Tragedy is a word that is becoming a part of daily diction.

If you have seen the news the last couple of days, you will notice that the world seems to be overtaken by grief and tragedy.

On Friday, Nov. 13, the world’s clock seemed to stop ticking. Devastating terrorist attacks ravaged areas of Paris. News stations, newspapers, cell phone notifications and the like were painted with the tragic aftermath which killed over 100 people. Over 100 innocent lives were lost.

Social media was flooded with grief, sympathies, condolences and profile pictures with the Paris flag overlaid.

Given the nature of social media, negativity almost always follows suit.

A double standard seems to be plaguing social media as more details about the attacks in Paris emerge. This double standard is evident in the recent trend of “Pray for the World.”

This trend brought back or shed more light on the horrific attack in Kenya, suicide bombings in both Baghdad and Beirut and earthquakes in both Japan and Mexico.

In fact, according to BBC, social media discussion about the tragedy in Kenya distorted public perception. Because of the resharing of the Kenya coverage, some social media users believed that the Kenya attack happened at the same time of the Paris attack.  In fact, the attack in Kenya occurred in April.

Some social media users even believed that the Kenya attack was not covered until the Paris attacks happened.

The attack in Kenya was heavily covered by CNN, BBC, the New York Times and other national media organizations.

This editorial is not meant to say that prayer for one tragic event is not needed for the other. In fact, the more positivity, prayer and support we can do, the better.

Instead of getting caught up in digital bickering about which tragedy deserves our sympathy, we need to focus on understanding why these tragedies keep happening.

Go beyond your Facebook timeline for your news. Go beyond your Twitter feed for your news.

Social media is a good start to find the news, but it shouldn’t end there. To be more informed, you have to go to other sources and the best places to look are the news sources where the tragedies occur.

Only those who are informed can make a change.

We at The Spectator stand with all that are affected by tragedy.

When tragedy uproots and ravages, new seeds of hope and rebirth are planted and the roots that grow are that much stronger.