Murder, social media, and you

Something interesting I found out today has to do with a new development in the Bryan Kohberger case about the photos of one of the victim’s law enforcement had found after screening his phone.

This news is more than 2 weeks old, but I just came across a video from NewsNation on YouTube discussing this today. Initially, the only known variable about those photos was that they were photos of one of the victims, and they were on Kohberger’s phone. Law enforcement still had to identify through metadata whether or not those photos were downloaded from another source or taken of the victim directly from his own phone’s camera. It was revealed as of two weeks ago by a source close to NewsNation that the photos were screenshotted and saved from the victim’s Instagram account.

It is becoming apparent as this investigation continues that Instagram activity will play an important role in this case in determining how much premeditation Kohberger was involved in before committing this crime. He also had liked all of Madison Mogen’s Instagram posts and even tried reaching out to one of the victims through DM. As someone who is trying to grow their own personal brand and audience through social media, hearing this is quite terrifying. My job requires me to maintain an online presence and engage with those who engage with my content. It would be counterproductive in this day and age to limit my social media presence while knowing it is the best way right now to get my name out there. However, how does one go about protecting themselves from creeps? It’s a problem that yes, has its all-encompassing solutions, but are they simultaneously practical? Maybe not.

Make the account private, delete your account, review your followers, and block accounts that remain anonymous, etc. Private your LinkedIn so you can control who knows where you work. Maybe the host website or company should take precautionary steps for their users? Companies like Facebook continually work to improve their websites to prevent cyber-attacks and security breaches. For example, Facebook Protect is a program that was started with the intent to give users in the larger public eye extra steps to protect themselves and their profiles. Only so many precautions can be taken in any given situation before ultimately, what is out of our control will inevitably make its advances.

Nowadays it’s hard to imagine a time before we had technology like the Ring doorbell camera, which since its debut has captured many crimes through its lenses. “How did we so blindly protect our homes before this readily available and affordable piece of technology?”, we may ask ourselves. But in the same breath we may be saying to ourselves, “Oh how I wish we had the same privacy we used to have before the Internet.”

That is a big theme in my life currently: taking the good with the bad. It is fortunate that we have the technology capable of deterring home invasions and catching criminals on the street, but it is just as unfortunate that the same blessings that technology has given us has also fostered the likes of hackers and internet sleuths who can make someone’s day that much harder in just a quick few clicks.

Life will not always work in our favor, despite how appealing it may appear from the outside. Without Yin there wouldn’t be Yang and without Yang there wouldn’t be Yin. Whatever is going on in your life currently that is taking up most of your attention, just know that without that something else may not have ever appeared into existence for you. Whichever of the nouns that is, take everything in life as a lesson. I wish I could finish this piece saying that bad things never happen and no one is ever in harm’s way: sadly, the real world is not cut out for optimists like me and you. We all have an equal chance of being the victims of tragedy, so live out your days like you only have 24 hours to live the human experience. That way if tragedy strikes your path, you will have beautifully and tastefully immersed yourself into this wonderful thing we call life. That sentiment reminds me of this song I discovered on Spotify by Sasha Alex Sloan entitled, “smiling when i die.” This song is a beautiful tribute to life’s purpose: to live each day with no regret. To arise each day with widened and yearning eyes, ready and waiting upon the horizon for the sun to grace the Earth’s surface. And the next sunrise. And the next after that. And the next.

Until tomorrow’s sunrise.

Have a goodnight.

Anézia

I would like to add this postscript for a little writer’s note.

I am endlessly sorry for Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. It breaks my heart to know beautiful photos of loving friends shared to social media with other loving friends and family was used in a dark and despicable way. We may never know the origin story behind how Kohberger found and chose these beautiful souls to stalk. If it was social media, this post is in no way meant to diminish the magnitude of impact that social media crimes have. We are seeing more and more cases use clues from the online and computer world to solve crimes, so for that my heart goes out to all the victims and their families who have had lives taken from them as a result of the internet or the like. This post is purely to encourage a positive and light-hearted spin on these oh-so heart-wrenching topics. We have sadly devolved positivity to the wind in recent years. I wanted to remind whoever chooses to read this that life is just as much happy, surprising, exciting, glorious, comforting, and magnificent as it is scary, hopeless, confusing, disappointing, and unfair. I want to share the reminder to indulge all of life’s hills, slopes, mountains, and valleys.

Double P.S.

I am in the process of writing a formal piece regarding these victims. Let me know if you'd like to read it.