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The Internet...we all love it, we access it from our computers, tablets and smartphones. And these days we can even have TV's and watches that connect to the Internet. There was a time not long ago where having the internet was a luxury, but in 2017 the Internet is in something that is almost everyone's household, millions and millions of internet users are online every day 24/7 365.
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What is Desensitization?
It is making someone less fearful or shocked at images or pictures they would have otherwise be scared of, by gradually feeding and overexposing them to those images. Pretty much it's a form of brainwash....Desensitization like anything else has its pros and cons though. This process can also be used to help people overcome fears, so it is a double edged sword when it comes to desensitization.
50 years ago we as humans set a certain standard for morality for ourselves. Women didn't walk around wearing next to nothing, and men had a real sense of taking care of the family and being a "real man".
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PEOPLE FIGHTING ONLINE
- How many of us have been on Facebook or some other social media site have seen the videos of people getting beat up? Kids fighting each other in school? As a species, the human race has always been at with one another, fighting is not something that is new. Growing up i saw plenty of fights in school, i had some fights myself...its part of being a human being, we fight.. But in this internet age we living in, fighting has become something that i shoved in our face 24/7 because of social media. I cannot think of a time where i don't see at least one fight on my news feed when i scroll Facebook.
People are gradually becoming used to looking at other people get beat up , so much so that they actually share, post and comment on these videos.
DEATH ONLINE
- Remember a few weeks ago where that old man was killed on Facebook Live? that was completely crazy and yet we all know it happened, some of us even watched the gruesome video where he does the deed. We are at the point now where someone can be killed on social media and as a whole human species, we really did not shudder much. Some people felt sensitive toward the situation, but as whole....it seems the human race just let it come and go like it wasn't that big of a deal. In my opinion this is as a result of desensitization.
SEX ONLINE
- They say that sex sells..and it does. Everywhere you go on the internet its hard to not see an ad for some website thats trying to sell sex. There was period and time on the internet, that if you saw a sex ad it was a huge deal.. It was something that people weren't quite used to yet, but now look.. Even my daughter sometimes has these kinds of ads pop up on her phone or computer and she isn't phased at all by it. Not moved in any kind of way...she just comes and tells me or her mom about it.
VIDEO GAMES
- Every year it seems like video games are becoming more and more violent, and i know it has to leave some children feeling invincible. Games like Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto have given kids a platform to kill people for fun. In GTA you don't even have to follow a mission, you can just run around killing innocent people in the game. And i've seen ALOT of kids doing this, and having a good time. Here's an article about how an 8 year old killed his grandma intentionally after playing Grand Theft Auto.
source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/louisiana-boy-kills-grandmother/index.html
MOVIES & TV
- Movies have been desensitizing us for a very long time. And a television show is called a "television program". Sure the word program is also used in the sense that the time slots for shows have to be "programmed", but i feel like the word program also refers to a programming of the mind. Listen to your mom and go outside sometime, that TV does nothing but program your mind.
What does the future hold?
What does it mean for our future? Have you ever seen the movie Divergent? Hunger Games? or even the 1987 classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man" . All of these movies have one thing in common, in the future people will be entertained by watching the pain and agony of others. This is not something we are far away from already...i'm not saying we're gonna have game shows where people are getting killed, but i think it is easy to see that we are becoming more and more desensitized to things like this every day.
I think as a human species it is important for us to recognize and acknowledge what is going on. We can fight against things we know when we are aware of them, and i don't want me or my kids living in a world of complete desensitization. That means a world with no love, no fear, no anger, no happiness, no sadness... This is not a world that i can even imagine, it is all these emotions that make us who we are...that makes us human.
Today, i urge you to pick up a book..read a little bit, don't turn the TV on, or feed yourself any negativity. If we all do this a little bit every day then are helping the entire human collective grow in the right direction. Peace and Bliss to you all!
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I think the important points here are that we all need balance in life and that it's important to focus on things that are good or beneficial.
So much of what you describe above is all entertainment content. If you're spending too much of your time on entertainment, you're not devoting time to anything happening outside of yourself, and you likely aren't helping others or trying to make the world a better place.
Even the entertainment we consume should somehow make us better people. If not, it's making us worse.
@jbriggs , agreed brother. Everything these days is in the form of entertainment, thats all the average person really wants to do..
Spreading this kind of info hopefully will help people see themselves in it too, even i had to take a step back a while ago and look at myself.