Everyone enjoys watching a video of someone slipping and falling on ice.  However, not everyone realizes that they cannot help but enjoy that person’s mishap.  A study conducted by Mina Cikara, a psychology professor at Harvard, indicates that watching another’s misfortune lights up the same part of the brain, while in an fMRI, that is activated by pleasure (Cikara et al. 306).  As videos and statuses that exhibit one’s failures are made viral across social media, people are taking part in social media based schadenfreude unconsciously.  Scientists and psychologists are arguing internationally about whether this increase of unconscious schadenfreude is beneficial or detrimental to society.  However, if social media based schadenfreude were to be analyzed on its effect economically and socially, it would be found to be a combination of both beneficial and detrimental societal effects. 

In “The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature” by Richard Smith, schadenfreude is analyzed with examples from today’s society and family situations.  Smith lists that a way to increase one’s own self-esteem is by “comparing ourselves with someone inferior” (R. Smith 8).  This way of bettering one’s self image is what Schadenfreude is based upon. Schadenfreude can be described as “the unexpected thrill we feel at another’s misfortune” (T. Smith, “The Book of Human Emotions: An Encyclopaedia of Feeling from Anger to Wanderlust”).  The thrill may be fleeting but it is definitely there.  It is neurologically impossible to not enjoy an enemy failing a test or being chastised.  Social media based schadenfreude does a lot more than make a user smile from behind their phone or computer; it creates an economic and social effect upon society. 

The viral videos or unfortunate events spread across the world and the feeling of schadenfreude spreads as well.  Many people have benefitted from the feeling and have created short lived businesses from the virality.  Phrases such as “Fail” and “L” have now become common language throughout social media and on the internet.  Both of those phrases can be used to describe a situation or event where something goes awry.  However, these words are not only on the internet; they are also on T-Shirts, bags, buttons, stickers, etc.  In “Facebook With a Side of Schadenfreude” by Cari Romm, Romm analyzes how a person’s choices are not made by what they like, but what makes them feel better (Romm, “Facebook With a Side of Schadenfreude”). People buy social media based merchandise because it makes them feel better about themselves. Small businesses are quickly popping up across the world that create merchandise that are based on viral social media phrases.  However, many of these businesses are not well organized, well marketed, or managed properly due to their abrupt startups and thus they are not positively affecting the economy in the long run.  Merchandise is purchased rapidly as the fad seeps into the younger generation’s new definition of cool but over production is a large issue in this area of business.  Once a viral phase has passed, the merchandise is irrelevant and not sought after by consumers or the target market.  Therefore, the production is not beneficial to the market value of the U.S (Casserly, “Why Small Businesses Are Losing On Social Media”). 

As the merchandise and schadenfreude spreads, the general population has only gotten more judgmental.  Bullying has always been a factor of schooling in the United States, but the new model of bullying, cyber bullying, has been taking center stage in many children’s lives because of social media based schadenfreude.  Children are not thinking past the video and are acting upon the first judgement that pops into their head.  Cyber bullying can take many forms and many people from different age groups can take part in the multiple types of cyber bullying.  A fitting example of how social media based schadenfreude and cyber bullying go hand in hand is from the article “The Science of Schadenfreude: Why We Love Watching People like Martin Shkreli Go Down” by Rachel Feltman. Feltman explains the ways in which the Shkreli case became extremely viral and caused joy for many people over the internet in a matter of hours. Shkreli raised prescription drug prices through his company KaloBios and then was faced with multiple white collar related charges. The internet exploded quickly after the decision because hundreds of users felt that justice had been served. As posts were strewn across popular sites like Reddit and Facebook, users were not realizing that they were actively reacting to schadenfreude. They were enjoying the fact that he was soon going to face the impending “doom” of prosecution. This is ties into cyber bullying because they were not applauding the jury, but rather making distasteful comments, mocking videos, and offensive posts towards Shkreli himself (Feltman, “The Science of Schadenfreude: Why We Love Watching People like Martin Shkreli Go Down”).

"Reflecting on Schadenfreude: Serious Consequences of a Misfortune for Which One Is Not Responsible Diminish Previously Expressed Schadenfreude; the Role of Immorality Appraisals and Moral Emotions” by Mariëtte Berndsen and N. Feather is a study of the growth and diminishing of people’s schadenfreude as different factors such as responsibility and severity are included.  Videos of an unfortunate incident occurring to someone were presented to a test group and their initial reactions were recorded.  They laughed and portrayed happiness at the first videos.  As the study progressed, videos became more in depth and the event portrayed became more severe in the future physical and psychological harmful effects that could occur.  In conjunction with the video change, the group became more solemn and uncomfortable as it became obvious that the effects of the event were genuinely detrimental to the subject of the video.  The group’s initial thought was not to wonder who or what was to blame for the event, but rather that it was funny that it was not happening to them but to someone else (Berndsen and Feather 895).  Many children and teens are not thinking past what the poster or video maker wants them to see.  The original poster wants their video to go viral and they want to be internet famous.  They exclude the cause and effect of whatever the subject may be facing.  The watchers are not thinking past what effects the subject may have, but rather that they are glad they aren’t there, and that it is funny. 

