Along with the significant influx of new smartphone technology has come an entirely new approach to world news. We hear it all the time, especially from our grandparents. “I don’t watch the news anymore, it’s too depressing." Keep in mind that this is generally coming from people who, more often than not, saw Pearl Harbor, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Some of them may have even fought in these wars. That was the news. People were dying every day. People were arguing, debating, HATING every single day. The only difference was that they didn’t have a direct link to foreign problems other than word of mouth, a limited amount of television, and radio. Race riots, protests peaceful and violent, controversial literature, modern feminism, anti-war activism, all took the world by storm.
I think that there is a certain level of pride that comes with being able to receive news up to minutes after it becomes news. We scroll through Twitter and Facebook, retweeting jokes, dog pictures, articles, and then suddenly, we see the latest headline. And believe me, there is no shortage of them. These days, it seems like we hear about a new act of violence, terrorist attack, domestic and foreign dispute or racial/sexuality/gender-related hate crime every time we turn around. What we hear all the time is “the world is headed for Hell," “we’re going downhill" and “what has happened to humanity?” And it’s hard not to react in this manner, especially when every time we seem to light a candle, another one is blown out.
So what’s my point? Well, we complain every day about how the news is depressing. How the world is getting WORSE. I think this is especially interesting because as much as the issue of people denying the extent to which racism, hatred, sexism, etc. has infiltrated our daily lives, and seems like more of a problem of today, don’t you think that same struggle existed 10, 20, 30, even 50 years ago? Don’t you think that in order for feminism, The Civil Rights Movement, etc. to be labeled as “revolutions” there had to be some level of denial from the opposition that the issues were present in the first place?
I certainly am willing to admit that hate is running deeper in our country than it ever has. But I don’t think that this is a result of people getting worse or more hateful. And I certainly don’t deny that this hate has a foundation that is centuries and centuries old. What I do think is that this hate is fueled by our access to the information. By our desensitization to violence. It happens SO often that we begin to grow accustomed to it. It's sad, it's frustrating, and it's maddening. We are beginning to move away from what we used to be taught so many years ago, “Violence is never the answer,” simply because as a result of the constant fighting, we have a subconscious mentality that this sort of thing "happens every day." This sort of thing is "normal." However, this violence is not just coming from millennials. We see the violence resulting from the older generations as well. Personally, I see the constant access to news about violent crime as a really bad thing. There are many times that I like to be in-the-know. And I am in NO way saying that we should put our blinders on and pretend these issues are not happening. But I do propose that we move away from the mindset that our country, our world, has gotten worse. I think that our constant and immediate access to events such as these has begun to make things more personal for a lot of people. Because it invokes the same fear that existed decades ago, “What if it happens to me?”
One of my friends put it beautifully when his response to my complaint about the world going downhill was “You know, I don’t think the world is getting worse as much as my eyes are opening wider to the problems we face.”
