Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Nov 19, 2014 23:50:57 GMT -5
How, and to what extent does violence and suffering affect you on an emotional and/or physical level?
I'm asking both in the context of media, and in real life.
Media: Does violence or suffering in media fiction (books, movies, TV shows) have a strong emotional affect on you? As an example, would a work of fiction that covers subjects such child rape, incest, dog fighting, war ect. upset you.
Real Life: This covers both witnessed in person and on the news. Does news of things like the Katrina hurricane incidents, the shooting in Newtown, the Tsunami in 2004, and Haiti earthquakes affect you on an emotional level? What about any pain and suffering witnessed in real life?
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Jaguar
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Post by Jaguar on Nov 19, 2014 23:53:42 GMT -5
Violence affects me very deeply and it can be in real life or media, don't really matter. I don't have a news outlet type Homepage, just search engines.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Nov 19, 2014 23:56:01 GMT -5
I have to say I'm pretty desensitized to violence in the media. After decades of violent videogames, action and horror movies, and the books I read, violence does not upset me in a fictional setting. What kind of inspired this thread is I'm reading fiction about some old civil rights murders in the 60's. It can get pretty graphic, and it really upsets the characters in the novel, but doesn't emotionally affect me as the reader, which I think the author was going for.
Regarding real life? I don't really get upset over seeing/hearing things on the news. When tragedies do occur, I do feel sorry for the victims and their families, but I never really get angry, sad, or upset about it.
I haven't really witnessed a great deal of personal suffering in real life, but my reaction to what I have seen is similar. I feel sorry for the victims and their families, but not really upset on an emotional level.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Nov 20, 2014 0:04:14 GMT -5
I don't think the violence in movies effect me nearly as much as true life. I can't watch the slow-mo replay of the NFL player turning his ankle - but watching the hero run over and break the bad guys neck in a movie - meh, whatever. There is something raw about real pain and injury that they can't recreate with stunt doubles.
When it comes to suffering like the events you mentioned - it isn't so acute, at least not on film. I know the people in New Orleans were devastated, and looking at the aftermath is horrific, but I don't see the violence of the storm hitting them. It is easy for me to think "It is just a house, they are just things" and I am insured (and have money) so I can replace everything with brand new shiny stuff - but if my house were destroyed I'd be pretty darn upset. I want to believe that as long as my family and friends were okay, I could get through it without severe suffering.
As far as school shootings and what-not, watching a parent cry and showing a picture of a child the same age as mine - I'm a freakin' mess. I can't even imagine. Even thinking about thinking about it right now has me a little upset.
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cronewitch
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Post by cronewitch on Nov 20, 2014 0:09:27 GMT -5
I am sorry there is violence, war, poverty, illness, natural disasters and would like it to stop but it doesn't seem very emotional to me personally unless I know the people. Everyday somewhere in the world people are having tragedies, car bombs, weather events so when I hear then had an earthquake and three people died I am likely to think it could have been worse.
If I could stop anyone harming anyone I would but I can't so life goes on pretty much the same as always.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 0:21:52 GMT -5
Crime against children upsets me alot. Kidnapping, rape, shootings in schools is big deal not matter where it happen.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 0:26:39 GMT -5
Yes in books and such but specially in real life. I feel stressed because suffering by Palestinians and Rohingya and dalits and such mostly for children.
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ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ
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Post by ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ on Nov 20, 2014 0:29:32 GMT -5
Violence in books, movies or television is usually over-exaggerated to some extent - and filmed to create more shock or dramatic effect. I treat it no differently than reading a novel - it's fictional, either written on a page or played by actors who are only going through the motions of the script. It's not real-life.
Violence or suffering in real life - either seen in the news broadcasts, or reports on wars or famine, rape, murder, child or spousal abuse, torture, etc - affect me emotionally but not all these problems will ever go away or be resolved/fixed. They've been going on for eternities - the only thing that makes today more violent, is the advance of technology and use of more powerful and deadly weapons/force.
But real life and fictional life are two different worlds.
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siralynn
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Post by siralynn on Nov 20, 2014 7:37:28 GMT -5
Violence in fiction usually doesn't bother me, certainly not video games, etc. I am a pretty easy crier though, so have definitely been in tears over fictionalized stories of real events (civil rights, Holocaust).
