To be sick of

[FreewomaninParis]

People on Insta posting pictures of dead children/ babies in Gaza. It’s like their need to tell others they’re on the righteous side of the ‘war’ (who most likely agree with them anyway in their bubble) trumps my need to not repeatedly see dead children. It’s disgusting.

And yes. It’s disgusting it’s happening but that is not what this post is about.

It may be difficult to see but many people aren't even bothering to look at the news. In the nicest way possible, if it is that difficult to look at, imagine how horrific it is for those children and their families to experience. Also as time goes on with a 24 hour news cycle, not everything can be shown and people then switch off. But in reality things are getting wors in Gaza, 90% of infrastructure (housing, hospitals have been destroyed). Also, journalists are not allowed in so we are reliant on Palestinian journalists many of whom, have been targeted and are now dead. As such journalists are not allowed in, there is little but such videos on social media to try and fill the vacuum and get people to put pressure on governments etc for more aid. Let's be honest we receive similar images about other conflicts on the news directly (as journalists can get access), so this is not uncommon. I've seen horrendous images of events in Ukraine, Sudan and more. But awareness is key and also helps people to remember it hasn't stopped, just because coverage has reduced.

If the images really do bother you, then try and modify your content settings.

I'm not a fan of grief vultures and virtue signallers, but neither do I have much patience with people who bleat about glancing an image when the people in the image are actually living it rather than looking at it on their smartphone from 3.5 thousand miles away.

I wouldn’t call my post ‘bleating.’ I just opened insta to be confronted with over 10 images of dead and deformed babies. Other people don’t have the right to get in my phone with these horrific images. And it’s not the odd one. It’s the same people repeatedly posting them

And many of the images have been faked - or the context faked - too. No-one knows if the image we’re looking at is real

I get what you mean, its a bit like the anti abortion people who would hold up banners of aborted foetuses - its basically emotional mugging.

I didn't specifically mean you, but it's quite a common complaint: "How awful it was for me to see those distressing images! Poor me, I'm so traumatised!" Well think how much more awful it must be to be in those images, or ones like them, and, in the case of Gaza, to see them over and over again with no escape. I don't think we should be shielded from unpalatable events just because we're fortunate enough to live in a relatively peaceful and affluent part of the world.

@proximalhumerous so everyone should be put into a state of trauma? Even those who have escaped to our relatively safe country, they should be taken right back? What good is it doing?

No, of course not. But I don't believe that, for most people, seeing an unpleasant image - I'm talking about the sort of thing that would typically be shown on the news - would put you into a state of trauma or anywhere close.

It might be a bit upsetting, it might make you think, it might even prompt you to make a donation, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

You could say that about anything though. Do you wish to look at child abuse images, or suicide images or car crash images? Because, hey, it’s not you in them, therefore it’s so much worse for them…

oh no, is the genocide inconveniencing you?

I completely agree. I’ve unfollowed a few friends for this reason.

I can’t fix whatever the fuck is going on over there. I don’t need to see the dead children to know it’s going on.

No. The uninvited photos of dead kids are

Exactly.

Also it isn't balanced journalism, it's faked up, unattributed, emotive, unsolicited crap. I use reliable news sources for events of this magnitude.

The only random pictures I want to see on social media are parking diagrams on Mumsnet.

YANBU.

I did say I was talking about the sort of images you would see on the news.

This is one of the reasons I left IG.

THIS👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

YANBU. So many people don't understand juxtaposition and context. Almost everyone uses their social media to see casual everyday updates and trivial lifestyle stuff. They will be clicking through stories with restaurant pictures, travel landscapes, a few talking clips, shared memes. Posting something very upsetting, regardless of reason, that will inevitably pop up between lighthearted lifestyle content on other people's feed is the worst way to raise awareness or endear yourself to anyone.

It's not that nobody else cares, it's that it's incredibly tone-deaf and socially unaware to be forcing someone to consume graphic content outside of a journalistic setting. If you were at a work meeting with clients and your boss, you would not bring up the genocide and make everyone around the table to look at pictures of war victims on your phone. It's basic common sense. It's the best example of narcissistic slacktivism which is fully centred on the person themselves. They feel great because they identify themselves through their cause and feel they're a better person for sharing images to shock others. However the real-world effect is obviously the entire opposite and will lead others to distance themselves from the person and their cause.

I don't think it's unreasonable to sometimes just want to just look a nice pictures in light-hearted contexts when casually browsing your social media. There's a time and a place for these pictures.

And I agree, forcing disturbing images on people does nothing to help the people who are suffering.

No-one is forced to follow people who post such things on Insta, shock, horror, people don't actually have to follow anyone - it's optional. Why do people always carry on as if they are forced to see things they don't like?

You’ve nailed it. Thank you

The most recent one was an old work colleague I’ve not seen anything from in a while. All of sudden a slide show of babies, some decapitated, all dead. If I want to be on insta (which I do) I can’t avoid that happening can I? I will unfollow her now sure. But I couldn’t have stopped it coming up that time.

Totally agree with this. If I look at the news I expect to see photos of world events going on that might be upsetting. Thats literally the purpose of the news - to inform people about what is going on in the world- its why I would watch the news in the first place.

As you say, if the topic matter is so important then why not show pictures of these dead children to your new client at work?- after all, if they're shocked by it then doesnt that mean they dont care/are heartless and therefore you probably wouldnt want them as a client seeing as they're such a cold uncaring arsehole?

Situational context is everything here.

But the news doesn't really reflect what is happening. That is the problem.

Do you have evidence of this?

And would you show these images in a work meeting then?

I have seen some incredibly graphic images on the news - they have shown people literally dying (with the usual verbal warning that "the following images might be upsetting to some viewers" etc), people in war zones, dead bodies after terrosist attacks etc

I am not quite sure what you mean- are you saying that we can only appreciate how bad something is if we see decapitated babies? as the OP said, does that apply to child abuse too?- do we need to see graphic abuse images in order to grasp what child abuse means? Whenever I see a child abuse story in the news I am utterly horrified by it - the description is bloody bad enough. Are you really suggesting we need to see the child's dead body to understand it is bad because if so I find that extremely odd