The Titan submarine tragedy set off a morbid meme explosion

Stories of wrecks, storms, and lost ships have long captivated humanity — going back to The Odyssey and Noah’s Ark. Stories of shipwrecks and missing ships have made history. The Edmund Fitzgerald or Mary Celeste are two examples. But even recent events, such as the Ever Given becoming stuck in the Suez Canal 2021 have become widespread obsessions. There is nothing quite like something going terribly, terribly wrong in the water to grab the world’s attention.

It was not surprising that Titan’s loss had been reported, despite its tragic nature. submersible, owned and developed privately by tourism company OceanGate, became the internet’s cause célèbre. In the early hours of Sunday, the five-man submersible with 96 air hours aboard lost contact less than 2 hours after starting a dive to the RMS Titanic.. The Coast Guard wasn’t alerted about the missing craft until that evening, but they began a search on Monday in conjunction with the Canadian Coast Guard and military. The search ended in tragedy on Thursday night, after the US Coast Guard announced that the wreckage was no longer identifiable. TitanThe Titanic’s bow was not too far away from where the men were found. All five men died.

When tragedy struck the Titan, the ocean was already on the internet’s collective mind, what with the orcas off the coast of Europe unionizing to attack boats together. Memes about the killer whales’ “war on the rich” abounded, as social posts related the killer whales’ crusades against yachts to the state of the world under capitalism — and the rallying cry to “eat the rich.” The social-media meme complex was primed to conceive of the sea as a perfect canvas for political commentary.

It was a story about rescuing a submersible that many people followed and rallied around. The search for the Titan combined the claustrophobic suspense of a “trapped in a cave” story with the fearful vastness of a “lost in a balloon” story. In the past, rescue operations were closely followed by people who waited breathlessly for any updates. Some outlets even had countdown clocks to indicate how much “time” is left for a successful rescue mission.

If the incident of the Titan wasn’t magnetizing enough for onlookers, there’s the Titanic All of it. A large proportion of people had an intense childhood phase of being specifically and intensely obsessed with the “unsinkable” ship, because of its movie adaptation or otherwise. Nobody’s obsession can hold a candle to James Cameron’s, however. Thanks to his expertise in Titanic wreck-diving, news outlets asked him to weigh in on the search — adding to the spectacle.

The reaction of the public to the news about the lost ship was quite different. Usually, these events are accompanied by collective fear and hope for the safety of the victims. It was a much more casual tone this time. Not only were social media sites flooded with prayers and commentary, but also absurd jokes. Custom-designed submersibles were used to transport wealthy tourists. Titanic wreckage at a depth of 12,500 feet, already faced criticism years ago for CEO Stockton Rush’s decision to not subject the craft to inspection and certification by leading maritime agencies.

There’s even an Elon connection, via his Starlink service. Musk wasn’t directly involved in OceanGate (support vessels use Starlink, but the messaging system cannot be used underwater), but a distaste for his type of brash billionaire characterized a great deal of the public’s response to the tragedy. It’s easy to make comparisons between the hubris of the disastrous recent SpaceX launch and the news that the tail cone of the Titan submersible was found near the Titanic wreckage, as a result of a catastrophic implosion.

Others have even described the disaster as a catastrophe as revengeOn behalf of many victims from the lower classes Titanic disaster. Others pointed out how much attention the submersible news received, saying that in a just world, the current refugee crisis in the Mediterranean — in which hundreds of migrants drowned after a single overloaded ship sunk last week — would be receiving just as much sympathy and attention. Meanwhile, right-wing billionaire sympathizers have jumped to the Titan’s defense, blithely comparing the OceanGate passengers to heroic explorers of days past(Irrespective of the fact that these explorers often were not wealthy).

It’s not a mystery why the OceanGate tragedy has taken over public discourse. It’s a metaphor for today, with new information that is catnip on the internet. For example, the son of a Titan passenger attended a Blink-182 show in the middle of all the media frenzy. No matter your position, you probably have a take on the tragedy — and the more admonishing or outlandish the take, the more it will be amplified by Twitter or TikTok’s algorithmic echo chamber in order to provide timely entertainment to a wide audience eager for more content about the event.

OceanGate, a maritime disaster, has been embraced by many online communities. BookTok creators are taking advantage of the current media frenzy surrounding OceanGate. Titan As an opportunity to showcase their favorite titles in the genre of hysterical tales of adventure. On Steam, an indie game called Iron LungThe sales of, which allows players to control a small submersible through the oceans of an alien lunar surface, have soared.

Open-ended mysteries are always fascinating and provide a compelling source of entertainment. And the ocean itself provides a perfect canvas — it’s still incredibly mysterious, far moreso, even today, than the polar regions or outer space. It provides nearly infinite opportunities to whet one’s appetite for the unknown.

The vastness and unexplored areas of Earth are highlighted by these kinds of disappearances. As the OceanGate disaster developed, social-media users circulated a handy interactive example of the ocean’s depth that demonstrates the staggering depth of the sea. It’s Bigger is not always better.. Oceanic vastness seems to encourage plugged-in observers to turn into amateur investigators. Internet-based amateur investigators spread geopolitical theories when Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 went missing over the Pacific ocean in 2014. One would have hoped that the Titan wreckage news was spread. You never know if this misinformation will be spread because the truth is not found.

The urge to “get involved” seen in these cases is a similar impulse behind the many, many true crime communities online who take an active interest in solving not only cold cases but active ones — like the disappearance of Gabby Petito, which took over TikTok for weeks. It’s still not clear whether amateur detectives actually did anything to help solve the case.

The collective communities that gather and analyze knowledge can be just as harmful as they are helpful. When everything is flattened into entertainment via social media, there’s not really a material difference between the ways that digital communities allow people enjoy fandoms for TV shows and movies. The internet allows people to feel like they are part of something big and important, like solving a real life mystery or helping right a wrong, even if they’re just making a meme, in poor taste or otherwise.