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Through My Eyes

Through My Eyes

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2014-08-15
Watching the news this morning and I couldn't help but shudder. I so well understand how media drives ratings and their shock tactics are designed to keep me glued and interested but I also can't help but feel vulnerable because scenes, which would previously send us into a global frenzy, no longer have that effect on us.

The image of a small boy holding a severed head by its hair, struggling to keep a grip on it while his father posts the photo on twitter, saying, "That's my boy" more than shocked me.

I can't help believing that the evolution of human wisdom and social ability has lagged so far beyond our emotional prowess. The cavemen who once threw stones at each other now have drones, automatic rifles and bombs.

We are all watching form afar. From our bedrooms and living rooms. Watching wars play out in our homes, right here on our phones, ipads and other digital devises.

We are living in a world where we are exposed to news events from all around the world every minute of the day; it has become more challenging to turn it off.

The world is now connected by the news feeds of twenty-four-hour networks, and so, together we watch in slow motion, real-time disasters of Ukraine, ISIS slaughter and the Nigerian schoolgirls saga.

We watch and gasp at the inequalities, the pain, the tears of the victims worldwide as well as the utter ineffectualness of our leaders to do anything about any of it.

Sky News put up a live feed of the Syrian refugee crisis - we watch the grubby little cherubstheir mothers wrapped in flowing robes. The constancy of such imagery, like the seemingly chronic footage of the Iraqi child victims begging for help, is both unnerving and desensitizing at the same time.

With each minute that goes by, with no relief in sight, our impatience is stoked further and our perception of our authorities' impotence is magnified.

The images we see are all familiar because we have all witnessed them before, through the media. So many disasters that it isn't really very shocking to see a home destroyed or a person experiencing the greatest loss of their entire life.

And whether it is a defence mechanism or learned indifference or media over-saturation, somehow we have figured out how to turn off whatever part of our brain that would make us feel the emotions that are justified by such devastating events.

A walk on the beach is what I needor I should be like my friend Rob who decided long time ago he is only going to watch the "Idols" Channel or maybe getting rid of the television set is what I should do.

But I guess what I am trying to say is, how do we stop the decay of our societies and just live and let live? I would appreciate some comments.