4 ms·
It is remarkably easy to expose yourself to truly horrifying things on the Internet. Stories, images, and videos of deaths of all kinds, from videos of terroris
by basicallybones 4y ago
It is remarkably easy to expose yourself to truly horrifying things on the Internet. Stories, images, and videos of deaths of all kinds, from videos of terrorists cutting off people's heads to people live streaming their suicides to Reddit stories about motorcyclists having limbs ripped off in traffic accidents. News sites, forums, and social feeds are a parade of horrors. You cannot get away from the Internet, even if you want to, because your job constantly pings you on email/chat/whatever.
It feels like the "learned helplessness" experiments where researchers randomly shocked animals, who could not stop or do anything about the shocks.
I wonder if we are all traumatized by what we have seen over the years on Reddit, Twitter, etc.
There is an incredible recent song "Oh No" by Wet Leg that captures some of this. Here are the lyrics (sorry about the formatting):
I went home
All alone
Checked my phone
Oh no
Oh my God
Life is hard
Credit card
Oh no
You're so woke
Diet Coke
I feel gross
Oh no
I went home
All alone
I checked my phone
And now I'm inside it
On my phone
All alone
In the zone
Oh no
Hours pass
Pizza rat
I like that
Oh no
3 AM
I feel Zen
Fucking Zen
Oh no
Suck the life
From my eyes
It feels nice
I'm scrolling, I'm scrolling, ah
If you're going to the party
I heard there's gonna be some arty
People talking 'bout themselves
Or whatever it is that you always talk about, ah
I went home
All alone
I checked my phone
Oh no
I went home
All alone
I checked my phone
And now I'm inside it
- rpmisms 4y agoNah, gore is gore, death exists, farm kids have been doing this for years. Kids deal very well with death as long as they understand the concept from an early age.
- jeltz 4y agoYeah, I see no reason to think it is the gore. There are so many other things, including social media, which are much more likely candidates.
- DoItToMe81 4y agoMy highschool, like most of the time, was full of kids who sent Iraqi beheadings and shock sites to each other. Voluntarily viewing something disgusting isn't a traumatic experience. Nor is being tricked into it when you can just press a big red X and never have to think about it again.