“Let your weird light shine bright so the other weirdos know where to find you.” I spotted that slogan once, many years ago, and have never, ever forgotten it. For some reason, it popped into my head while I was scrolling through the Recovered Images IG account. I still can’t place exactly what I felt. Each image evoked a different emotion. And in the end, I was left with a mixture of amusement, disgust, surprise, fear, and etc.
It’s one thing to spot a single unsettling image. But when there are dozens dumped together with no apparent connection, it’s next level. It got me thinking about why context is so important. How graphic or disturbing images tend to stay with us a lot longer than we’d prefer. And to what extent they can affect us. So I went down the proverbial rabbit hole.
Researchers have found that repeated exposure to graphic images can be linked to acute stress, post-traumatic stress symptoms, fear of future incidents, and difficulty functioning in work and social life. We’re not talking about bizarre, gross, or unhinged photos. But rather unfiltered images of the carnage and aftermath of bad things that have happened in the world.
Roxane Cohen Silver and E. Alison Holman have been tracking the public health effects of seeing graphic images of traumatic events. The professors from Irvine’s department of psychological science said that often, people don’t choose what they see. The footage or photographs are fed to them via television news or social media.
The researchers found that even those who don't witness traumatic incidents first-hand are still at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder purely from viewing footage or looking photos. In one case, at least 6% of people sampled had “high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms" six months after a certain incident had occurred.
Holman says the frequency of people viewing graphic content has increased over the years. Not because there are more traumatic events happening around us, but rather because images and videos are finding their way onto the internet at an alarming rate.
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help the situation either, adds Silver. With most of us locked indoors with not much to do, people would find themselves “doomscrolling” from one negative news clip to another and another, mainly encountering images of tragedy.
The expert says that while we had to actively seek out negative images in the past, it’s now become difficult to avoid them. It’s a vicious cycle. “The photos and videos captured by mobile phones and uploaded by everyday social media users can be especially challenging: People post information that they think will grab attention, including that which is raw and emotive. And disturbing content may appear in our feeds at any time to surprise or unsettle us,” write Andrea Lampros and Alexa Koenig from Berkeley University.
The duo has been researching the effects of graphic content and “using science-based strategies for minimizing the harms of viewing graphic content” since launching the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at UC Berkeley in 2016. They also co-authored a book titled Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in Our Online Lives.
Holman and Silver’s research, meanwhile, suggests that if people have been exposed to graphic images before, they’re inclined to seek out more because they “want to be informed about the incident or have some type of relation to the victims.” We don’t want to see it. But we do want to see it. Or do we?
“My colleagues and I would never advocate that people should not know what’s going on in the world,” Holman said. “We need to understand what’s happening in the world around us.” But we need to be able to do so “in a way that doesn’t totally traumatize us and leave us distressed and at risk for heart health problems.”
So how can you protect yourself? According to Lampros and Koenig, there are 11 steps you can take. And we’ve summarised a few of them for you so that you have some trauma armor when wander off into the depths of the internet.
Firstly, the experts say it’s important to be intentional. Have a reason to look at or watch something. “Consider whether you can get the information in some other way, including through a medium that may not be as emotive or graphic as raw video, such as a newspaper article or other professionally packaged piece,” they write.
Turn off the sound the first time you watch something potentially disturbing. “The most upsetting content is often the audio: a child screaming for their parent, a woman begging for her life, a man crying out for his mother, a person spewing racist, misogynistic, or homophobic slurs,” they explain, adding that muting the sound can help soften the “emotional resonance” and protect you from a traumatic blow.
Another way to minimize the impact is to minimize the size of the video. Make it smaller, advise the experts. They also say, when possible, first scroll through a video’s thumbnails to prepare yourself for what you’re about to see. After that, you can decide whether you really want to—or need to—view it. And if so, whether you should do so at that moment, or wait until a more appropriate time.
In the same way that some words are better left unsaid, some images and videos are better left unseen. But if you choose to view them, or they pop up unexpectedly, you can protect your peace by practicing mindfulness.
According to Lampros and Koenig, “research shows that first responders and others who deal with stress and trauma day in and out benefit from mindfulness and breathing exercises.” So if you’ve witnessed some unsettling content, step away for a moment or two and do some reflecting and deep breathing so that you can ground yourself back into the present.
