The internet has a habit of quickly placing and removing events from the spotlight, or at least blowing them up spectacularly. Take the D4vd situation, for example. On September 8, 2025, the body of 14-year-old girl Celeste Rivas-Hernandez was found in his Tesla. Between posts debating whether or not he was guilty, the internet was all over it. Some social media users even tried to investigate on their own, finding as much evidence as they could. Despite the outrage, the entire situation lost the spotlight until the recent arrest of D4vd on April 16, 2026, when the internet was practically celebrating his arrest after initially being named a suspect.

Here is another example, and one that most definitely took the internet by storm: the Epstein Files. For those who do not know what the Epstein Files are, they are a collection of documents, lists, and letters from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which had the names of many prominent political figures and people. Once the Epstein Files became a political hot topic, the internet immediately pressured the White House to release them. Slowly, little by little, pieces were released, and that was how names like Dr. Stephen Hawking and former President Bill Clinton appeared. With those names, the internet made memes and continued to make allegations. 

Eventually, a small portion of the Epstein Files was released, but they were heavily redacted. Demanding answers, the internet worked tirelessly to find out everything there is to know about the files and the people involved with the island, where Epstein committed his horrible acts. With the internet reporting and accusing, you would expect relevancy to last for a very long time, at least until all of the details have been released. But no, the internet has not only stopped talking about it, but also made jokes, memes, and skits about it, essentially making a once serious situation satirical. 

Why is this? Why do important events attract a huge amount of attention for a short amount of time, then drop off the face of the internet? Why and how does the internet move on so easily from events like these? Perhaps it is because so much happens in such a short period of time that priorities are constantly being shifted. 

Claremont High School freshman, Cassius Park, comments on why he thinks the internet can move on so easily.“I think that our attention spans are really bad, so they just get bored or sift through the information [easily],” Park said.

This may be true, as new short-form content has been shown to reduce our attention spans. Getting bored and quickly shifting your attention to other, more recent pieces of news may be why many important events come and go quickly.

While many of these events are still important or gain new leads, like D4vd’s recent arrest, it seems as if the internet hops on new trends too easily and forgets about holding people accountable. While bringing attention to problematic people and events is important, having consistent demands for accountability is more so, and without those efforts, the internet remains stuck in the same cycle of forgive and forget.