The Bystander Effect or: Diffusion of Responsibility or: Somebody Else's Problem or: The Exact Opposite of How I'll Live My Life

Pardon my use of Wikipedia to define these terms.

The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.

Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. This mindset can be seen in the phrase "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".

Somebody Else's Problem (also known as Someone else's problem or SEP) is an effect that causes people to ignore matters which are generally important to a group but may not seem specifically important to the individual.

In a sentence these all essentially equate to one thing: Doing nothing to stop something that is happening right in front of you just because there are other people around (who also happen to be doing nothing).

I refuse to let this happen to me. I know it's against my very nature as a person, I'm usually quiet, I don't like to draw attention to myself, I don't like to interfere in random people's business, I don't like to speak up in a crowd. At the very same time however, I would hate myself if I ever stood by while something horrible happened to someone else. I'm honestly not sure what I would do myself if this happened to me, I'm pretty sure I would completely despise myself as a person.

What does this all mean? If I ever see someone in trouble, in need of help, in dire consequences, in any sort of situation where I can personally do something, I'm going to do something. I'm going to speak up, I'm going to get involved, I'm going to take action. I don't care if it's someone simply tripping and dropping their papers everywhere or if it's something much more serious. I don't want to be that guy who stands by and does nothing. So many people do nothing. I want to do something.

I just want to help.

I'm going to help from now on.