The Modern Colosseum

Which social media platform is it?

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Il Colosseo, the original MSG, an amphitheater for the ages, the tourist trap of tourist traps, the blueprint for social media in 2022?

More Than Just an Arena

Most common knowledge of the Colosseum is derived from pop culture references such as Gladiator or even worse, The Colosseum at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Popular culture primarily depicts the famous gladiator fights and not much else. However, the Colosseum was much more than a sports arena and was a vital seam that held the fabric of Roman society together.

At maximum capacity, the Colosseum could hold around 50,000 Romans. The ability to centralize and create a common experience for a group of this size was unprecedented at the time. Further, the Colosseum did not serve as a congregation space for a single class. Instead, it allowed all classes to appear through tiered levels of seating. The seating arrangement was organized bottom-to-top in descending levels of importance, with the emperor at the bottom in The Imperial Box. Senators, military leaders, scholars, and other noble citizens would sit upon marble and cushioned seats on the lower levels, and the upper levels accommodated the common people with narrow, angled wooden chairs. Thus, the social structure was crystal clear for all to see.

The events in the Colosseum were much more than just gladiator fights, in fact, they would not even begin until most of the day’s events had already passed. The day would start with an opening parade and a glamorous entrance of the upper class (politicians, soldiers, senators, etc.). Following this would be the entry of the emperor and religious ceremonies. Some of the earliest events would include the display of exotic animals, animal hunts, and special gladiators trained to fight beasts such as tigers. Romans would scratch their itch for sex with vile acts of animals raping women. These events would be supplemented with exotic plants and trees to simulate reality as much as possible. The people would get their first dose of death as criminals were forced to fight beasts without any weapons or protection. After this, more death would be distributed as blindfolded criminals were pitted against each other in a fight to the death. The crowd would then giddily watch creative tortures and executions prior to the main gladiatorial combats. There were various kinds of gladiator fights with varying levels of fairness and weapons. At the end of these disgusting events, legions of soldiers would reenact Roman victories to ensure the nationalist wheel was always turning.

In a similar fashion, the ruling class would keep the commoners satisfied by providing free admission and food to ensure they were projecting themselves as gracious rulers. This is based on the concept of Bread and Circuses, which originates in Rome and was coined by the satirical poet Juvenal around 100 CE. The phrase refers to a politician or ruling class garnering approval through distraction or satisfaction of basic requirements such as food or entertainment, in opposition to garnering approval through public service or policy. Clearly, the Colosseum satisfies both of these requirements, but why were the events chosen?

Appealing to the Animal Within

The display of exotic animals is straightforward, as humans gravitate towards shiny things and by killing them, the dominance of the empire is displayed. A similar explanation can be applied to battle reenactments, glory to Rome! But, what for the more vulgar activities? Well, humans just really like to see disgusting things.

Darwin had initially theorized that our feelings of disgust were developed as a way of keeping our bodies in prime condition. Enabling those with higher sensitivity to disgust to successfully reproduce at a higher rate due to increased hygiene. This explanation passes a simple logical test, but it doesn’t explain why we tend to enjoy watching disgusting activities. The theory of benign masochism is much more persuasive. It was theorized by Paul Rozin in the late 20th century and outlined in this 2013 study. The study describes benign masochism as the:

conversion of a (usually) innate negative experience into a positive experience

Examples of enjoying spicy foods and sad movies are used to provide context, although these two differ. While they are both benign, spicy foods mainly rely on past experiences to flush out any feelings of genuine concern. Conversely, enjoyment of sad movies is attributed to feelings of empathy. But feelings of true negativity are prevented by individuals recognizing that they are distanced from the situation, allowing enjoyment to persevere. Sadness prevailed as the most frequently positively reversed emotion, with disgust finishing third out of eight. Our upstanding Roman citizens were adequately distanced from the disgusting acts of murder, rape, torture, and slaughter. This enabled them to find enjoyment in an exotic and disgusting experience by reversing a negative emotion through distance, simultaneously they recognized their own safety and appreciated it.  

The power of the Colosseum’s events is fully harnessed by their ability to create an in-group and out-group and invoke schadenfreude. First attested in Germany in the 18th century, the term refers to how humans derive enjoyment from observing others’ suffering. Justice-based schadenfreude refers to the pleasure that occurs when an individual who committed an immoral act is punished. Aggression-based schadenfreude describes the joy of observing the suffering of a member or members of an out-group, validating the in-group. Both of these forms of schadenfreude are present in the Colosseum’s events. Justice is served through the torture, execution, or fights to the death of criminals. Our in-group is comprised of the Roman citizens in the stands, and our out-group includes the slaves or criminals forced to participate in the events. The Roman citizens clearly were able to distance themselves from those participating and affirmation of the group (including the ruling regime) was catalyzed through the events.  

