death seriously.