Have we become too desensitised to horror?

[Mudskipper]

This might have been discussed before, but it's especially on my mind today.

Having seen threads with the dead biker in the lorry, and to a lesser but still relavent extent the animal cruelty thread, i'm wondering how the internet age has changed our reactions to horrific images/stories.

20 years ago, unless you were an unfortunate witness or in the services, it was unlikely you'd ever seen a photo of a corpse, or at least a violently despatched one. These days of video/camera phones, email, im, forums & You Tube mean that stuff that would be censored on british tv is freely available and quickly distributed.

Things that instantly spring to mind - Islamist beheadings, animal cruelty (especially home made remember that cunt who filmed dropping a cat off a balcony repeatedly), happy slapping (milder but still unpleasant form of this general trend).

There's loads of vile, sick stuff on the net. We all get exposed to it, whether by accident, curiosity or plain morbid fascination. How often, however, does that kind of stuff REALLY upset you deeply?

Have horror films got so gory, that real life stuff just seems like that and therefore it doesn't trigger such revulsion? It did me in the dead biker thread.

Has the sheer volume of horrid stuff desensetised us to it all?

Or is it simply a reflection of the modern age? 50 years ago, saying the 'F' word on the BBC would have got you a spell in the Tower of London, so have times changed that much that violence and death 'don't bother us' as much?

I'll stop now and await some interesting views. Sociology students welcome (so long as you don't spill Pot Noodle on the thread )

Mudskipper
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"You're clumsy, you eat too much and you behave like a 12 year old boy. But you know what? Every once in a while, you find a thumb."

[pwntifex]

I don't like watching most modern horror movies.
Bit too intense.

I think what has happened is that a lot of modern directors have been allowed to use gore to mask their lack of skill—good example of this would be Quentin Tarantino.

As far as media goes, I still haven't worked out whether it's a good thing that we can see uncensored footage or whether it's just horrific.

I think it helps younger generations to be more aware of the fact that the world is a scary place, but part of me thinks that childish innocence has been totally lost, and that worries me. I really do feel a little bit unhinged every time I witness something so horrible.

All things in moderation, as they say.
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the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[Paddy Blake]

It all depends on where you grow up.I would think a 10 year old kid in
baghdad today may well have issues when they are 20.
Usually on the internet there is some warning.
You can see the same and worse in life.

Paddy.

[G]

As Paddy says.

While we see plenty of reproduced horror, we are being more and more isolated from some of the 'real' horrors of life.

[gmanxiii]

yeah the dead biker in lorry thread made me whince abit but didnt really bother me too much. Think its more imagining what it was like for him at moment of impact more than anything else.

dont watch horror movies anymore too because i find them laughable, always imagine the film crew with buckets of fake blood and gore at the ready having a right old giggle behind the lense.

i do think ive been desensitised to a degree by media, remember catching bits of nightmare on elmstreet when i was 4 that terrified me at the time. but also i do think sometimes that its also possible that i (and probably a lot of other people) laugh or try to find the humour at horrific things as a way of coping with the "emotional trauma" perhaps? kind of like a self defence mechanism as you try to understand it all.

Think its can be a good thing that we dont have censorship though sure theres alot of horrific things but its up to people to decide for themselves whether to watch it or not. Suppose you can look at it from a good and bad perspective i.e. people can use it to understand consequences of certain actions to change whats wrong with their world or it can be seen as humiliating and inhuman to capture the footage in the first place.

In a way dont you think that in the last several thousand years in becoming more civilised and shunning the fact that we are essentially predatory animals, we conditioned ourselves to frown upon the brutality of nature and killing in the first place? Think about our more primative ancestors probably wouldnt of blinked twice at skinning an animal for a blanket, or killing other beasties and people to survive or protect their tribe(suppose not too much has changed then really). But as we become more intelligent and understanding of suffering for anything living we cut ourselves off more and more from it so we dont have to deal with it and eventually we reach a point where we have learnt to be disgusted by it, before you know it, we all become peace loving hippy vegatarians and squeamish at anything that bleeds (no offence to vegetarians its good you think beyond yourselves and the human race).
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[craigie b]

I remember coming of my bike. I'd landed and rolled twice before it even had registed in my head that I'd had an off.

This made me realise that I could have been dead and not even known it! Bearing that in ind the biker pic didn't shock or upset me too much.

As we too desensitised to horror? Compared to what the world seen during both world wars and what a large swathe of the world already endure then I would say we're becoming desensitised to the medium of horror but not real horror that occurs in real life.

We are begining to live in a society that is completely detached from real life, using the mdia to act a barometer in life, thinking everone should be a model with a perfect life, or everyone is going to grow up to be famous. I've read of kids not knowing where fucking food comes from but I bet they could educate me on the latest Bratz video.

I think people are to desensitised to easily available images of terror and horror but I doubt many could stomachthe real thing.

[Paddy Blake]

When it is for real it is 3d in your head for life with the smell that stays.

You cant just push the pause or stop button when shit is happening.

Paddy.

[Tarmacsurfer]

When it's "for real" it has nothing to do with 3D. It's smells, touch and to some extent taste that stay with you, more so than any visual stimuli. At least that's what I've found.

I don't think it's specifically "the internet" or the portrayal of violence in the media that is to blame for the desensitisation and disaffection of attitudes toward random violence although I'm fairly sure they play a large part, it's a combination of many, many factors. A clinical psychopath is almost incapable of forming the concept of consequences, or relating the idea of consequences in context of their actions, watch the sort of shit you see on any thrill oriented channel or program ("Dirty Sanchez" or "Jackass"for example) and all of a sudden it become a lot more disturbing when viewed in that light.

I blame the flouride in the water /nod

Yes, that last sentence is a joke.