In their 2018 book, The pampering of the American mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukyanov write about the “safety” culture that emerged in the early 2010s. They called it “safety”. Because it was a collection of morals and values that obsessed over everything and optimized everything for young people to feel safe and comfortable. This meant that parents would not let their children play outside alone. That meant removing upsetting or controversial content from television, the internet, or news media. Yes, it also included trigger warnings.
The goal of safetyism was a noble one. They found that young people experience more anxiety, stress, and depression than previous generations, and by protecting them from anything that could potentially harm or upset them, I tried to relieve my anxiety.
But this is not how the human mind works. The human heart is not fragile. They don’t need to be protected or buffered from real hard surfaces like vases or china. The human heart is fragile. profit From discomfort and tension.It means that the human mind becomes stronger needs It regularly faces difficult and upsetting experiences and cultivates its own stability and serenity.
Unlike most people, I’m actually optimistic that safetyism has peaked. It’s been years since I received an email complaining about a trigger warning. I received far fewer emails complaining about offensive content or denouncing some sort of bigotry or fascism. Either I have succeeded in keeping all those readers away from my readers, or many of my readers have finally realized and accepted that this strange “awakened” version of the world is unreal and unacceptable. Either
Either way, research shows that this sort of idea isn’t always popular. Most people don’t believe trigger alerts work. A small but loud minority do — according to 17% of people 1 survey.
But think about it. If you run a news media company in a highly competitive environment with very thin margins and you know that if you include trigger warnings, he knows 17% of people will like your publication. Do not include why not advertise them? This 17% readership could be the difference between a profitable year and a non-profitable one. They can be the difference between hiring more staff or firing them.
So you use them. they are easy. they make no effort. And his 83% of those who believe they are unlikely to work would not notice or care anyway.
And when you use them, your competitors want to win that 17% and start using them too. Soon everyone will get a trigger warning. And suddenly there’s that nasty feeling of, “Wow, trigger warnings are all over the place, so everyone must believe it.”
Still, most people don’t.
Like most things online, it’s a mirage. This is just another example of an internet funhouse mirror. The opinions of the loud minority are exaggerated and those of the quiet majority are squashed and minimized.
Don’t lose sight of reality. Yes, it is a painful, persistently unpleasant and always surprising reality. It wasn’t invented in the minds of the Twitter mob.
And don’t email me about this silly shit ever again.
