It’s a uniquely bizarre experience to tap through Instagram stories only to be met with: meme, sunset, clinking cocktails, “ten people dead at Astroworld concert”, bikini photo, sunset, meme. It is the nature of social media that bad news and tragedy is omnipresent – sandwiched between political rants and holiday posts.
Inevitably, although I am initially shocked and saddened when I see bad news online, there comes a point when a headline or image has been reposted enough that it is impossible to feel the same depth of emotion as when I first absorbed the news. I am still saddened, of course, but no longer shocked. Instead, I feel twinged with guilt: has the onslaught of posts dulled my empathy, am I no longer a compassionate individual? Should I be feeling more?
It is common now, especially in opinion pieces or on Twitter, to lament the desensitisation of the current generation. We see so many tragedies, are so used to receiving bad news almost every time we check our phones that we simply cannot exhibit the same emotional response that people used to. Contemporary American psychologists argue that the frequency of mass shootings in the country has resulted in a cultural numbing of sorts, where the population at large is now partly desensitised to the news of these catastrophes.
This idea of an increasingly uncaring and desensitised generation is at odds, however, with my own experience of people my age. It seems to me that, now more than ever, people are able to empathise and care deeply about issues which don’t affect them or their community directly. The Washington Post reported that the amount of protest movements globally has increased more than threefold in less than 15 years, which seems to demonstrate an increased sensitivity to political issues, not a lack of it.
This idea of an increasingly uncaring and desensitised generation is at odds, however, with my own experience of people my age
Furthermore, we are, mostly, united in our deep care and concern for the climate, with climate anxiety becoming common among young people. This fear reflects not only unease about how climate change may affect oneself, but also how it will impact the wider world. This visceral reaction to the plight of people we have never met does not appear conducive to a “desensitised” generation.
I do not disagree that we are experiencing desensitisation in some areas, to a certain degree – as I mentioned, I have experienced it too. But this is not just a case of unfeeling, apathetic youth. I believe, rather, that it is a coping mechanism carefully exhibited by our bodies, because to be fully sensitive to the world right now would just be too much for us to carry. To fully comprehend every bad thing happening globally is not how our bodies and minds have evolved to function. It is not manageable for us to learn about every tragedy, grieve it as it should be grieved, and also get on with our lives.
Instead, scientists theorise that our central nervous systems are overwhelmed by all of this, and by shutting down, exhibit desensitisation. It is a physical, protective instinct. It is why, perhaps, you can view an Instagram post about dozens of people dying, only to swiftly scroll past to your friend’s photo below. It’s the reasoning behind why, during early coronavirus lockdowns, we could watch the news and the accompanying death tolls before logging straight onto a zoom lesson, or watching an episode of Gilmore Girls.
It is easy to find the instances of desensitisation if you look for them, and not just online. One tweet about the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert, in which 10 died and more were injured in the crowd, said “desensitisation and disregard for human life CAUSED THIS. The MINDLESS MOB pushes & crushes people to death”. There is an ongoing investigation, and it may well be that human negligence and even extreme lack of conscience for others contributed to the awful events that transpired.
Yet, scarier to me than the idea of rising desensitisation is the thought that we forget what, and who, this “mob” entails. In this case: little boys with their fathers. Teenagers experiencing their first festival. Friends of 20 years grasping onto each others’ clammy hands lest they lose each other. I can’t help but believe that these humble displays of humanity were far from causing such a tragedy due to a mere lack of care.
It is all too easy to see people as a singular, lump group, eyes glazed and unfeeling. But it is in this way that we become desensitised – not just to tragedy but to the individual experiences around us. Tarring any group of people with the same brush is dangerous, but in labelling so many as “desensitised” – albeit truthful at times – we risk not recognising all of the sensitivities our generation does carry, and the actions we are taking to tackle their causes. The actions which may, if we are attuned to them, in fact outweigh all the bad things our bodies force us to shut out.
