I was reading through The Huffington Post this weekend, as I usually do to get my daily news fix, and while I was reading about oil spills and joblessness, I found not one, but two separate links to videos showing real life people getting shot! One was the horrible shooting in Oakland CA, and the other was, I think, a mugging in Europe.
My question is this? WHY? Why do we need to see this violence and why does a respected news provider feel the need to share this violence in video form?
This YouTube age in which we live, where every cell phone and electronic device can become a video recorder, and then that video can be posted on the web by any Joe Schmo with a broadband link, is becoming too much for me. I already know the terrible things my fellow human beings are capable of, and I have an imagination to give me the corresponding images. I do not need to actually see real life crimes and violence taking place!
For years we have been talking about how the young generations are being desensitized to violence by TV shows and Movies, and how shoot ‘em up video games can possibly encourage violent behavior in their players, but where I think the real danger lies is giving people access to images and videos of real life violent crimes. By watching these horrors every day we program our brains to become numb to the atrocities of the world. I am afraid our human compassion for each other is becoming endangered of extinction. Watching someone’s life get snuffed out should not be entertainment - it should be horrifying!
I am all for the media sharing with the world everything that happens, even the not so great stuff. We, as citizens of this world have a right and a duty to keep informed on world events. However, there needs to be a line that we should not cross concerning how much info is too much. We need to remind ourselves that each story we hear or see is about real flesh and blood people with families and hopes and sorrows all their own. The human capacity for compassion is one of our greatest assets. It should be nurtured and cherished and we need to do everything we can not to let it die.
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When Jennifer's son was killed in an accident, there was a story about it on the evening news. They showed video of the body bag being put in the ambulance. It is a shocking image forever burned in my mind. I couldn't believe the lack of compassion and understanding from the news. Our desire to learn about the world doesn't need to include horrifying images no one should ever have to see, and becoming numb to those images can beget more violence.
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