The media provide needs and respond to people’s desires, assumed or not. The ability to "turn off" is a beneficial act. But only if we use it at the right time.

Nowadays our lives are more and more controlled by the media. We find ourselves bombarded with so much negative imagery and news. In private, I often ask whether alarming "bad news" is also bad for us. Yet, we also need to be informed with what's going on around us, our immediate surroundings as well as what's happening in our world today. A once loving son killing everyone in his family, husband killing wife, suicides, and many more horrorful news are reported as we scan the pages of tabloids. Images of these are not only found on printed papers, but regularly seen on our television screens and the Internet.

While some of us resort to selective viewing and reading; others dip more. I marvel at some people who are not disturbed by the images online or on TV.

What are we to make of this seeming indifference? Is it numbness, callousness or imperviousness? Does it mean that their imaginative response is so internalized that they have become savvy at hiding their own true emotions that people are hurting people?

We have different answers, different perceptions. Perhaps it's the absence or lack of empathy: "Thank goodness, it's not happening to me and my family’s safe." "I just can't bear to acknowledge what I feel, not even to myself." Or is it something like the way some of our war veterans feel, worn out by the killing fields that they have become unable to emotionally connect to situations humanely.

The effect is alarming, for whatever the cause. Our protection depends on our being able to care about one another. As we are bombarded with images of human degradation, cruelty and even stupidity, our vital capacity to care and share breaks down, and trust crumbles. We leave ourselves unguarded, open to dangers.

Some of us have learned to selectively view or read the news; perhaps, have purposely chosen to do so. Some friends I’ve recently spoken to now choose to watch the news only once or twice a week, while others read newspapers infrequently or not at all. A health author whose name escapes me even advocated a "news-free day" as a vital component for mental health.

Violence, sex or crime series as entertainment isn't limited to just an hour or two on a weekday night. It is everywhere – on television, magazines, newspapers, films. As end-users, we are much a part of it. Why? Let's be honest: as consumers, we want it. We watch what we also most dread. We even linger over images of crime, humiliation and cruelty. So while withdrawal could certainly be an understandable individual response, it doesn’t go any way towards meeting our basic problem - that we are tolerant of being bombarded with negativity, of conflict and horror; that consciously or unconsciously, we accept the implicit notion that these are the aspects of human experience that will most captivate us.


The media and other providers who show those images are so much a part of our society. They provide needs and respond to people’s desires, assumed or not. The ability to "turn off" is a beneficial act. But only if we use it at the right time.

Note: This article was also published in RITRO.com, March 2006.