The Realm of Desensitization
In the weeks following 9/11 the media flooded our eyes and our minds with disturbing images from ground zero. I was at college at the time, and my idiot of a roomate called me over to his computer to show me something. He showed me the body of a person who had jumped off one of the towers. It looked like someone spilled tomato sauce all over the place. A few months ago a member of an online community I'm a part of, posted a picture of a US soldier who was beheaded. Last night, I watched a movie called "Blood and Bones", about a man who rapes his wife and other people in some of the most horrible sequences I've seen in a while.So why am I telling you all this? Last night while coming home from school. The image of the beheaded soldier popped into my head. It just came out of nowhere and left me feeling very disgusted. These images that people seek out, and others like myself witness unknowingly, are having a major imapct on us. Sometimes I feel like it's a good thing that I am desensitized to graphic images, because somehow it'll prepare me for seeing the worst in real life. For the most part though, I think it's doing a lot more harm than good.
I've felt different over the past few years, like a part of me is missing. When you get to know me, I'm as warm and nice as other people, but I think I'm making it hard for people to get to know me. I truly believe this strong outershell that I seem to have built for myself is one result of being desensitized to the world around me. It leaves me feeling like an emotionless machine at times and I hate it.
So is there a way to prevent being desensitized? Unless you live in a vacuum, I'd have to say no. From movies, television, music and the internet (especially), we are constantly seeing images that will stay with us for a long time to come. Although we don't know how big of an impact the media is having on our future psyche, I fear it's for the worst. I have no solution or cure for this societal epidemic. All I can do is try to understand how it's affecting me day by day, and trying my best to avoid these images that our brains weren't designed to process. posted by psychobabbler @ 11:34 AM