Real life often gets to me. Especially since having my daughter back in 2013, I basically can't read news stories about kids being harmed. I was listening to an NPR story about Ebola patients in Sierra Leone the other day, and definitely teared up in my car.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on Nov 20, 2014 7:42:34 GMT -5
It bothers me a great deal. Especially stories about kids or tragic instances with young adults. I have tried to tune out of the news and that type of thing so much. It can be very depressing when you really see all the human suffering. I always wondered how people could turn a blind eye. But, in reality, you only have your life to live and you just have to live it to its fullest and everyone on the planet is going to have their share of suffering as well. So, if you are happy today, it is OK to be happy today.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Nov 20, 2014 7:50:30 GMT -5
FSU school shooting last night.
I saw a little bit of the phone videos that some students had. But they were mostly just a bunch of people huddled together. I'm sure they were terrified, but you can't really see their faces enough to get a personal feel. I do not feel emotionally connected and I guess I don't "feel" moved by the coverage I have seen. Intellectually, I know it totally sucks, and how afraid I would be if I were there - and how terrified I would be if my kid was an FSU student, but it isn't an emotional response.
I have another oddity in these scenarios - I always really feel for the shooter and their family. Imagine how desperate you must feel to think that running into a building and shooting someone (stranger or someone you have beef with) is a great option. They must have so much pain. And if you love someone who does something horrible like this, and gets shot - you don't get much sympathy. Watching a friend in pain is bad enough - to see someone crumble into a full fledged killer, ugh.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Nov 20, 2014 8:45:36 GMT -5
Ever since having a baby, neither DH or I can watch anything about sick kids - it is just too upsetting to think about our kid being one of them. Right after DD was born, we were watching a SportsCenter piece on Jim Kelly and he had a son who was disabled and died, and we were both tearing up. Then they talked about Devon Stills' daughter, who has cancer. I just can't deal with it - I can now that my hormones aren't all over the place, but before having the baby, that stuff was sad, but now it is upsetting.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Nov 20, 2014 9:11:53 GMT -5
Ever since having a baby, neither DH or I can watch anything about sick kids - it is just too upsetting to think about our kid being one of them. Right after DD was born, we were watching a SportsCenter piece on Jim Kelly and he had a son who was disabled and died, and we were both tearing up. Then they talked about Devon Stills' daughter, who has cancer. I just can't deal with it - I can now that my hormones aren't all over the place, but before having the baby, that stuff was sad, but now it is upsetting. Same here. My sister is a pediatric oncology nurse and my mom and I both told her sorry, we can't listen to any more of your work stories (they are awful). And my boss had to transfer out of the sex crimes unit after she had her daughter because she couldn't deal with it anymore. It really does change you.
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Nov 20, 2014 9:16:20 GMT -5
I read to escape the "real world", so, no, I do NOT read books about wars, crimes, sexual assaults, etc.
I worked with medical charts years ago. You can read about rape in the newspaper, but there is NOTHING like reading the graphic details of the physical damage done by rape to a woman. It's extremely disturbing, & to this day I do not like to hear about sexual assaults, or shootings, or violence against children, because I've seen medical descriptions what those things do to people.
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Green Eyed Lady
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Post by Green Eyed Lady on Nov 20, 2014 9:22:33 GMT -5
I've had enough of it, Phoenix. Both in real life and in the media. It makes the world an ugly color of brown. I watch the Cooking Channel and even that it getting difficult since I've stopped eating meat. It's a weakness for me, I suppose. I take everything to heart. It's affected me to the point it's getting difficult to leave the house. Not because I'm afraid, but because I just don't want to see it anymore. I wish I was like other people who could just let it wash off their back like a duck, but I can't.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 9:25:55 GMT -5
I'm deeply affected by real life human suffering....I have a difficult time comprehending it, it's quite overwhelming for me. I don't know if my praying about all kinds of suffering; whether it be human/animal/nature/helps, but I find myself doing so regularily. I feel very helpless, really..I'll never understand the reasoning for violence, ever..
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Pants
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Post by Pants on Nov 20, 2014 9:33:39 GMT -5
I'm very effected by all of those things - fictional, real life, it all is difficult for me. There was one scene in True Detective that literally had me awake for at night for a week afterward (it had to do with a child, and you didn't even see anything really.) Reading game of thrones really did a number on me because of the amount of casual violence, sexual violence and violence against children.
