When referring to the state of our political landscape, news outlets love to say we are living in “unprecedented times.” However, the same phrase can apply to our current social climate. It has become increasingly clear that the world is more desensitized, and our collective desensitization is more detrimental than one may believe.
Political violence is at an all-time high, or at least that’s what it seems like. The stories that take up all airtime slots on major broadcast and cable news networks, and circulate on everyone’s social media feeds, highlight the violent, inhumane, and brutal events that occur as a result of and in our current political climate. It is nearly impossible to scroll through social media without being exposed to the harsh realities of our world.
It is necessary to preface that social media companies were not created with the intention of pushing violent messages, images, and videos. First and foremost, social media platforms were created with the intention of making connecting and communicating with others easier. However, the easy dissemination of information that social media allows for is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, social media allows us to receive information quickly. We can read and hear about events occurring in real time, in digestible language, and consequently, we become more politically and socially aware. Still, this stream of information, political or not, is infinite, and increases the risk of us developing information overload and intellectual obesity.
The term “intellectual obesity” was created by writer Gurwinder. In their Substack article, they explain “intellectual obesity” as, “ Just as gorging on junk food bloats your body, so gorging on junk info bloats your mind, filling it with a cacophony of half-remembered gibberish that sidetracks your attention and confuses your senses.”
We, as college students, get so much information thrown at us every day, whether it be in lectures, club meetings, or work. It all intertwines like a ball in our minds, and we do not have the time to unravel and sort out everything. When we resort to doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram reels as a way to “relax our minds,” we get even more information thrown at us. Now, we are not only desensitized to political violence but any and all types of information because of the sheer amount we consume daily.
On the other hand, we do not get to choose what content comes across our feed. Sure, algorithms feed us videos or images based on the previous posts we’ve liked, but as mentioned previously, when political violence occurs, it’s difficult to escape. We do not get to prepare ourselves to see violence on our screens.
Some would argue we need to be prepared to see anything, even violence, but anticipating violence says a lot about our current political landscape. The same people will scream and shout that they are being “realistic,” but they truly aren’t. There is no other country in the world that anticipates mass shootings in its schools or churches. No reality has existed in which mass shootings are seen as normal and a part of everyday life, aside from our current one.
What gets me is that politicians are the first ones to dispel political violence, but when it’s time to vote on bills that can help reduce political violence, like gun control, they cannot for the life of them get them through the House of Representatives or the Senate. I understand it takes a simple majority, but the fact that some of our politicians are so desensitized to violence that they don’t view it as a problem that needs to be fixed anymore, rather, they view it as “that’s just the way things are,” shows us how calamitous desensitization is.
We humans are desensitized to many things, but one thing we are never desensitized to is art. The most common form of art we are never desensitized to, especially among people our age, is music. Then, film, poetry, prose, photographs, and paintings fall in line behind it.
Art forces us to take a second, truly listen, read, and watch (essentially interact with) the information presented to us, comprehend it, and then form our own opinions about it. Art also re-presents old ideas, which helps us come to new conclusions. Sometimes, we need to take a step back and see how others see things to truly establish a concrete idea of what we believe is true.
Desensitization is rampant in our society. We are desensitized to political violence, and because of political violence. We are desensitized to information because we consume too much of it. In certain cases, like for students, this consumption is not our choice. But in other cases, it is our choice to overconsume, to fry our brains with mindless content, to not use our hearts and emotionally interact with others’ content. So, let us turn to art, because it teaches us to feel, and maybe feeling is more important right now than thinking.