tmr-true-crime

[tmr-true-crime]

Welcome to the Community.

Enter at your own risk.

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Community is defined by many as “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”. 

Online, community means so much more. An online community can be an escape. It can be a place for “weird”, disenfranchised, unique people to connect and communicate about a common denominator with the added benefit of anonymity. If you are embarrassed about a feeling or interest, you can find a community of people who think just like you, normalizing your interests and bringing people together. 

This is an examination of the true crime community on different social media platforms. I explore the differences and why each community, while they all have true crime in common, is completely unique and important.

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On Instagram (IG), the true crime community is pretty factual. This causes the IG community to be much more gory, due to IG’s relaxed community guidelines when it comes to disturbing content. True crime accounts are able to post disturbing pictures of real victims of crime. For example, this account in particular has posted several videos and pictures of the shooting at Parkland (Febuary 14th, 2018), which I did not want to include in this out of respect and horror. I realize why they post more “raw” footage and pictures of these crimes, because they are one of the few platforms that doesn’t have restrictions on it. It is important (and fascinating to some) for the community on IG to get the full visual because the caption can’t really dive deep into a case.

These posts are like “bite-size” versions of an episode of dateline, and the pictures attached are meant to make someone scrolling through their timeline pay attention. This community has cultivated a way to get their audiences attention while still providing what the audience wants.

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The true crime community on youtube is the most thorough community. Unlike instagram, youtubers are able to delve deep into each case. The comments are flooded with conversation, especially in unsolved cases. Some youtubers, like Kendall Rae (above), have channels dedicated to true crime. This community is unique because the audience watch for both the case AND the youtuber. Subscribers and commenters can easily find commonalities between each other, and each video will bring about a new set of people to engage with. You know when you go to summer camp and you meet someone who immediately becomes your best friend DURING the camp, but AFTER camp you never speak to them because every year, there’s a new set of kids? It’s kind of like that. During one video, people engage with each other and feel the sense of community, but you know you probably wont talk to the same person/people on a different video.

In the comments, there’s a mix of people: they only like the youtuber, only like true crime, only like that one specific case, subscribers, non-subscribers, or a mix-and-match of any of those. This makes for interesting and diverse conversation and connection on every video.

Community doesn’t necessarily have to be the same group of people, it’s more a feeling of being among people that like exactly what you like and want to talk about it. With the creation of youtube, anonymity won’t get in the way of that connection.

[tmr-true-crime]

And here we have... tumblr. Finally, we’ve reached the reason I chose tumblr as my genre to explore community. other than reddit, I don’t think I’ve seen a more in depth community than the true crime community on tumblr. FIRST OF ALL there are two main sub-communities of true crime tumblr: apologists and reporters (these are unofficial titles for the purpose of this post). Apologists, like the account pictured above, are known for sympathizing with serial killers, often romanticizing them and relating to them. They also post memes about true crime, like the picture above. Reporters tend to just post summaries of true crime cases. Both have a community on this platform, but I want to focus on the apologists. 

These accounts are... controversial to say the least. Regardless of how you feel about them, this community is STRONG. The people in the community have unconventional thoughts and feelings that can be disturbing to a lot of people. It is definitely the dark side of true crime in general, on any platform. They don’t necessarily condone their actions, but they do often agree with the underlying ideals of the killers. This community is so strong because it is full of people who feel ostracized by society for their feelings, therefore, they feel that they only have each other. They use tumblr as a release, and I think that’s the entire point of communities, online especially. I think that’s what makes tumblr so different from other platforms. It’s the fringe. 

They found their people. They found people who understand.

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An End

Community is the reason we thrive. Without it, like minds couldn’t come together to create, discover, and improve. Community has evolved because the internet has world has made the world much smaller. If you’re passionate about something, a quick google search can bring you right to a group of people who are just as passionate as you are. On this website, I can reach out to someone across the globe with no effort at all to talk about true crime and be a part of a global, yet exclusive, community, and I think it helps everyone feel connected and important. 

Find your community. It’s out there.