MY BEST GUESS: Casey Anthony and Social Media

I hope to make "My Best Guess" a regular posting. For my first, I am making the completely annoying move of commenting on what everyone seems to be commenting on: the Casey Anthony murder trial. Here's the question that keeps coming to mind when I read post after post on facebook about this trial-- why on earth do people care about this one case so much?

My best guess: the Casey Anthony trial is the perfect reflection of the current moment in our culture. I think that this trial combines social media, questions of justice, and social frustration about completely unrelated issues in our society together in a soupy mix of emotion. No matter how much the jurors of this trial insist upon the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution, millions of people will still be convinced of Casey Anthony's guilt in murdering her little girl. One of the biggest reasons (if not the biggest) for such widespread consensus on her guilt is the collection of pictures of Casey partying while her daughter was purportedly missing and in reality dead. This continues to surprise me because it seems deeply ironic. We usually assume 'social media' to be exhausted by Twitter and facebook but includes public sharing of our photos, including Photobucket, the website upon which Anthony's indiscrete images were shared and viewed. The irony comes when one considers that social media consistently facilitates behavior and comments for which people are not held accountable. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that there are some horrific things being said online about Casey Anthony herself, things that if said in person, in public, might be cause for arrest.

In terms of questions of justice, I think Americans feel the need to publicly (again, through social media) express their outrage about this case because it's an easy side to pick. "Porch Lights on for Caylee" is an easy thing to get behind. In this moment, we find ourselves part of a nation that has fought and continues to fight dubious wars in terms of justice, has been vehemently fighting over what is just for workers, and finds itself violently divided over what justice means for the body in the form of a healthcare debate. People want something to latch on to, something that allows them to pick a side and stand firmly within it--from the comfort of their keyboards, of course. It would be hard to deny the volatility of our current cultural moment, and recent politicking has taught people that they must pick a side and shout the other side down. The rub, of course, is that shouting doesn't work in a courtroom.