Oversensitive or Desensitized? The Generation Question

[dark-mortality]

I would say that i'm somewhere around the middle. I'm a sadistic bastard who can picture thousands of ways to hurt/kill a person (I have never killed just so you know), but at the same time, i get a sick feeling when i actually HURT people... (I just hit them softly, but i still hate it...)

 

[MissAshley]

Now, I am +10 years older than anyone else in the class, so I thought "Well, it must be a generation thing. I guess, as an 80s Baby, I'm just oversensitive." But then I remembered most of these kids were born in the 90s, that's only ten years after me. Did the culture change THAT much?

What are your thoughts? Are the coming generations becoming 'desensitized' or were previous generations too 'oversensitive'?

As a person also going to school and being surrounded by people 10 or more years younger than me, I think that indeed culture has changed that much and of course it's due to the Internet.

I had a similar video experience in my Psychology class. We were watching Child of Rage, a documentary following the examination and treatment of an extremely violent 7-year-old girl who was sexually abused at the age of 1. I cried multiple times throughout it, and what I can only describe as academic duty kept me from excusing myself before the end of it.

At the half-way point of the video, the instructor asked for our opinions so far. One 90s baby student said in the most annoyingly insensitive tone "What she needs is a whoopin'," and a few students actually laughed. This incensed me so much that I said very loudly and firmly "THAT WOULDN'T SOLVE ANYTHING!" The kid then had the gall to say "Yeah it would."

From only observing younger people in my immediate environment (at work, at school, and on the Internet), I don't think 90s babies are as desensitized as much as they are insensitive or have an underdeveloped sense of empathy. At the same time, though, I observe a fierce and even irrational connection to those they consider peers or friends, even if only considered so in a casual context. This tells me that the more "real" something feels to a 90s baby, the more likely they are to genuinely care about that something.

A sexually abused child in an old video? Whatever.

A sexually abused daughter of a cousin? Now its tragic.

When I consider this as well as my observations of my age peers as a teen, I think the relationship between caring and distance is very different for 90s babies than 80s babies. 90s babies seem to care much less about things further from them and much more about things closer to them than 80s babies.

Again, these are opinions based solely upon my observations and memories, and I fully realize exceptions exist.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I think it has.
I myself am under-sensitive. I've seen awful stuff on the internet, but don't really feel affected by it. We're desensitizing to the point where you can see a picture of a man cutting up his own reproductive organs and not feel sickened. A little perturbed perhaps, but not revolted.
Mentally though, I am. Just not viscerally.

this

in a nutshell, i would say a bit of both, but its more of a logical way of looking at it, i have seen some..awful videos, and i just logically shrugged it off like it was nothing, although most of my family would probably puke seeing some of those videos

 

[nukethetuna]

Oddly enough, I've noticed that people nowadays are undersensitive to such [SARCASM]trivial and minor[/SARCASM] things as rape, war, death, and the like... but are completely oversensitive regarding important subjects like the newest CoD, Snookie's latest gaff on Jersey Shore, or having their SO say they need a break.

 

[rockso]

I think it is more of an age thing, When I was younger, you want to see that crazy stuff and as you get alder I belive for most, if it is not necessary, you don't go out of your way to see it. The stuff that I wanted to see and hought was funny 10 years ago, has little to no intruset for me now.

 

[Alorxico]

Well, you sat through it the first time so there can't be that great a difference. Maybe the others had never seen it before. Morbid curiosity and intrigue can accomplish a lot.

Actually, no, I haven't seen the whole thing. In a previous psychology class some years earlier, my professor played the same clip and a few others when we studied rape and its affect on the mind. When the girl was forced to the ground (about 10 seconds into the clip, which starts off fairly harmless and quickly goes wrong), I left the class. I have not seen the clip to the very end.

 

[FalloutJack]

What are your thoughts? Are the coming generations becoming 'desensitized' or were previous generations too 'oversensitive'?

This may actually be very confusing, but I think both...at once. It's a simply matter of fact that society isn't an amoeba. There's billions in it. So, here's what I think is going on. People in charge of things are pushing things away in an over-sensitive manner because "Oh my god, that's indecent and not PC!", while there are others who see forbidden fruit and go "Yeah, they think it' bad, so time to eat!". In other words, it's post-modernistic 1950s syndrome.

 

[Bobic]

Well, you sat through it the first time so there can't be that great a difference. Maybe the others had never seen it before. Morbid curiosity and intrigue can accomplish a lot.

Actually, no, I haven't seen the whole thing. In a previous psychology class some years earlier, my professor played the same clip and a few others when we studied rape and its affect on the mind. When the girl was forced to the ground (about 10 seconds into the clip, which starts off fairly harmless and quickly goes wrong), I left the class. I have not seen the clip to the very end.

Ah, fair enough. Desensitization could be to blame then, though I doubt anyone in there was exactly comfortable with watching the clip.

 

[steevee]

I'm definatley desensitized. There is literally nothing I can't sit through.

I've watched Salo, A Serbian Film and August Underground Mordum without flinching. I've also seen my fair share of gore and that sort of stuff. The only thing that can affect me is animals sometimes, but even then, it's only the odd thing.

 

[KiraTaureLor]

Another thought questions from my law class that I wanted to share.

