4 ms·

The huge surprise to me is that I always thought the point of the warnings was to give readers the opportunity to simply not read the material, not to somehow l

The huge surprise to me is that I always thought the point of the warnings was to give readers the opportunity to simply not read the material, not to somehow lessen negative effects when they do read the material.

rsj_hn 5y ago
If you are in a class or a lecture, you can't just skip over parts of the material without hurting your understanding.
- onionisafruit 5y ago
  That’s correct, but you can decide to skip over parts because you value your emotional well-being more than your understanding of a subject.
  - rsj_hn 5y ago
    As an individual, you could try plugging your ears I guess, but it would certainly be disruptive to have half the class file out of the lecture, wait for some kind of signal, and then file back in.
- mannykannot 5y ago
  OK, I will accept that premise, from which it follows that if the whole class skips over these parts of the material, then everyone's understanding is hurt - so what are you going to do? It seems the choices are either that we accept that certain people should avoid certain topics (which is not a controversial position when the topic is, say, mathematics) or that all potentially-disturbing topics are off-limits (at least mathematics will probably survive in that case.)
ericb 5y ago
Right, but this is saying trigger warnings re-victimize the party by placing the event on a pedestal and assuming fragility. My daughter got stung by a bee on her eye. For quite a while, she didn't want to go outside if there was any bee, anywhere, which there usually is. I could decide that for the rest of her life, bees are triggering, and help her avoid them and lead her with my expectation that as a bee-victim, she of course would never want to leave the house again. Or I could do what I did, and not make a big deal of bees and not warn her every summer day that she might not want to go outside because there's a bee in the yard. I fully acknowledge that there are things far far worse than bees, however I think the same principles apply. If you look at therapeutic psychological treatment for phobias--the treatment is exposure, and desensitization, not avoidance and magnification. Is it fair to assume victims want to wear a scarlet V? Or to promote the implicit message that avoidance is the correct response to trauma?
taurath 5y ago
In an academic setting its more for the latter, for say social media its more the former. Definitely depends on the context. I find it interesting there can both be a stereotype of people who enter the field of psychology because they've had something to deal with themselves, and also an idea that those same students are somehow weak or not tough enough for wanting trigger warnings. If you zoom out I think its better to have TWs, when not overapplied.

rsj_hn 5y ago

If you are in a class or a lecture, you can't just skip over parts of the material without hurting your understanding.

onionisafruit 5y ago
That’s correct, but you can decide to skip over parts because you value your emotional well-being more than your understanding of a subject.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  As an individual, you could try plugging your ears I guess, but it would certainly be disruptive to have half the class file out of the lecture, wait for some kind of signal, and then file back in.
mannykannot 5y ago
OK, I will accept that premise, from which it follows that if the whole class skips over these parts of the material, then everyone's understanding is hurt - so what are you going to do? It seems the choices are either that we accept that certain people should avoid certain topics (which is not a controversial position when the topic is, say, mathematics) or that all potentially-disturbing topics are off-limits (at least mathematics will probably survive in that case.)

ericb 5y ago

Right, but this is saying trigger warnings re-victimize the party by placing the event on a pedestal and assuming fragility. My daughter got stung by a bee on her eye. For quite a while, she didn't want to go outside if there was any bee, anywhere, which there usually is. I could decide that for the rest of her life, bees are triggering, and help her avoid them and lead her with my expectation that as a bee-victim, she of course would never want to leave the house again. Or I could do what I did, and not make a big deal of bees and not warn her every summer day that she might not want to go outside because there's a bee in the yard. I fully acknowledge that there are things far far worse than bees, however I think the same principles apply. If you look at therapeutic psychological treatment for phobias--the treatment is exposure, and desensitization, not avoidance and magnification. Is it fair to assume victims want to wear a scarlet V? Or to promote the implicit message that avoidance is the correct response to trauma?

taurath 5y ago

In an academic setting its more for the latter, for say social media its more the former. Definitely depends on the context. I find it interesting there can both be a stereotype of people who enter the field of psychology because they've had something to deal with themselves, and also an idea that those same students are somehow weak or not tough enough for wanting trigger warnings. If you zoom out I think its better to have TWs, when not overapplied.