Knockout Is the Worst Meme Ever

There's planking, the Harlem Shuffle, and endless cats. The internet meme has become ingrained in our Snapchat-centric lives. If sometimes pointless, it’s mostly been a harmless way for people to feel like they belong, with moments of genuine creativity and humanity. But what happens when it takes a disgustingly dark turn?

The latest craze among teens, at an age before they are expected to carry knives and guns, is called knockout. There’s no clever irony here. The entire point is to knockout helpless pedestrians with a single sucker punch. Victims, which include a 16-year old girl and an elderly man who would later die from the blow, are chosen seemingly at random. Planking had safety concerns, when kids, fueled by an endless game of brinksmanship, started seriously hurting themselves. But that was social media extreme sports, a competition for attention with innocent intentions. Knockout is pure evil.

The NYPD believes kids are exchanging videos of big hits through social media, like hunters sharing footage of trophy kills (which is probably a reality TV show on the Discovery Channel). I’m not aware of any public site, so it’s difficult to speculate about social media’s impact on knockout’s virality. Granted, traders of big scores would be wise to keep private. But it’s a development that vibes with internet culture, where anonymity and a virtual environment can produce a cesspool of hate, and cyberbullying is ubiquitous.

Even without Facebook, memes can grow as long as people are communicating. The primary impact of technology is on reach and velocity. And knockout is spreading, reported in cities across the world, from New York to London to Washington DC.

The movement brings with it unavoidable racial commentary. Security footage of reported incidents shows perpetrators who are mainly young black men and the NYPD is investigating whether or not attackers are targeting Jews. But the fundamental issue appears to be economic. In urban environments where the meme is most prevalent, the gulf between the middle class and the poor widens by the day.

Though they share the same sidewalks, the distinct realities between the haves and have-nots is a persistent drain on empathy. It’s a situation that frustrates and disillusions the perpetual losers, while the entitled grow further out of touch, and a way for the disenfranchised to act out against a system they no longer believe in. It’s also true that those suffering constant financial straits, statistically, are more often minorities.

But victims have come from all walks of life, including a boy as young as twelve, which is what makes this so sinister and scary. The next victim could be anyone and chances are, they won’t see it coming. One teenage girl, having been blindsided, had no idea what happened when she regained consciousness—except that she was suddenly eating concrete, with a bruised jaw, busted lip, and a migraine that would linger for weeks. The scientific community is only starting to realize the lasting implications of head injuries.

How do you fight a fad? What can Metropolitan police forces, who are experiencing their own economic realities, possibly do? Could anyone have stopped Psy?

Whether it’s Gangham Style or Crocks, sometimes the only option is to let it ride. It should be said that social media itself has balancing mechanisms. The same forces that cajole copycats also expand awareness of a problem. If you were like me, you found out about knockout this week thanks to a viral video. Incidentally, a friend had shared it on Facebook.

Growing awareness will certainly play a role, inclining potential victims to adjust, but this will only perpetuate a culture of mistrust, already supercharged by incidents like Trayvon Martin. If knockout is allowed to play out its natural life cycle, it’s easy to imagine it reaching a horrific boiling point. Given the game’s violent roots, a play gone wrong or a mischosen target can have catastrophic consequences, depending on how a victim might retaliate, not to mention local gun laws.

Most terrifying of all, knockout might just be the beginning. What will cynical, creative kids move onto when they bore of perfectly placed haymakers to a person’s jaw? There are already signs that the game is evolving. In Brooklyn, the unprovoked attacks will sometimes be accompanied with graffiti, including a red swastika with the word “good” written beneath it, reinforcing claims that these are hate crimes. And knockout could survive, even if it becomes passe. Whether they’re diehards or incredibly late to the party, people are still planking.

While enforcement and security are important, the only long term solution will be for people to have reasonable expectations for a proper life, belief that their voices are heard, and faith in a credible system. Instead, if the situation fails to improve, it becomes more likely that knockout is not just a one-off, but a growing trend.

Of course, part of it is also human nature, and perhaps something like knockout was inevitable, with the potential for mitigation but impossible to eliminate.  We are all capable of evil and as the latest tech bubble shows, we love to share and be part of a group. Is this the power and possibility of the internet coming full circle, where you can just as easily share a TED talk as you can child pornography? Is it the natural result when the Silicon Valley tenets of “going social” and “going local” are adopted by amateur terrorists that come in the form of neighborhood street gangs?

If we’ve long come to terms with the real world implications of our virtual one when it comes to the dispersion of data, the ability for the digital to inflict direct physical harm is a recent development. Stuxnet blurred those lines for computer programs, effectively crossing the Rubicon, when carefully crafted code maliciously damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities. If our iPhones are becoming an extension of our consciousness, was it only a matter of time before an internet meme had us fearfully watching our backs IRL? And having assimilated Instagram and Vine into our being, were we destined to adopt internet culture’s nastiest characteristics into society at large?

For most people, the answers to those questions might not matter. The immediate threat is far more personal. Knockout is already real, a depressing indictment of our new reality, where hateful trolls lurk in the shadows of the deep web but also dark alleyways, and the aim is to attack not only the emotions, but the mind and the body. The worst part? The next victim could be you.

@sfnuop