My professor showed the class a clip from "Born Innocent" a made-for-TV movie about a 14 year old girl who gets thrown in a penitentiary for trouble girls. The clip showed the girl getting raped by her fellow inmates (if you want details, Google will help you), and before she showed it the professor explained what was going to happen and told the class that anyone who wanted to leave may do so. I had seen part of the scene in the past and it made me massively uncomfortable, so I left class for the three minutes the clip was being shown.

I was the only one who left and no one came out of the class to join me as the clip was played.

Now, I am +10 years older than anyone else in the class, so I thought "Well, it must be a generation thing. I guess, as an 80s Baby, I'm just oversensitive." But then I remembered most of these kids were born in the 90s, that's only ten years after me. Did the culture change THAT much?

What are your thoughts? Are the coming generations becoming 'desensitized' or were previous generations too 'oversensitive'?

I think it's to do with the fact that we are not exposed to real life violence as much as other generations that witnessed wars, therefore we don't take it as seriously. There is also the fact that our generation grew up with everything violence, and horror in movies games, comics, and blah blah blah...

although if one of us was put in an actual saw scenario, and one of your generation was put in a saw scenario, I wonder who will handle it better. Just a thought.

 

[Dexiro]

You think we're desensitized? People used to lynch, torture and rape people like it was a fucking walk in the park. Families used to gather around fucking public hangings with their children and chuckle in delight, we are not desensitized in the slightest.

 

[Alorxico]

...although if one of us was put in an actual saw scenario, and one of your generation was put in a saw scenario, I wonder who will handle it better. Just a thought.

I have never seen Saw or its many sequels, I'm not big on "horror" or "suspense" films. I have a short attention span and too active an imagination to be interested in either. All I know about Saw is that it involves a guy locking people in a tiny room they cannot leave until they remove a body part; whether or not the people in the room are victims or "criminals" being punished for being a**holes appears to be under some debate, at least between the few friends I have who like horror films.

You make an interesting point, though. I'm not certain if being oversensitive or desensitized to the pain of others, be it real of imaginative, is a good indicator of your own threshold for pain and torture done to yourself. It might indicate your own awareness, on some level, of how you would fair in the instance or it might not.

Hmm ... well, now I have a question for my professor tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

Complacent people who've never suffered abuse, violence, or destruction of their house/property might be unaffected by films, games and other media depicting or capturing these things.

But let me tell you, people who've actually seen others getting killed, their friends or family being shot, raped or hurt will tell you it was the worst experience(s) of their life and will probably never get over it. Even worse if the person was on the receiving end.

There was a guy at my sister-in-law's church service, he was a Sundanese refugee living in the U.S talked about how he had seen and experience the horrors of war and massacre and wondered why people in developed countries find violence (all kinds, including rape) to be a mundane and detached experiences in their entertainment.

 

[Alorxico]

If you wanted to weep every time someone died you wouldn't have much time to do anything else.

True, and to be fair us 80s babies have been desensitized to blood, gore and physical violence (to a degree) so we're not THAT reserved, but that raises an interesting question. If you are only saving your energy and emotions to use on something important, what constitutes 'important'? How close to you does it have to be before you are moved to do or say something against it?

Now, Hollywood is just flash and mirrors and the news is ... well ... quickly becoming a BRANCH of Hollywood, so I'm not surprised people don't react to it, but if both of those media outlets constantly assaulted (no pun intended) the younger generations with the "horrors" or reality, how horrible or monstrous would something need to be to make them react?

That's something the older generations (the 60s and 70s babies, our parents) are starting to wonder; 'Are you feeling anything? This is a horrible, terrible crime that must be stopped and you are brushing it off', thus giving the nut-balls in Washington another fear to play on to get themselves elected into office.

And I'm not asking this in a mean / accusational way, I'm actually curious. Blame Socrates, ancient Athenian philosopher who encouraged his students to ask questions (NOT question everything, but ask questions about everything) to better yourself.

 

[KiraTaureLor]

...although if one of us was put in an actual saw scenario, and one of your generation was put in a saw scenario, I wonder who will handle it better. Just a thought.

I have never seen Saw or its many sequels, I'm not big on "horror" or "suspense" films. I have a short attention span and too active an imagination to be interested in either. All I know about Saw is that it involves a guy locking people in a tiny room they cannot leave until they remove a body part; whether or not the people in the room are victims or "criminals" being punished for being a**holes appears to be under some debate, at least between the few friends I have who like horror films.

You make an interesting point, though. I'm not certain if being oversensitive or desensitized to the pain of others, be it real of imaginative, is a good indicator of your own threshold for pain and torture done to yourself. It might indicate your own awareness, on some level, of how you would fair in the instance or it might not.

Hmm ... well, now I have a question for my professor tomorrow. Thanks.

I'm not so much interested in the physical pain threshold, just how it will be handled Psychologically, Let me know what his answer will be though please.

 

[Lukirre]

You think we're desensitized? People used to lynch, torture and rape people like it was a fucking walk in the park. Families used to gather around fucking public hangings with their children and chuckle in delight, we are not desensitized in the slightest.

This. I quite thoroughly agree with this.

I'd argue, though, that in terms of violent and sexually aggressive behaviour, the upcoming generation is, in fact, more desensitized than the previous one. But, since we're not going around acting on this, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's a bad thing.