So I was thinking about how much the web has truly desensitized us to certain things. For example, personally, I feel like when I hear about really vulgar stories regarding rape, drugs, murder, I am not as phased as I should be. Its like, we hear about these things so much and in such a nonchalant manner through the web that it doesn't have the impact on us as a society anymore.
But... is that really true? Because, then I started thinking about the recent suicides of the gay men who were bullied or made to feel inadequate because of their sexuality. They obviously were not desensitized to the words they read through their facebooks or twitters. Its like, we are still affected by what we read or hear through the web in such an extreme way; the web literally has the power to kill.
That thought made me kind of uncomfortable for a second. The same page that I visit every single day, every single hour of my life and joke to my friends, stalk strangers, procrastinate.. this is one of the sites that others are viewing and resorting to suicide because of the things they see about themselves. How did facebook/twitter get that power? And when did people think that they should use social media vehicles to torture and torment other people?
I change my mind. We really aren't too desensitized to everything on the web, we are still very sensitive.
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