Are we being desensitized to violence from the media?

Definitely.

There is no doubt about it, that the young people of today are growing used to violence. I have even noticed a change from eight months ago. When the Paris attacks happened, half of my friends on Facebook changed their profile picture to the French flag filter, others shared articles, or statuses showing their support and prayers for Paris.

Since the Paris attacks, there have been countless other acts of violence around the world, in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, the US, Lebanon, Iraq, and many, many other places. It seems like at least once a week we hear about another attack that has happened somewhere around the world. Since the Paris attacks, I have seen fewer and fewer posts on social media about what is going on. When the recent attack happened in Nice, I saw only two status posts from friends on Facebook. This is not to show that no one cares anymore, but I think that even in the past eight months we have become more jaded by what is happening in our world.

Yesterday, my sister said how she felt sick because of what happened in Nice. My mom said that she felt bad for our generation, for the young people that had to live in this world for the rest of our lives. This is a sobering thought, but one that we must live with. Of course, one can argue that posts on social media do virtually nothing but maybe raise awareness of what is going on. While it is nice that people show support for others, their status post or profile photo declaring unity with France really don't do a nothing to actually help victims of violence or to prevent further acts of violence occurring. At the same time, although I know that these posts don't mean much, it was always nice to see people on social media showing that they cared about what was going on and that they were against it. it was nice to see at least that people still felt passionate about their beliefs and wanted things to change. I have noticed even myself growing desensitized, as now when an attack happens, I don't even always bring it up to my friends, and they in turn, don't mention it either.

It's like we already know that we have all already heard about it, from Facebook, from news apps on our phones, or from the TV or radio. There are so many ways to get our news now, that it is assumed that everyone hears the news, but it is also assumed that no one wants to talk about it anymore. If we talked about every horrific violent thing that we heard on the news, we would be having depressing conversations every other day, and this is the sad truth of our world today and what it is like for us young people.

At the same time shouldn't we be doing something more about it? Why should we all let ourselves become completely desensitized, and stand idly by, not even having enough energy or care to make a post of support on social media? Is it because we know t hat these posts do nothing except maybe alert someone to the awful news who hasn't yet heard, or because all it can do at the best is help someone know they are not alone in what they are feeling? What can we actually do to help? Write to politicians, our local and national government? Show ISIS we are not afraid? All of these are things we can and should be doing, but they are easier said than done. After an attack, everyone always repeats the same saying, "We have to continue to live our lives as though we are not afraid of dying, and show ISIS we are not afraid by continuing to do things we enjoy and traveling."

However, I have noticed that a lot of people, though they might say this often, are nota acting on it. Are people actually still traveling to Europe or the Middle Easta after what is happening? Some are, but many are not. It is getting harder and harder to find places that we can go that are not a threat. There have now been attacks in movie theaters, schools, universities, night clubs, restaurants, shopping centers, and airports. Where is safe? It will be interesting to see how our generation and other young generations handle media and violence desensitization and attacks in the future.