Do you increasingly feel like you are getting desensitised to news?
This thought stems from the train accident that happened yesterday. I realised this has become something I think about momentarily, and then just forget. Shorter attention spans (phones, social media) has to do with this. Anyone else?
Tbh it's pretty common to react this way to the news these days. Going through the recent pandemic caused a lot of us to be numbed at the sheer amount of deaths and loss being reported in the news.
If it's someone you know then it changes things but otherwise this is just the coping mechanism we developed...
There's even this pretty good graphic piece I remember reading on the topic: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2021-04-25/comic-for-my-job-i-check-death-tolls-from-covid-why-am-i-numb-to-the-numbers
This link gave me chills for some reason So beautifully portrayed
@Spitfire thanks for sharing
Pandemic might have been a cause too, it was just too much and for too long, definitely made me stop wanting to come across much news around it after a point
That graphic piece really captures what might be happening to us in a way, great find
To add, because there seems to be some character limit above. I just increasingly feel less empathetic about anything around me. Ignoring things that are going wrong, and just move on with my work, my workout, my Netflix show that I have to watch.
As a child/teen, I was a more real person. Now, I just feel different and I'm not sure if collectively as a society we are moving in this direction, whether it's good or bad.
Spot on. Even I feel I have become less sensitive and somewhat mechanised. But from another point of view, we could be coming to terms with the fact that one way or the other, this is how it's gonna end. With Death.
I accidentally opened news channels during breakfast, and the way the media was reporting the incident is tragic. All news headlines were, ABP reporters the first to get inside boggies, AajTak first in talking to relatives, this that. It's a fucking competition. Not a single drop of sadness or empathy.
And yes, we are getting desensitized, our brains can only handle certain amounts of information and emotional baggage. This is a skill which doctors acquire over time, and we are getting first hand experience of it now.
It depends how busy you are in your own life…. Earlier I used to ponder over all this terrorism and accident news too. But lately with gym stock market and work , I hardly have time to breathe. Let alone care all this.
Obviously when stones were pelted near my home recently. I got scared for my parents safety but see we are only sensitive when it happens to us now.
It is not lack of sensitiveness to it, but now we know no government is capable of providing basic security from atleast stones and potholes. So fuck it , i would rather focus on becoming a HNI and live my own life peacefully.
It has nothing to do with smart phones. In india, we accept the fate and move on. After one of the train bomb blast my uncle used the same train next day. We have very less options and not lot of time to dwell on "bad fate". Indians are very good at accepting bad news and moving on, maybe it is our cultural upbringing. This has helped Indians to migrate and shine even in worst situations, but bad thing is that we allow bad things to happen without making anyone accountable
That’s an intriguing thought. I believe it’s to do with access to too many sources of information making it overwhelming for people. After some point, some other piece of news supersedes it and makes it the talk of the town. The goal is merely reduced to staying relevant on social media & nothing else.
News is politicized too much in India for me personally. It’s sad to see lives lost but at the end of the day that’s all people end up caring about during reports.
Yes, absolutely. There's no question there. Several studies have been done on this same subject worldwide, and yes, after a point, things that would shock us or scare us or anger us tend to just leave us numb. It's not just about short attention span. But yeah, the two things can also intersect.
I remember when a year had a few large events and everybody was talking about them. Now it seems like there is some big shit happening every Tuesday and you forget about it before Wednesday ends.
As time passes we feel less capable of empathy,less human and more robotic and bound by a routine
