The war in the time of social media

The hope is that when this article comes out the fratricidal war in Ukraine is over but the certainty, to date, is that that, like all other wars, increases a circuit of barbarism and hatred that every day that passes is always more difficult to defuse. And yes, because war has always inspired fear and horror on the one hand, but on the other it makes itself plausible and fascinating in the name of a power over the fate of others capable of seducing men.

What weapons generate is an intoxicating alchemy capable of clouding the dynamics of destruction and death that they themselves inevitably trigger. In their presence the minds of men seem to be paralyzed, beliefs change, dormant and unknown instincts return, inhibitions give way, resentments and hatreds buried in time are dusted off, everything suddenly changes in an unexpected way and the reflection of this catastrophe reverberates on the world surrounding prisoner in this grip.

Television news relaunches these inexplicable paradigms of violence and destruction incessantly and instills like a worm in people's minds a restlessness and a sense of disorientation which, in fact, brings down many certainties and achievements of society, especially Western ones.
But because the visual story of this conflict seems so close to us, almost personal.
Certainly because geographically it is almost inside the house, then because it is experienced as an attack on democracy that we have the habit of taking for granted after 70 years of European peace, but there is perhaps a third element that indirectly affects us particularly. br />
This war is narrated by social media and documented by mobile phones, therefore it is ideologically and intrinsically the daughter of our time and of our technological language in which it bursts, violently breaking the daily habit into a useless pastime.

No more Peter Arnett's world exclusive direct of the 1st ^a Gulf War, nor the cameras on the helmets of the marines in action and the live night bombings from the Palestine hotel in Baghdad of 2 ^a . No more "posing" wars, told and photographed by "embedded" journalists with professional cameras, long lenses and a wealth of details that are almost always gruesome (remember the stumps of charred and dismembered American soldiers dragged like trophies through the streets?), Nothing more direction and editing of services, control and verification of sources.
All outdated and confined to a distant space.

Now the information that has become a reference part that entrusted to the goodwill and honesty of simple individuals who find themselves living in a certain situation, take it back and post it on the net ... as for the rest, everyone is free to draw your own conclusions. But is this really the war? Or is it just its simulacrum transformed and decontextualized by the "do it yourself" technology?


Michelangelo Dotta
NP April 2022