Last week, civil activist and opposition politician Ravi Philemon posted a status to his Facebook page, calling out two videos that he said were moving quickly online.

Both happened to feature commuters on MRT trains in Singapore. One, he said, was of a teenage boy who appeared to be masturbating, while the other was of a woman hitting a young boy with an umbrella.

In his status, which received 77 likes, Ravi urged people who had seen either of the videos to refrain from sharing them. What if the subject was your brother, son or grandmother? Would you still treat the videos in the same way?

There is also the fact, astutely raised by someone who commented on his post, that the law protects minors for a reason.

In a comment in response, however, one FB user argued that it appeared that in the case of the first video, the boy knew full well that what he was doing was both wrong and shameful, and therefore it was not morally wrong to shame him.

Besides, in the interest of public awareness and deterrence, the user said, such videos are useful in warning people against behaving in socially-unacceptable ways.

Personally, I was rather appalled to read that there was someone who would not only be in favour of shaming a person online, but beyond that, even go as far as to attempt to justify doing that as a good thing.

Yet, a casual scan of STOMP, a site built from citizen contributions, informs me that there are numerous individuals who agree with the commenter's opinion. In just six days of coverage, there were at least 15 different reports of accidents, fires, people behaving – or simply dressing – badly or weirdly in public.

None of these reports show any indication that the so-called "STOMPer" had contacted the relevant authorities involved or made any attempt to intervene or assist in each situation.

In fact, in the case of the mother hitting the boy with an umbrella, the person taking the video ironically pointed out that "no one stopped the lady" until a man stood up to intervene, when the woman taking the video herself could very well have stepped in.

Are our priorities wrong?

I then asked myself after seeing the contributor's comment – at which point did it become more of a priority to take a photograph or a video of something happening in order to submit it to a website than to contact a relevant authority or step in to stop what was happening or help a person in need?

Take a fire or a car crash, for instance. For what appears to be a significant-enough group of people, the first instinct is to take a photo or video of it and send the material to STOMP or post it online, instead of running over to check if anyone is injured or more importantly, calling the SCDF or the police.

There were a number of reports on STOMP about things that annoyed or shocked the people who submitted them: a) an ATM had fluorescent paint splashed all over it, b) a driver parking his car at the loading bay of a school, c) a man spotted urinating into a drain, d) a woman who seemed to be missing her pants. These are four examples picked at random.

But aren’t there better options than taking a picture of and having it posted online with the accompanying caption: "I am too shocked for words"?

In the four instances mentioned, the solutions to the problems, respectively, would be to: a) report it to the relevant bank or police; b) leave a note on the driver's windscreen, and should that fail, report him to campus security or to the school's administration; c) approach him to stop him, or report him to the police if he refuses; d) approach her to express your concern about her dressing.

All these steps are simple and straightforward enough. In the case of the first three scenarios, doing this will alert people who are empowered to do something about the problem to act. All it takes is a few minutes to make a phone call or to converse with the personnel involved. Indeed, video or photo evidence may come in handy, but it should be recorded to show to the authorities as proof, and not for public shaming.

Or are we just afraid?

Perhaps the question I should be asking instead is this: why are we escaping from scenes like these that we witness by hiding behind smartphone screens and not actually doing something about them? Why do we find it so daunting to approach people or to file reports over things we notice and know to be wrong or in need of intervention from the authorities?

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