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| "The Scream" by Munch |
When I first watched the movie several years ago with my older kids and my best friend’s family, my first reaction was nauseating. I wanted to close the shutters I didn’t have and disconnect my cell phone, while tossing every electronic device we owned into the garbage. Anything that might be linked or accessed by the outside world, even remotely, was not essential to our well being, in fact, it was detrimental!
The seed was planted in my subconscious by Hoblit's 2008 macabre thriller Untraceable. The film exposes the darker side of the human psyche as a serial killer uses cyber technology to make the public active participants in the slow torturous murder of his victims. Through the killer’s website, which is fed by human interaction and propelled by the number of hits it gets, the people are able to control the speed at which the victims succumb to the killer’s gruesome scheme.
Now, the suffocating feeling I experienced was not as a result of the actual psychopath’s scheme, or from his ability to engage the public in such dark manipulation. Instead, my heart sank at the thought of people continuing to be involved as conspirators of the hideous crimes, despite knowing the ghastly outcome of their participation.
And so, I ask the question – is it really possible for our society to become so desensitized that people are willing to witness, and even participate in horrific crimes, without feeling some degree of remorse or responsibility? Perhaps I’m taking this question a bit too far, but it is not far-fetched to declare that in general terms society has become less empathetic - particularly as it relates to social issues.
I believe that mass media plays an important role in this phenomenon and must assume a great deal of the blame. Although it is the vital mechanism that keep us informed and connected in extraordinary ways, studies demonstrate that too much exposure to certain negative messages, such as violent crimes, desensitizes consumers and can eventually bring about compassion fatigue. The pervasive nature of media and the way in which it is delivered not only causes such burnout, but also accelerates it.
A study about desensitization, conducted by Kinnick, Krugman, and Cameron (1996), suggests that as people are overexposed to negative news through multiple layers of mass media, particularly as it relates to violent crimes, they tend to become less sensitive to the topic - even if it is a serious social problem. As the public becomes emotionally overwhelmed, they tend to withdraw from the issue resulting in failure to recognize its relevance to them. Other similar studies highlight that persistent delivery of negative news tends to normalize certain social problems and leads to a diminished shock factor.
So then, why do people react to certain horrid news with such enthusiasm? The study of how we consume social media might reveal the psychology behind this observation. For example, why did it take a fatal “planking” accident to popularize this trendy and illogical past time in the US? Why was March 11, 2011, the day of the Japan earthquake, the most active in terms of Tweets? And why did March 12, the day after the quake, yield such exorbitant numbers of Twitter registrations?
Have we become so desensitized, as a result of mass and social media over-stimulation, that only catastrophic news has the ability to really engage us in a profound manner? If so, perhaps we should start thinking of ways to counter these effects, before it is too late and we all find ourselves glued to our computer, mobile phones or iPad screens rooting for the next victim to appear…and just as easily be extinguished...with the simple stroke of a key.
The seed was planted in my subconscious by Hoblit's 2008 macabre thriller Untraceable. The film exposes the darker side of the human psyche as a serial killer uses cyber technology to make the public active participants in the slow torturous murder of his victims. Through the killer’s website, which is fed by human interaction and propelled by the number of hits it gets, the people are able to control the speed at which the victims succumb to the killer’s gruesome scheme.
Now, the suffocating feeling I experienced was not as a result of the actual psychopath’s scheme, or from his ability to engage the public in such dark manipulation. Instead, my heart sank at the thought of people continuing to be involved as conspirators of the hideous crimes, despite knowing the ghastly outcome of their participation.
And so, I ask the question – is it really possible for our society to become so desensitized that people are willing to witness, and even participate in horrific crimes, without feeling some degree of remorse or responsibility? Perhaps I’m taking this question a bit too far, but it is not far-fetched to declare that in general terms society has become less empathetic - particularly as it relates to social issues.
I believe that mass media plays an important role in this phenomenon and must assume a great deal of the blame. Although it is the vital mechanism that keep us informed and connected in extraordinary ways, studies demonstrate that too much exposure to certain negative messages, such as violent crimes, desensitizes consumers and can eventually bring about compassion fatigue. The pervasive nature of media and the way in which it is delivered not only causes such burnout, but also accelerates it.
A study about desensitization, conducted by Kinnick, Krugman, and Cameron (1996), suggests that as people are overexposed to negative news through multiple layers of mass media, particularly as it relates to violent crimes, they tend to become less sensitive to the topic - even if it is a serious social problem. As the public becomes emotionally overwhelmed, they tend to withdraw from the issue resulting in failure to recognize its relevance to them. Other similar studies highlight that persistent delivery of negative news tends to normalize certain social problems and leads to a diminished shock factor.
So then, why do people react to certain horrid news with such enthusiasm? The study of how we consume social media might reveal the psychology behind this observation. For example, why did it take a fatal “planking” accident to popularize this trendy and illogical past time in the US? Why was March 11, 2011, the day of the Japan earthquake, the most active in terms of Tweets? And why did March 12, the day after the quake, yield such exorbitant numbers of Twitter registrations?
Have we become so desensitized, as a result of mass and social media over-stimulation, that only catastrophic news has the ability to really engage us in a profound manner? If so, perhaps we should start thinking of ways to counter these effects, before it is too late and we all find ourselves glued to our computer, mobile phones or iPad screens rooting for the next victim to appear…and just as easily be extinguished...with the simple stroke of a key.
