I Hate the 11 O'Clock News

I get regular email newsletters from The Onion that always give me a chuckle. Today however, I read one that was supposed to be sarcastic but is actually depressing:

Report: More Television Viewers Becoming Desensitized To Drama
LOS ANGELES—Researchers at the USC Center for the Study of Television announced Monday that a new report points toward a drastically impaired response to real-world dramatic incidents among America's habitual television viewers. "We found that a majority of viewers who watch a normal amount of television—between 32 and 56 hours a week—were relatively unmoved by such personal traumas as divorce, financial disaster, or the death of a child, compared with their reactions to similar events on television," said Dr. Fernando Alonso, whose team conducted the study.
"Respondents consistently said that predicaments they'd seen play out on House were worse than their loved ones' bouts with emphysema, and that they had experienced greater rejection over unrequited love during Grey's Anatomy than they had in their own lives." Alonso said the study, performed on adults over the age of 21, does not necessarily contradict an earlier report that found children who witnessed drama on TV were more likely to commit drama themselves.
The Onion Weekly Dispatch
September 10, 2008

Unfortunately, it is totally true, not so much about the content of the drama shows but about the constant barrage of bad news we are presented with. I think we are indeed becoming desensitized to the horror of murder and rape and the angst of divorce and burglery and politicians who cheat on their wives. We are besieged with bad news from all sides now, and worse, it is getting more and more realistic as technology improves. It used to be that I could isolate myself from the news for a week or so by simply not reading the newspaper and focusing on living my own life. Now it seems I am forced to get involved in the worst parts of everyone else’s lives on a daily basis.

Even if you avoid CNN or MSNBC, it seems the TV news is on pretty much 24/7 with all the teasers and news interruptions and the scrolling screen at the bottom of the picture. On top of that there is of course email and YouTube and news piped to your cellphone / blackberry and broadcast radio and weekly magazines and the TV screen you are forced to watch at the checkout stand in the market. They even have a big flat screen TV in the lobby at Jiffy Lube making sure I’m up-to-date on the latest NFL drug scandals, local murders, bank failures, child abductions, teen pregnancies, gas prices, unemployment figures and low-speed chases.

After a while you don’t even react to another grisly murder shown in graphic detail. It’s a form of psychic self defense. We only have a certain amount of empathy to serve up before the law of diminishing return works in reverse. Is it any wonder why people love their DVRs? I’m thinking about getting another one.