My floor at work also has our media team, so we have TVs tuned to the news station all day. During the newtown shootings I would break down sobbing because I couldn't escape it.
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Nov 20, 2014 9:45:08 GMT -5
I'm pretty desensitized to fictional violence. For example, I love the TV show Gotham. The first time my mother watched it, she declared it gruesome. I don't think I had actually noticed how violent it was before she said that.
OTOH, once in a while a piece of fictional suffering will affect me deeply. I have actually stopped watching certain TV shows because I found one event in it so disturbing. Even though the particular item was fictional, I find myself thinking that some real person(s) somewhere at sometime actually lived through that horrid event.
Also, I will cry over fictional situations, if it affects a character I've come to care about.
My reaction to violence and suffering in real life, but regarding people, personally unknown to me varies. But, I think it's mostly a matter of how exposed to the story I am (was it just one 30 second news story - or is it something with seemingly endless coverage). I know I can't allow myself to dwell on it - there is just so much violence and suffering in the world- if I think about it in anything more than general terms I tend to get depressed.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 10:06:25 GMT -5
Natural disasters don't bother me. But any depiction torture or gore I avoid. I like the crime solving part of Criminal Minds but switch the channel when they are depicting the crimes. I also avoid depictions of real life violence. The written word isn't so bad, but even then I will skim past the graphic descriptions. I just can't handle having those images in my head.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Nov 20, 2014 10:09:04 GMT -5
Fictional violence usually doesn't trouble me. I am a huge fan of the Walking Dead, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad and they aren't exactly peaceful shows.
I do get invested in characters if I've watched a show for a long time. I've had to stay up an extra hour to get over certain WD episodes that involved characters I cared about dying. The last few episodes of Breaking Bad were emotionally brutal as well. You know it's a good show when the death of characters effects you that much.
I can't handle slasher porn like Saw or Hostel, it gives me nightmares. There is something about those movies that is different from shows like WD when it comes to the violence involved. If DH wants to watch those types of movies he has to do it when I am not home.
In real life any stories involving children rip me to shreds. I cried at my desk over that recent case in Pennsylvania that is being called the worst child abuse/murder case in recent history. I didn't even read the entire article, just the headline and snippet on Facebook. It's stuck with me for days now.
Same with books like A Child Called It. WTF possessed me to read it I have no idea, but I can still quote pieces from memory and that was back in 8th grade.
I also can't handle stories about animal abuse. I have to change the channel every time that ASPC commercial comes on and I would cry at the Purina commercials about abandoned dogs.
Things like Katrina and school shootings bother me but not the same way. There is actually a psychological reason why we cry over things like the Purina commercial but say "Wow that sucks" to things like Katrina or Darfur.
It's a matter of scale. The human brain is designed to only process so much at time. Millions of people dying is too much for the brain to process, so it doesn't generate the same emotional response something that we can individualize and form an "attachment" to does.
That's why commercials for things like the ASPA show pictures of individual animals, we're more likely to connect and donate. You're more likely to donate if you see an individual child starving on a commercial than you are just reading about it in the newspaper.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Nov 20, 2014 10:26:56 GMT -5
On TV, I'm more likely to be impacted by something that is happening to a kid (abduction, killing, etc) since I think "Geez, it's just TV but there are real sickos out there"
In real life, I don't really get too impacted by a large scale event until I see the impact on a specific person (like people talking about death of child/spouse). While it does suck when you lose your house or something, that stuff doesn't bother me that much because I assume they have insurance and they are lucky to be alive.
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Nov 20, 2014 10:33:39 GMT -5
I stay away from fictional stories with the violence in it. Watching the news or reading the paper makes me angry/sad that people would do horrible things to others.
Even to animals.
This last Sunday was the bicycle portion of the Ironman race in our area. Driving down one of the streets in the desert with a lot of other traffic someone had dumped about 8-10 dashund puppies on the side of the road. We called 911 about them and hopefully the people at the event were able to stop the traffic and caught as many as they could. I know of 2 puppies that didn't make it. Both were hit and on the side of the road.
These poor frightened puppies.
