I know this is not exactly a Muppet News Flash, but watching TV really is desensitizing. All day long, I sit next to a very nice plasma TV, watching Fox News. I like Fox News. I love Shepard Smith. But seeing footage of bus crashes, fatal fires, war casualties, and all manner of atrocities over and over is distressing: not because I share in the tragedy, but because I find it disturbingly undisturbing. Go ahead: show me some tragic footage. I can tune it out. It won't bother me. It will only be in my mind for seconds before I'm brought back to "reality" with the latest "news" about Arnold or Bennifer.
I saw a commercial earlier this morning where this "guy" went off a cliff on a motor cycle, crashed to the ground and stood up, unscathed. At the bottom of the screen, it said (in fine print): "Lifeless dummy on closed course. Do not attempt." That's sort of how I feel: no matter what you show me, I stand up unscathed because it's not "real." It has little or no impact on my life.
So what's the answer? I can't turn it off. I'm at work. It's not an option. I can ignore it (somewhat), I can pay more attention to it and let it have more effect over me, or I can watch it insensitively like I do now. Any suggestions?
*Insert dummy joke here*
Posted by christin at October 23, 2003 11:22 AM | TrackBackIt seems to me that your problem is overexposure. What if you actually watched FoxNews for 30 minutes and then wore headphones or something to drown it out?
Posted by: Krista at October 23, 2003 09:33 PMIt's too bad it has to be fox news.
I don't think desensitization is bad. Sin is a part of the world, we shouldn't be surprised when we see it, we should expect it. (three comma splices!) I am not shocked when human nature plays out violently in the middle east, and I am not shocked when messianic america fails to establish some great god of democracy. The Bible is full of stories and images that are much more graphic than anything I've seen on television. Maybe I just have a wild imagination...
Posted by: Gray at October 24, 2003 12:17 AMSo what happened to the cool Halloween pets?
Posted by: The Dane at October 27, 2003 04:28 PMI deleted them because I thought they were messing up my template. It turned out to be something else, but the pets are gone. I can e-mail them to you if you want.
Posted by: Christin at October 27, 2003 04:33 PMHey, why the heck not. Especially the clown one. That was so wrong.
Posted by: The Dane at October 27, 2003 06:52 PM