Social media has recently been proven to be a powerful resource recently in people’s lives. It has been used for the good and the bad in people’s lives. Though some people do not tend to notice that social media has a cause and an effect.  

On April 22, 2023, a TikTok video was posted by a female, who goes by the username @jackielabonita showing her experience at a recent Houston Astros game April 19, 2023. In the video Jackie is trying to take pictures, and in the background two females are seen pointing the middle finger, calling out lame, sticking their tongue, laughing and recording. These actions are seen to be targeted towards Jackie while she is trying to take pictures. In her video she put, “Watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me for taking pics”. That video has since gone viral with over 45 million views, over 7.6 million likes, and over 295.7 thousand shares.  

In response to Jackie’s video, another person created a TikTok video with the names of the females seen in background of the video, and sharing people connected to them, as well as allegedly where they were employed. This video has since then been deleted from the original creator’s page. Since then, the alleged place of employment has received negative reviews and is currently considered permanently closed as said on Google.  

The two females Liz and Alondra have responded and said that they were in their assigned seats that they had bought through the University of St. Thomas (UST) and Jackie was not. They spoke on that they were uncomfortable because earlier an older man was seen recording them, and seeing a man holding a camera in their direction later throughout the game made them uncomfortable as well. As well as that, flicking off the camera was not directed towards Jackie herself, but the camera itself. They included that they were not bullying her in the video, but just photobombing her video. They mentioned that since the video, they have received death threat, people telling them to kill themselves, had personal information leaked, and their lives are at risk. As well as brought up that one of the females never worked at the job that the person claimed she did, and that the company was not involved in it. 

The video was misinterpreted and out of context, and their safety, reputation, and future are compromise, they mentioned towards the end of their response. Because of all that has occurred the UST president has responded to a message with the words of, “Our Dean of Student is aware of the matter and actively addressing it. Bullying is in no way tolerated at UST.”  

There are two sides to this story and people may believe one side more than the other side. Actions have consequences, whether the actions were portrayed as funny or not.