Me? Desensitized? As I was reading the textbook, I came across the definition for desensitization. I immediately thought about what my friend in another class was saying about war photographs. I know this isn't relating to the TV, but it falls under the same category. She was saying that in the past wars, we have had a handful of shocking and memorable photographs from the countries we were fighting (or even from our own country). Now, we have a multitude of photos every day that we can see from Iraq. Neither is better, but it seems that as technology improved we became desensitized to them.

She was showing me some very famous black and white photos; such as the Asian child running down the street naked after her town got bombed with smoke billowing in the background (http://stateoftheart.popphoto.com/blog/images/2007/06/08/picture_2_2.png). And then she showed me few pictures that are current. Due to the fact that they are color does take away some of the effect in itself, but most of the effect is taken away because of how many I have seen. It's sad really.

I mean these photos are still just as sad, but because I have been shown so many I am totally desensitized. I don't want to be! But somehow, I can't go back. I have no control over how bad I feel anymore towards some forms of traumatic media. But what can I do?  ¶ posted by Brenna at 9:44 PM •