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Blonde Granny
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Post by Blonde Granny on Nov 20, 2014 10:36:20 GMT -5
I love a good scary murder mystery, but in real life things just don't seem to bother me much. Yes, I have empathy and sorrow for someone who loses a child, but overall, I just shrug things off.
There is nothing I can do about things that happen, and I'm not going to join the crowds of violent people looting and throwing Molotov cocktails. Perhaps voting is my protest, and I didn't vote for Mark Pryor, or an occasional letter to my senator or congressman is about as riled up as I can get.
Sometimes it seems I have enough trouble keeping my own life in order, I don't have time for others and their problems. If this makes me a bad person....<shrug> maybe I am.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 10:46:20 GMT -5
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Nov 20, 2014 10:53:08 GMT -5
This is something I ponder - because it seems that often times shows we watch for "entertainment" contain alot of violence: torture, rape (mostly of women or maybe children - NEVER men), murder (men, women, sometimes children). Pretty much turn on the TV and you can find a show who's plot revolves around something horrible having been done to a woman (or a guy who got murdered). And then you watch the local news (or read about local crime) and lo and behold it's the same stuff you just spent a 'pleasant' hour or two watching but it's also happening in real life. That said, I have a pretty good 'disconnect' with the violence/bad stuff that's in the 'entertainment' realm - it's not real. The people in the books, comics, movies, shows, whatever - aren't real. I try to remember that every person is someone's 'mother/father/son/daughter', that every person probably was (or is) loved and probably loves (or has loved) someone else. I try my best not to 'dehumanize' other humans. Not always successful, but I try. I tend to avoid the shows that are about actual situations... they make me feel bad/sad sometimes even hopeless - cause you know humans have been around 10,000 years and we do the same horrible things to one another now that we did 10,000 years ago.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Nov 20, 2014 11:16:54 GMT -5
It affects me quite a bit, some more than others. My biggest thing is beating. Any kind of depiction of being tied/held down and beaten stays with me anywhere from weeks to years. NomoreDramaQ1015 mentioned an awful story last week that I don't even want to talk about except that it involved horrific child abuse. I couldn't even finish the article. I don't know how people can read things like that and not be affected. Stuff like that really sticks with me. I'm not good at self-censoring. I always tell myself I can handle it, and perhaps that's so - but on the other hand, I'm not sure it's a good idea to continually expose oneself to the kinds of evil that perpetuate in this world. I think awareness is good, but you have to balance that with the type of damage you can do to your soul/psyche.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Nov 20, 2014 11:20:49 GMT -5
It bothers me as much as I let it bother me. If I really try to step into people's shoes, I can be absolutely devastated. However, that does no one any good -- especially me. So, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I still feel bad for others, but must distance myself a bit emotionally. Call it a coping mechanism for someone with depressive tendencies.
I avoid it in fiction as well, but it's hard because it's everywhere. I find the more unrealistic it is, the easier it is to handle.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Nov 20, 2014 11:22:41 GMT -5
I try to stay away from the news as much as possible.
And especially crimes against children effect me more deeply now.
I can't even think about Sandy Hook without tears welling up in my eyes. It's just terrible.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Nov 20, 2014 11:24:18 GMT -5
There is something raw about real pain and injury that they can't recreate with stunt doubles.
Yes and no. I think YMMV on this one. I've had violence in certain movies stay with me for a long time, especially if they were based on real events.
Examples: Midnight Express, Django Unchained, The Passion, Hotel Rwanda.
Like I said, beating gets to me. The first three contain (to me) absolutely terrifying depictions of beatings. There's no beating in Hotel Rwanda but there are a lot of scenes where little kids witness terrible things and they're so scared and that kind of thing stays with me too. And I think ALL the depictions in those movies were incredibly realistic. You "know" it's special effects but it seems very real to me.
And anyway, in each one of those movies you know that the things they're depicting fictionally really happened to real people. You know there are still places in the world where you can get captured, tortured, beaten, shot in front of your children, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. You just happen to be lucky enough to live in a country where those things aren't accepted, legal methods of Getting Shit Done.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Nov 20, 2014 11:46:36 GMT -5
A lot depends on what is going on in my personal life. I can only handle so much whether it is real or imagined in TV or books. I do not do video games. I moderate what my mind ingests then digests.
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