With social media, ordinary citizens were able to have of the Aurora horror, as they did on . " As for Time, "You can't ask a witness in a newspaper story how he felt during a disaster or offer condolences to someone you see on cable news."

Social media also reached some lows during the Aurora events. For instance, some denizens of the 9GAG hacker forum tried to claim as one of their own James Holmes, the 25-year-old man identified by police as the shooter in the Aurora incident.

The hackers posted an image of what appears to be some kind of Nazi meeting with this message superimposed on it: "Tomorrow I will kill everyone during the new Batman premiere in Colorado. People will die for the glory of Le 9GAG Army!!!" The was attributed to Holmes and post-dated to make it appear as if it were posted the day before the shooting rampage at Aurora.

Another social media low occurred on Twitter. There, on the morning following the Aurora shootings, a to a Twitter account affiliated with the National Rifle Association stating: "Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" After around two hours, the posting was taken down by the NRA, which stated, "A single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context."