Social Media: banality, horror, anger and angst, brutal terror and tragedy liberally mixed with generous portions of useless opinion

2014.09.19 empathy and tragedy

I was working out on a machine in the gym this morning when the news (Good Morning America) came on and spoke of a “family tragedy.” Although the sound was turned off, the captions were on, and as they began to zoom in to a horrible traffic accident, I instinctively turned my head and looked the other way. As an afterthought, I realized that most Americans are hooked on a constant stream of banality, horror, anger and angst, brutal terror and tragedy mixed with a liberal portion of opinion on TV and social media. One only has to scan down the Facebook timeline to confirm this.

Once upon a time, a person could spend their whole lives in a rural village, and the only tragedy that one might ‘see’, or hear about, would be one’s own neighbors and family.  Then came modernity and newspapers, and one could read about tragedies on a national scale, but even that was far different from actually SEEING it happen in real time.

Now, with social media and 24-hour news coverage, one can literally watch tragic, horrible and brutally terrible scenes unfolding all around the world in real time with one’s own eyes. I am convinced that many people are hooked on “the tragic and horrible” like some of my students get a “buzz” out of watching a horror flick.

The problem with the constant mental consumption of all of these sources of dark and toxic emotions is that they eventually “color” our soul and can even get downloaded into our physiology in the form of serious illnesses. We all only have a limited amount of true empathy to give to others. I pretty much used mine up for Debbie when she was dying of cancer. Since then, I find myself shying away from other people’s tragedies, especially if there is nothing practical I can do to help.

I politely suggest that one should not over expose themselves to faceless tragedy and online horror that defies any real attempt to “do something” compassionate. It will eventually make you very, very sick and possibly shorten your life, as well as strip you of the ability to impart real empathy and compassion to those close to you who need it the most.

A wise man once said the following, and I try to incorporate his advice as much as possible on a daily basis:

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).

So, excuse me if you post a video of someone being beheaded, or of someone being beaten by police, or an angry rant against our President, Congress or political system, if I do not “like” it or bother to watch or read it. I would rather look at pictures of cute kittens (banality), or better yet, read a good book!