Even though social media based schadenfreude highly affects those of the younger generations, such judgmental affects can be seen in the older generations as well. In the article “The Influence of Empathy and Self-Presentation on Engagement with Social Networking Website Posts” by Richelle Mayshak, Stefanie Sharman, Lucy Zinciewicz, and Alexa Hayley, how different age groups within the range of 18 to 63 interact with different social media pages and posts is analyzed. The study found that people from all age groups interacted with negatively based pages and posts more compared to positive ones. An interaction was defined as a like, comment, or even a large amount of time spent on one page. This led the conclusion of the study to be that people of all ages interact more with negative posts than with positive posts (Mayshak, “The Influence of Empathy and Self-Presentation on Engagement with Social Networking Website Posts”). 

This feeling of Schadenfreude is deeply embedding itself in today’s social actions like never before.  The negative connotations that society has about social media is based upon how the younger generation is not acting from compassion initially, but rather selfish enjoyment.  The feeling of Schadenfreude has always been present, but it has not been as widely acted upon until social media came into play due to its aspect of anonymity. 

Social media based schadenfreude may have increased the amount of pop-up businesses and judgmental mind sets, but on the flip side, it has also increased the amount of entrepreneurship and empathy.  Even though many of the businesses that are built upon social media phrases connected to social media do not last long in the market, they do show that there has been an increase in entrepreneurship. This increase can provide an approximate look at the amount of small businesses that could be started in the next ten years.  Many of the businesses that are based on social media fads are created by the younger generation.  Once these previous owners become financially stable and old enough, more local businesses and companies could be stemmed from them. Many are making a profit through social media geared apps and games. As the generation who grew up with social media and such advanced technology grows older, the number of technological companies and the quality of technology will only increase. 

Schadenfreude is growing in every user’s mind with each refresh of a news feed, but so is empathy according to the article “Do Social Media Foster or Curtail Adolescents’ Empathy? A Longitudinal Study” by Helen Vossen and Patti Valkenburg.  Vossen and Valkenburg conducted a yearlong study on how through social media, the younger generation has shown an increase in empathy and in their ability to communicate their feelings.  Social media allows users to express judgement just as much as it allows users to provide empathy.  The feature that allows users to phrase a message in the exact way one wants can be extremely beneficial for effective communication.  A social media user can anonymously share ones’ deepest feelings and others can comment of their similar situations or with words of encouragement.  If someone is afraid to ask for help in real life, they can receive empathy and help from others across a screen (Valkenburg and Vossen 118). It may seem as though children are always absent mindedly staring at a screen in today’s world, but they may be communicating and helping friends in ways never seen before. Children may seem as though they are excluding themselves from their friends because of the large attachment to their phone. However, as friends move away, and plans change, a phone can become the only connection to a friend.  

As both the detrimental and positive effects of social media based schadenfreude are placed side by side, it is evident that many are tied closely together.  That could lead many to believe that declaring the feeling to be a mixture of both is best compared to declaring it one way or another. 

Social media based schadenfreude effects society in a mixture of both positive and negative ways.  It increases empathy and judgement and increases small businesses that do not affect the market value of the U.S.A. All four of the effects previously analyzed can be combined and classified as just different reactions to the same feeling.  These reactions effects cannot be separated from each other.  If society wished to completely eradicate social media based schadenfreude because of its negative impacts like judgement and bullying, then the entire internet would have to be removed from society.  Social media based schadenfreude would no longer exist and societal schadenfreude would only grow.  Its impact would not disappear, it would just relocate. If society wished to encourage social media based schadenfreude, then the social media based businesses would thrive, but the overall morale of users would decline.  There would be a decline in the overall morale of users because profiles would no longer include any positive messages or posts.  Feeds would be full of only negatively focused posts.  Social media schadenfreude can only be felt to an extent and then it converges into sadness.  If society wished to truly change how beneficial or detrimental schadenfreude was, it would first need to realize that the effects go hand in hand and that it is the reaction to the feeling that would need to be changed.  This feeling cannot help but be felt, but society can push people towards reacting in specific ways.  Programs like anger management for schadenfreude could be created to teach others how to react in productive and effective manners to this unusual pleasure.

Many cultures and religions have deeply instilled opinions on whether humans are born inherently evil or inherently good.  The switch from “good” to “bad” would only occur due to negative or positive societal impacts. These opinions are very closely tied with schadenfreude and its effects because schadenfreude is a feeling of pleasure from another’s pain; which can be seen as an evil reaction.  People who believe that humans are born with perfect morality may not believe that social media based schadenfreude, or schadenfreude in general, is a neurological reaction, much less one that can have beneficial effects.  They believe that all negative or sinful acts are learned traits from society.  However, evolution proves otherwise. 

When Neanderthals were roaming the Earth, the attitude was “Kill or be Killed”.  There was not a thought of who was doing the right or wrong thing; only survival of the fittest.  With that came the competition for the highest position in society and pushing everyone else to the bottom. This strive and pleasure from bettering oneself and pushing others down is schadenfreude in its simplest and rawest form.  This feeling is not something that can be avoided but rather it is programmed into each person’s brain. 

Social media schadenfreude is a powerful feeling that can be fueled into the creation of businesses, the increase of empathy, the boost of judgement in today’s society, and many more economic and social reactions.  As social based schadenfreude is analyzed in multiple studies, many psychologists and scientists state how the reactions are positive or negative.  However, due to the controversy between professionals and tied effects, it could be found that social media based schadenfreude creates both detrimental and beneficial reactions. Because of this combination of effects, social media must be evaluated by a combination of effects. Each person looks at social media, but how they look at it will be the difference of how it affects society. So, how does society decide what parts of social media causes good or bad reactions? 