The Shiny New Colosseum

The internet has enabled worldwide instant communication, empowering the principles that made the Colosseum what it was to play a more active and visible role in our society. Out of the top 10 social media platforms by monthly active users worldwide, only four of them can be descendants of the Colosseum. These platforms are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. There can be an argument made for Reddit, LinkedIn, or YouTube, but these platforms’ style of social interaction is not primarily social hierarchy based. Sure, LinkedIn has a career aspect and has recently experienced high levels of dopamine farming with posts unrelated to careers, but we don’t care what our influencers or politicians say on LinkedIn do we?

The easiest comparison is that both the Colosseum and these platforms are free (at expense of your data) and present clear hierarchies. Beyond just follower counts being displayed (except Facebook), these platforms utilize blue tick marks to indicate status. We can look at the marble seats as the Colosseum’s equivalent to verified tick marks.

In a similar fashion to how Romans would earnestly watch their elite and emperor, we commit an unholy amount of time to our influencer/celebrity/political class through these platforms. Whether it be taking their opinions as gospel, obsessing over their personal lives, or mindlessly consuming whatever they decide to do or say, we have an undeniable obsession.

Our obsession over their personal lives is frequently critical, waiting for a member of this class to step out of line. When this happens the rituals of cancel culture are initiated as corners of the internet gleefully participate. Cancel culture is an example of justice-based schadenfreude as pleasure is distributed to those who witness the punishment of an individual for their immorality. While aggression-based schadenfreude could be argued to be prevalent, it would only exist insofar as the individual celebrity is the out-group and everybody else is the in-group.

Although hierarchies are made clear in the Colosseum and our sample platforms, the criteria for the upper classes are vastly different. There is still a political class that commands large groups of followers on these platforms, but they are a minority of the entire upper class. In Rome, the rest of the upper class was comprised of scholars, military generals, and other noble citizens (often wealthy landowners or advisors).

These individuals may have not always been the most moral or caring of the citizens, and they probably did not operate solely in the best interest of all citizens. But their roles and status were pivotal to advancing the empire. Some wealthy landowners would leverage their wealth to provide funding for expansion or trade, the military would protect & conquer, and scholars would advance the education of select classes if not all men.

This is starkly different from the bulk of our current upper class that is active online. This class’s main function is to entertain us. Scholars are swept under the bed on social media, as attractiveness and entertainment value seem to surpass any tangible benefits that one could provide. While we have motivational influencers and “finfluencers” who could somewhat count as “beneficial”. Their content is mainly based on making money off of their audience through entertainment rather than teaching. In terms of motivational influencers, there is a strong agenda to push forward a philosophical agenda. While influencers/celebrities may not as visibly affect our society as much as the upper class in Rome, it would be ridiculous to assume that they don’t. These individuals influence our political opinion, shopping habits, and morality by projecting their views onto us when they share their lives with us through their content.

In the past few years, a trend that has been brewing for the past decade has bloomed into fruition. With the rise of TikTok came the rise of completely absurd content, and influencers who produce such content. Users are roped into videos of people eating hideous amounts of food, we are fascinated by those with disabilities, and it is even a trend for individuals to fake illness on the app. Our fascination and attraction to these types of content are examples of benign masochism in sadness & disgust. TikTok also has pushed forward lower-quality, more chaotic, and sexual content, like way more sexual content. The main goal of the app is to rope us in for as much time as possible by pandering to our most primal desires, no matter how disgusting, chaotic or sexual.

High-School Politics Always Win

There are clearly drawn similarities in the type of entertainment and clear hierarchical structures, but which one is our Colosseum? None, thanks to in-groups and out-groups.

While the Colosseum promoted the togetherness of a single in-group, these social media platforms promote division into endless in-groups that live inside echo chambers, occasionally coming out to clash like gladiators. There are various factions that we frequently find on the internet often based on ethnicity, gender, political views, and sexual orientation that are aggressively active on social media. These groups will fight with each other publicly through posts or comment sections. Often making blanket statements to generate controversy, which generates clicks, which generates money. This is where aggression-based schadenfreude is most popular on the internet.

Without the strengthening of Roman nationalism, the Colosseum would be unable to justify the horrors that went on inside it and would completely lose its utility. Unfortunately, that is where we sit today. Whether the internet can be argued to be one massive Colosseum or a million tiny Colosseums, it does not matter, it is beginning to tear us apart.