I understand the idea of shielding people from content that would be upsetting, but my own experience is, that I feel a little anxious as soon as I read Trigger Warning […].
How is your experience with it? Are you happy with it, or do you thing there are better ways to address dark topics?
Depends on the magnitude of what is being warned of.
“Warning, graphic gore”? Absolutely appreciated. “Contains scenes of actual combat, those with PTSD may wish to leave the room”? Yeah totally reasonable. “This book contains vivid descriptions of sexual abuse”? I can see why people would be squicked out by that.
But then we get into the absurd side of it. A film about the Holocaust, needing to warn its viewers that some contents may be distressing? Wow. You don’t say. A memoir about a tragic death, needing to put a warning that… someone dies? “This politics discussion may discuss slavery, racism, and oppression”? Oh no, we have to think about upsetting things that happened!
And before someone suggests those are unrealistic hyperbole, those are all things I’ve seen. I don’t feel those are helpful.
I also think its about the magnitude. It’s a huge difference between reading “they died” and a long detailed description of how. Or a photo or even video.
The first I’d say don’t need a warning, but the rest might depending on how realistic it is.
I appreaciate warnings overall as I struggle with anxiety so I can still use the internet even on bad days
Yes, they are. For a literature class, I taught a very short story, which is expertly written, about an infant who is scalded. It’s a fantastic piece, but something I’d totally expect some people to opt out of given the content.
I think I remember that from my creative writing class! Wasn’t it by O’Connor or someone?
David Foster Wallace, “Incarnations of Burned Children”
Ah right, Wallace. Seemed like everything he did was a cry for help
Really depends on what it is. If it’s gore I would like to be warned beforehand because I don’t like gore and if I’m eating then it’s even more disturbing. So they can be beneficial but as I said it’s heavily dependant on what’s being warned against. I once saw “tw: food” on a post that had a photo of someone’s McDonald’s meal and thought that was stupid
I feel a little anxious as soon as I read Trigger Warning
I feel a lot more anxious when a show dumps graphic violence or ear piercing screams on me with no warning.
Warnings tend to at least let me adjust my TV volume in advance. Much better than those YouTube clips or TikTok videos that try to blow out my speakers in the first five seconds
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Seeing unexpected gore has ruined my day before. It’s not that hard to give a warning.
I only want to know gore/nsfl. otherwise im on the internet and i know what community im on.
I appreciate them. You are what you eat. That goes for what you put in your eyes and ears as much as your mouth
Most people like to be coddled, few with admit it but it’s clearly a preference. They don’t bother me but I do my best to ignore them.
I prefer to go in with a little foreknowledge as possible, life doesn’t have trigger warnings, why should art? Bumpers are for children.
And this is not a, “I am very bad ass, nothing bothers me!” there are things that will consistently ‘trigger’ me, literally nope out but I’m a “buy the ticket, take the ride” type of person.
I also have a tendency to automatically dismiss groupthink. Occasionally to my own detriment but I’d rather maintained my agency rather than hand it off to a human void I rarely agree with.
To each their own. They don’t benefit me because they aren’t for me.
To answer the second half, if I had the wherewithal, my improvement would be for people to predefined their triggers and allow the medium to alert only when a trigger matches.
Depends on what are they warning me about. If it is about gore of something similar I can appreciate it, if it about foul language they can shove that warning up their asses.
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I like them, and they aren’t controversial. Content warnings have been around since tv stations invented the PG rating
I feel content. Warnings are beneficial.
Do you prefer to see someone crushed by heavy machinery, or something like that, without a warning? You don’t know when you get into a wrong part of the internet
I grew up in the 90’s. The wild West of the Internet. I’ve accidentally seen things so beyond fucked up. I had a friend back then that I’ve lost contact with and she used to email me fucked up images that just opening the email, there it was. But she’d also send high quality jokes or nudes of herself so it was kinda all or nothing. I think at that time my email was @rammstein.com lol. But were talking fatal crash pictures, one was a woman fucking a cactus, stuff seared into my memory that I wish I could get rid of. So yeah, if you think trigger warnings are excessive, you are probably too young to have experienced the 90’s and early 00’s. Even going to picture sites like imgur today, back then nothing was categorized so you’d get everything. Nsfw sites back then included EVERYTHING nsfw, from people smoking pot to stills of decapitations.
The traumatizing shit I saw on the Internet in those days, I’d compare to my experience in Iraq. That’s not to say that visual imagery is as bad as IRL, with the sights, sounds… And smells, but when you’re not expecting that sort of thing, it can be a big deal. Honestly those things probably jaded me to a point where I could more adequately handle war, but in ANY other scenario I’d say those days of no rules Internet were very harmful to a lot of people.
I don’t think I’ve ever been dissuaded by one, but I’m glad they are there for the people who appreciate them.
