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Nagrommy (she/her)'s avatar

Wow. What an incredible articulation of a topic that I'm sure many of us have rolled around in our noggins before (or are currently).

I'm a mental health professional and this has given me not only language but the realization that I've had better boundaries with my work life (where I see some really horrific shit) than I have with what I consume on social media.

Brb, going delete my apps.

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Rowan V's avatar

I have OCD of the type where it shunts horrific images and scenarios in horrendous clarity into my head at any time of day. Due to this, I make the choice to avoid images and videos I know will be fed into my brain goblin and regurgitated to me with the faces of my loved ones, particularly my five year old son, attached. It makes me feel guilty that I can't bear witness to the atrocities happening, but I'm not sure traumatising and triggering myself would be of any particular help to anyone. I can still feel empathy and agony for the plight of these people without watching every video of children ripped apart. I feel guilty because these people experiencing these things cannot choose not to witness it, cannot choose to escape it, cannot choose not to press play on a video on social media. But perhaps, watching that video is not a helpful action in of itself, it is about what we choose to do with the knowledge that terrible things are happening and figuring out how we can help - whether that be talking to people IRL, donating to fundraisers, sharing gofundmes, attending protests, signing petitions... I feel like some people think that just watching the videos and looking at the images is activism all in itself. I don't think I would say it is.

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