and that posed a high risk of unsuccessful performance. Md. Researchers discovered that the more people who witness something the less likely any are to respond When several witnesses are present people tend to assume that someone else will jump in or make the call or they think that since no one else is taking action there really isnt a problemIn the recent rape case where two Ohio high school football players were convicted of assaulting a 16-year-old girl from West Virginia while she was too drunk to give consent (one of her attackers described her in a text message as "like a dead body") not only were there witnesses but dozens of other teens were also privy to what happened through postings to social media In no time a 16-year-olds humiliation went viralOnce again the horror of what happened to a victim has been magnified by the apparent lack of empathy among her peers The girl has been physically violated while the psychological effects of her public exposure are unimaginable and likely will be enduring about how social media helped solve this crime Through texts videos photographs and posts on Twitter and Facebook police were able to piece together a timeline and document what happened This history is posited as one of the marvels of social media What hasnt been addressed is the factor of social media in the events themselves If the bystander effect prevented people in 1964 from coming to the aid of Kitty Genovese what might we expect from this and future generations technologically equipped with devices that by definition place one in the role of dispassionate observerWith a cellphone in every pocket it has become second nature for most people to snap a picture or tap the video button at the slightest provocation a babys giggle a fallen tree or just possibly a drunk girl stripped naked by boys who dont think twice Over time might the marginalizing effect of bystander detachment impede any impulse to empathize Endowed with miraculous gadgetry and fingertip technology that allow reflex to triumph over reason millions of young people today have the power to parlay information without the commensurate responsibility that comes with age experience and inevitably pain The ease of cellphone photography and videography promotes a certain removal from circumstances driving all into the bystander mode that leads to a massive shirking of responsibility and perhaps even a lack of cognitive awareness of ones own part in the moment One of the most famous photographs of all time by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams Vietnamese Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting Viet Cong operative Nguyen Van Lem in the head Adams grieved for what he called his own killing of Loan who was known throughout the world for that photo and little else Adams caught an essential moment with that Pulitzer Prize-winning photo but not according to him a whole truth For the rest of his life Adams regretted his role in Loans subsequent demonization Though both Adams an