Earlier this week I received a rather concerning letter from the manufacturer of my car stating that they would send me, upon my request, an anti-theft device for me to add to my car to make it safer based on a social media trend that had been going around that had demonstrated how the particular car I drive was vulnerable to thieves seeking to document their grand theft auto on a popular social media site for clicks and virality. I strongly suspect that many people are in my position, not being aware of the dumb new trends in social media and unpleasantly being made aware of them through a letter from our vehicle manufacturer that something is amiss and needs to be fixed.

Now, we know that companies do not offer to send millions of drivers like me letters that offer to provide some sort of free anti-theft devices out of the goodness of their hearts. Companies are in the business to make money, and giving away devices is not itself directly profitable. By and large, when products need expensive or annoying servicing in order to fix a problem with them, some sort of recall issue or something that results from a class-action lawsuit, companies are acting defensively to spend the least amount possible to preserve their market share. I am not aware of exactly how much this particular solution cost the manufacturer of my car, but I think that the calculation is that this is the minimal amount needed to avoid more expensive problems, and that seems fair enough to me, even if I am not pleased about the need to install some sort of novel device in my car, given my distinct lack of mechanical expertise.

How did we get to this point, though? People who are even remotely aware of the plague of social media challenges over the past few years have witnessed people doing things that range from silly to dangerous, from such things as planking to jumping out of moving cars. Many hundreds of thousands to millions of people have uploaded videos of themselves doing things that are foolish and ignorant in order to gain supposed clout or attention or the chance of virality. When it comes to the attention economy, such decisions make a certain kind of sense, but only when divorced from any thinking about the dangers of one’s behaviors. How did such tasks move from dim and brainless social media stunts to something as dangerous and illegal as breaking into cars and using a vulnerability these cars apparently have to being jump-started with usb cables that are pretty common in cars these days with the devices that people use and try to charge up? This seems a sudden and worrisome escalation of social media folly from mere idiocy to pretty advanced levels of criminality, and it does not bode well for the well-being of our society when people think that stealing vehicle is a good way to get seven seconds of fame.

Why is this so concerning to me as someone who has limited interest in the stunts that people engage in online in order to gain the temporary attention of fellow brainless individuals? So long as people are engaged in stunts that merely risk their own lives and safety without bringing others into the picture, my general philosophy is live and let die. The world is probably better off without a few of its more conspicuously brainless people anyway. It is more concerning when the stupidity of others and their quest for attention by doing the new thing leads them to actively seek to disregard the property rights of people like myself. To think that the combination of laziness and ineptitude on the part of a car company and the malicious desire for fame and attention without a high degree of regard for the rights of others has led to a situation where lawsuits must be undertaken to protect people put in harm’s way by this sort of challenge is something that makes me rather irritable and fierce. If I am still not pleased to think about it, at least I am no longer ignorant and can be properly on my guard about it.