The Twitter account @crim_tweets_ was created not so long ago, in January 2022. Over the last year, the page has gained more than 831 thousand followers that enjoy a dark sense of humor. From people joking about running over a dog named “5 miles” to sharing pictures of a police car being parked in a mother and child bay, this place is full of ridiculous and humorous tweets that can take a darker turn.

To get a deeper understanding of dark-themed humor and memes online, we reached out to Deborah S. Bowen, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of PR Instruction at the University of South Florida. Scroll down to read the whole interview!

The use of the internet has made it more common for people to consume and share dark-themed content. It's intriguing that despite the negative emotions that this kind of stuff can evoke, a lot of internet users are nevertheless drawn to it. But why are we attracted to odd or mildly unsettling things online? Deborah S. Bowen explains that we are drawn to dark-themed content in general. “Horror movies, scary stories, true-crime podcasts... it's easy to see how our minds turn to the unsettling. It gives us a thrill, quite literally; horror and dark content offers us a little adrenaline dump, a tiny frisson of fear that, paradoxically, allows us to feel safe as we realize we are lying in a room, watching American Horror Story, but we're not in any ‘real’ danger. We love to immerse ourselves vicariously into new and stimulating situations that we would never experience in the real world, and these novel experiences help us to understand how we might approach different situations, no matter how unlikely they might seem.”

The Twitter account “Criminal Tweets” shares content that might be amusing to some and slightly unsettling to others. Obviously, the intention of this page is to make fun of the criminal-like posts people share online. The question then arises: has social media had some sort of effect on our perception of morality and justice? Deborah S. Bowen shared that the old debates about heavy metal music and violent video games rear their head every time we discuss the openness of the internet and the access it allows to content we had never even dreamed of. “Old sites like Rotten.com were literally created to post the most egregiously shocking content that one could want. YouTube users can find all kinds of horrific content on that platform as well. And all of this is real, not some CGI attempts to shock and dismay.”

“Desensitization is a very real phenomenon, one that holds that the more we are exposed to negative stimuli, the less we react negatively to it. Exposure therapy operates under this premise. Social media allows us to consume a steady diet of real and terrible events, recorded by citizen journalists. It feeds us bullying, divisive rhetoric and unfounded conspiracies. There is no question that our reliance on and love for social media has made a mark on our collective character.”

“Gallows humor, the use of grim and ironic jokes or comments in the face of desperate situations, is a coping mechanism that many of us use when we are faced with a hopeless situation. As our reliance on social media grows, gallows humor becomes a way to deflect attention away from the fact that we are either too overcome with emotion at the content we are seeing to respond appropriately -- or that we just don't care at all. Snarky comments can be a defense mechanism and a legitimate way to express our lack of shock and surprise, it's often hard to tell when someone is having a legitimately negative reaction to a piece of startling content online, or if they are just reacting in a way to make them seem ‘cool’ and detached. There is no question that the proliferation of negative content on so many platforms with almost unfettered access has affected our collective ability to be truly taken aback. In light of the racial and religious violence we see in the world around us, the idea that we ‘care less’ is troubling,” Deborah S. Bowen shared.

Social media is a breeding ground for all types of content, including those that are disturbing and even criminal in nature. While some people find posts or memes that make light of serious situations, such as death and tragedy, humorous and an escape from the stresses of daily life, others argue that they can have a negative impact on our well-being and perception of reality.

According to Deborah S. Bowen, many people take comfort in “gallows humor”, at laughing off that which is "too scary" or "too real." “But when everything becomes a joke, does that mean that we aren't treating negativity with the gravitas it deserves? Think of the ‘influencer’ taking a fun selfie at Auschwitz; the reductive posing and the laissez-faire attitude with which people co-opt awful situations can certainly alter the perception of the serious site, for example. When negative situations are not addressed with the respect they might be offered, then they lose their power to horrify. This can definitely affect our perception of reality. When nothing is so awful that it commands quiet awe or a deep and reverent respect, how are we supposed to deal with the personal nightmare scenarios that might affect us — nightmare scenarios like the death of a loved one, or a permanent illness? Social media is undoubtedly forcing users to learn to process trauma in new ways, but it is the job of the individual to ensure that they never lose touch with the compassion and kindness that makes us truly human.”