Do We Really Need To Know?
My sister-in-law, two of her kids, Ben and I ventured downtown today to take in a play. On our way back to Marietta from downtown we noticed a helicopter above. As we approached I 75 we saw three more helicopters and a back up of cars for the on-ramp. As we looked into the southbound lane we saw a smashed up overturned vehicle, numerous police cars, at least two ambulances and a host of rescue personnel. We knew it had to be a bad situation. After we returned home I checked the local news network's website to find out what happened. Not only was a story already written and posted, there was a photo "gallery" containing six pictures of the scene. These six pictures had disturbing images of the rescuers attempting to remove one of the victims from the overturned vehicle.
I am not sure what is so upsetting to me...the timeliness of the information to the internet, the vivid detail of the pictures and story or the fact that I knew I could simply check the internet and find out, nearly instaneously, what happened. As I walked on the treadmill for nearly an hour (go me!) I had many thoughts about this:
Do we really need information that quickly?
What came first, access to information about everything or our desire for it?
Does the media want to provide us with this information or does the public demand it?
I invite your comments....
posted by Amy @ 12:52 PM
2 Comments:
I definitely think there is too much information out there. However, I still have the desire to know what is happening. I do think knowing and seeing are two different things though. I can't believe they had those pictures on the internet. Of course, some part of me wants to take a look. Americans are sick!
Having worked in that industry for a bit, I think it is a bit of both. As consumers of the media, we go to the most up-to-date locale for info; however, we are sometimes disgusted by what we see. What is too much? What is too personal? Who decides these answers? What may be over the line for us isn't for others. Stories related to children didn't affect me nearly as much before I had them, but now I can't stand to hear/read/see anything related to harming a child. This day and age is all about instant gratification: buy it on credit, do it now, don't wait, etc... Makes me appreciate my grandparents' generation more and more...
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