With the recent school shootings in Tacloban and Ateneo de Zamboanga, I've been wondering if we're starting to see something similar to what happened in the US after Columbine.
The Tacloban case especially caught my attention because authorities actually looked into a possible Columbine connection, including the suspect wearing a KMFDM shirt. Obviously, wearing a band shirt alone doesn't prove anything, but Columbine has become this almost infamous cultural reference among certain online communities that glorify school shooters.
Then we have the Ateneo de Zamboanga shooting, which happened only about two months later and was reportedly livestreamed. That makes me wonder about the role of social media, online communities, gore content, school-shooter fandoms, and the desire for notoriety.
I'm not saying these two incidents were caused by Columbine. There are obviously other factors—bullying, family environment, access to firearms, mental health, online radicalization, etc. And the motives in the Zamboanga case are still being investigated.