2001

“The World Trade center has been hit”

A woman puts down her cup of coffee and stares fixated at the television screen. The world is in shock at the massive terrorist attack.

2016

“Another shooting has occurred in the center of Florida”

A man turns the station in his car radio to listen for something new.

It’s become the tragic habit for the people of the world to tune into the unfortunate events that envelope our society. No longer do we tune into our favorite radio station to hear the weather, but we listen for the news of this week’s shooting. Our favorite news channel has ceased its positive stories of Haitian survivors receiving help, but has spotlighted the highlights of today’s bombings.

Our society has become one that has been desensitized by the common news that flood our media. It has become overwhelmingly obvious that our vision is clouded daily with violence, corrupt stories, and the madness of humanity.

Not only do these tragedies dig their way through our media, but many of today’s television series revolve around the eccentric violence that viewers find entertaining. Viewers of today’s most violent television series can watch some of the goriest scenes without blinking an eye, or even encourage a gruesome outcome of a character.

The most unsettling part of this fact is when we flip our channels to the news and actively watch the occurrences of the shooting that just happened. The war that is happening. The bombs that are going off. This may be part of an everyday routine, but when we begin to think of ourselves as the audience members of this unjust reality, a piece of our winged conscious loses hope.

Suzanne Collins is a name known by many people across the world. For those unaware of her success, Collins is the author of the popular young adult series The Hunger Games, a trilogy about a dystopian society in which teenagers are forced to become rivals with one another and fight to the death, all while being filmed and watched by audience members at home.

In an interview with Rick Margolis, The Hunger Games author discussed her idea for the book series. Collins states:

“I worry that we’re all getting a little desensitized to the images on our televisions. If you’re watching a sitcom, that’s fine. But if there’s a real-life tragedy unfolding, you should not be thinking of yourself as an audience member. Because those are real people on the screen, and they’re not going away when the commercials start to roll.”

Our source of entertainment has drastically changed in a matter of a decade. We are still greatly interested in the comedic and romantic types, but we still starve for the thrill of violence and action within our entertainment sources.

The Hunger Games author does not encourage us to quit watching television shows, turn off the news, or by any means stop reading her books. Instead, I believe she tries to enlighten us as viewers to put aside the thirst of violence that we have when it comes to the news channels that don’t involve fictional beings, but rather the real people with a family at home watching in terror.

Our remorse for the continuous violence should never disappear, lest we then lose our sympathy as well.