How do you deal with the horrors you see and hear?
in Psychology & Therapy ·
I find myself retreating from our domestic news portals and television networks—or at least most of them—simply because the quality of content has steadily eroded. Rather than passively consuming whatever is fed to me, I have adopted a more surgical approach: I select specific topics of interest, conduct my own targeted research, and seek out specialized programming. Occasionally this involves delving into grim subject matter, though I make a conscious effort to steer clear of any media that relies on cheap sensationalism to grab attention.
When it comes to tragic news, it is truly disheartening to see how American digital outlets have reduced genuine human suffering to nothing more than another clickbait headline. This is particularly egregious in the wake of tragedies, where the privacy and dignity of grieving families are frequently sacrificed just to shock the public and drive up engagement metrics. There is a profound paradox here: I believe this constant barrage actually numbs the average reader or viewer over time, effectively eroding their capacity for empathy. Between the relentless cycle of news coverage and the violent depictions in cinema, we are being systematically desensitized. Such harrowing scenes become normalized, eventually being treated as mere statistics. It creates this strange, detached illusion that these horrors are happening somewhere else, to someone else entirely.
The original poster, along with those who still manage to hold onto their sense of empathy despite everything, represents to me what a healthy human response to tragedy should look like. Of course, if that empathy morphs into a paralyzing daily fear, an obsession, or an inability to function, then we are facing a different issue altogether. In those instances, I believe rationalization becomes necessary. We live in a world surrounded by such horrors, and while we cannot be entirely immune to them, we must learn to accept them as an inherent part of the human experience.
When it comes to tragic news, it is truly disheartening to see how American digital outlets have reduced genuine human suffering to nothing more than another clickbait headline. This is particularly egregious in the wake of tragedies, where the privacy and dignity of grieving families are frequently sacrificed just to shock the public and drive up engagement metrics. There is a profound paradox here: I believe this constant barrage actually numbs the average reader or viewer over time, effectively eroding their capacity for empathy. Between the relentless cycle of news coverage and the violent depictions in cinema, we are being systematically desensitized. Such harrowing scenes become normalized, eventually being treated as mere statistics. It creates this strange, detached illusion that these horrors are happening somewhere else, to someone else entirely.
The original poster, along with those who still manage to hold onto their sense of empathy despite everything, represents to me what a healthy human response to tragedy should look like. Of course, if that empathy morphs into a paralyzing daily fear, an obsession, or an inability to function, then we are facing a different issue altogether. In those instances, I believe rationalization becomes necessary. We live in a world surrounded by such horrors, and while we cannot be entirely immune to them, we must learn to accept them as an inherent part of the human experience.