Today, breaking news is rarely good news.
As society becomes overwhelmingly familiar with tragic headlines and stories, it begins to practice desensitization as a comfortable emotional response. News ranging from wars to school shootings to even climate disasters are, oftentimes, no longer read with a sense of uneasiness. It’s read similar to celebrity news or a TikTok trend – without much care or empathy. Desensitization is a dangerous phenomenon, but there are ways to recognize, understand and combat it – leading to more compassion and action.
Recognizing that desensitization is happening is a crucial part of changing the way tragedies are approached. Putting a name to this occurrence is the first step in actively acknowledging how we’re subconsciously operating. Consider the emotional response, how quickly the story is scrolled past and disregarded and any action – or lack thereof – taken. Being mindful of the immediate response is the first step in making sense of desensitization.
Desensitization feels instinctive in nature, yet contradictory to our role as empathetic beings. Compassion fatigue and psychic numbing can partly explain this reaction to tragedy.
According to Time magazine, Vietnam War veteran Charles Figley coined the term “compassion fatigue” to describe the emotional and physical response that can occur while consuming others’ traumatic stories. This response has been long-recognized in professions where consuming trauma is part of the work, but, now, anyone that hears about current events is at risk of eliciting the same response.
Compassion fatigue suggests that society is far too overwhelmed when they stumble upon troubling stories. As a result, people ignore them and push them to a back-of-mind thought.
Compassion fatigue can be compared to adding one thing to an already hefty to-do list. It’s easily ignored and doesn’t cause any additional emotional stress because of pre-existing overwhelm.
The psychological phenomenon known as “psychic numbing” suggests that the more people that die in a tragedy, the less society cares.
BBC explained that a study conducted on psychic numbing showed individuals are more likely to respond to people in need on a small scale, but tragedies like genocide are too out of reach for humans to fully grasp – making us insensitive to them.
This study, conducted by Paul Slovic of the University of Oregon and Daniel Västfjäll of Linköping University, found that focusing on a smaller story within a larger tragedy can have more of an impact on people than pure statistics and numbers.
The articles with the facts that serve to keep society informed are going to be the most mainstream. Seek out the ones that tell stories and make it personal for the reader. Find the ones that elicit emotions.
Although desensitization allows for separation from negative emotions, it has become too permanent of a separation – causing inaction. There is a crucial difference between taking time to emotionally rest and recharge and blatantly ignoring tragedies that are affecting real people.
Acknowledging subconscious desensitization, understanding its occurrence and effects and actively working against it will encourage society to take action against the roots of tragedies like wars, school shootings and climate disasters.
There is a dire need for compassion and empathy while consuming tragedy.
There’s a human behind every story. A fleeting headline for someone may be the worst day of somebody else’s life.
Layne Rey is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Let Layne know by tweeting her @laynerey12.
