From horror to fan fiction, the Titanic submersible disappearance ignited a torrent of mixed feelings on social media and became 'a perfect storm for virality,' a media expert said

• The missing Titanic submersible has sparked a storm of media coverage and social media reactions.
• Communications professor Yotam Ophir told Insider that people have always been deeply interested in rescue missions.
• The range of reactions spans sympathy, fear, ridicule, and nightmarish imagination exercises.

The ongoing search-and-rescue effort for a submersible carrying five tourists to the wreckage of the Titanic has detonated a range of conflicting emotional responses across social media this week.

TikTok creators are posting live news updates; submarine experts are offering their insights; Twitter users are turning the alarming incident into punchlines and "eat the rich" commentary; and Reddit pages are being overrun with fan fiction imagining every macabre scenario.

From sympathy to panicked fear to fractious schadenfreude, one expert believes the Titanic submersible saga is the "perfect storm for virality."

Dr. Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor of Communications at the University of Buffalo with expertise in media effects and persuasion, told Insider he likens these events to the story of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, whose mysterious disappearance in 2014 still sparks media coverage and online conspiracy theories.

"People have always been interested in — almost to the point of obsessed with — rescue missions and stories," Ophir said. "Part of it is that those are developing stories that are very emotional, that have a lot of drama."

Ophir also alluded to the Chilean mining incident in 2010, where 33 miners were rescued after being trapped underground.

"There's an element of suspense: Will they be rescued, will they not?" Ophir said. "The story is developing as we cover it."

However, unlike those accidents, he noted that the submersible rescue adds an extra, complicated layer to the public discourse because the experience was exclusive to the über wealthy class. Tickets for the experience, which was fronted by the company OceanGate, were priced at $250,000 a person, and at least one of the five passengers on board is a billionaire. 

"It's something that only the ultra-rich can do, which I think for many is being perceived as a [show] of arrogance," Ophir said. "People feel as if rich people are using the ocean as their own playground."

This has led to some scornful feelings online, including posts mocking the wealthy passengers for spending so much on superfluous tourism — and risking their lives doing it.

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Other details surrounding the project — like the vessel being driven with a video game controller, older quotes resurfacing from the OceanGate CEO about wanting to turn deep-ocean tourism into a profitable business, and the fact that the vessel is locked from the outside — have also made it ripe for ridicule and harsh criticism.

In fact, the reactions have been so visceral and loud that it's inspired a second wave of backlash and pointed responses to those criticisms. 

"I cannot believe how many people are making fun of the lost submersible, what about innocent people dying in a horrific terrifying nightmare ish way is funny???" Twitter user @superducky800 shared on Tuesday. "Who cares if they're rich, their being lost and dying isn't gonna solve any financial inequality, it's just sad."

Many other posts expressed how terrifying it would be to be trapped under the sea in total darkness.The fear and panic an event like this can stoke have also bonded communities online, who have been tirelessly playing out every probable cause and horrifying scenario.

Ophir told Insider that it's natural to put yourself in the shoes of the passengers when you consume news like this.

"It's definitely possible that some people experience the anxiety vicariously," he said. "By reading the stories of others, you feel the claustrophobic experience yourself." 

A Reddit page based around fear of deep oceans with over 1.3 million members, r/thalassophobia, has had numerous popular posts this week dissecting the scary depths of the waters against the tight quarters of the submersible. One user wrote they were so absorbed in the case they couldn't get any work done, obsessively checking for updates and feeling anxious for the passengers.

A TikTok with over 9 million views features a creepy ambient soundtrack and a voiceover describing in vivid detail how it might feel to be trapped in the submersible.

"Imagine being trapped in something the size of a minivan, pitch-black, the air is thick because you and four others have been breathing the same air for hours," the voice of the account @thedailystar says. "Your fate depends on the outside world, and it is obvious they don't know where you are."

According to Ophir, these alarmist and critical social media posts are par for the course. The sensational event — and the odd and spectacular details surrounding the event — are why it's inspired such an emotional, intense, and often dissonant reaction from spectators. 

"A lot of urban legends and folk stories are often kind of mocking the rich for their arrogance, for playing God, you know, like 'Why do they need to go down the ocean? Why do they need to get this privileged access to something the rest of us don't have?' And so on and so on," said Ophir. "Having said that, not everybody feels that. For some people, it's just a fascinating rescue attempt, which is always dramatic, and always attracts interest."