Questioning Our Love For Fear

When your favorite sitcom breaks from its broadcasting and goes to "Breaking News," you usually know this may mean you're in for a long night of being glued to the TV as the events unfold.

I can recall quite a few incidents...Challenger, Gulf War, Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine, 9/11...just to name a few...

During this coverage...you're both petrified and envigorated - which is an interesting combination of emotions - to be both scared and excited...

But perhaps more interesting is our carnal desire to expect these events to occur on a regular basis...why do you think we feed on this? Is it healthy? Normal? Is it the element of surprise? Why do we unconsciously enjoy this at some primal level?

Do false predictions and "hunches" classify as the same emotion we feel when excited by terror?

Isn't it the same thing? Perhaps leaning more toward fear than excitement...but the drive/envigoration is still there...

And another thing to question...what emotion is this?? Is it one psychologists have already classified?? Any insight on this would be appreciated.

[edit on 9/13/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Originally posted by EnronOutrunHomerun
When your favorite sitcom breaks from its broadcasting and goes to "Breaking News," you usually know this may mean you're in for a long night of being glued to the TV as the events unfold.

I can recall quite a few incidents...Challenger, Gulf War, Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine, 9/11...just to name a few...

During this coverage...you're both petrified and envigorated - which is an interesting combination of emotions - to be both scared and excited...

But perhaps more interesting is our carnal desire to expect these events to occur on a regular basis...why do you think we feed on this? Is it healthy? Normal? Is it the element of surprise? Why do we unconsciously enjoy this at some primal level?

I don't think this is the same as going to a horror movie, to get cheap exitement. Get the blood pumping. I think that America has been "programmed" to obsess on this type of stimuli. Take OJ for example, how long can you possibly watch a white Bronco driving down the highway if you're not programmed? I lost interest in less than a minute, and I'm a football fan, seen him play. Yet they had this on for hours and people watched it.

Originally posted by intrepid
Take OJ for example, how long can you possibly watch a white Bronco driving down the highway if you're not programmed? I lost interest in less than a minute, and I'm a football fan, seen him play. Yet they had this on for hours and people watched it.

Ugh...Tell me about it...I stopped watching myself after I realized it wasn't going to end anytime soon - I'd rather see and hear the "highlights" than the entire thing...

And to be honest - I lived without cable for 10 months when I moved out - now that I've moved back in with the 'rents...even tho they have directTV, I don't even have my reciever plugged in - I hate getting glued to the TV and watching the next little thing unfold...

But in hindsight I know I used to do it...and looking at my friends and family, they still do it....and I think it's this urge/drive that fuels this emotion or desire for more that keeps them at it...

I just think the human race has a morbid curiosity for these things.

Like when youre told that someone is dead. Usually your first question is "How did they die?"



[edit on 13-9-2004 by SapphireHarlequin]

how did they die? perhaps morbid, also logical inquisative investigation as to the cause of something so horrific. information of this type is essential to preventing it from happening in the future. more disasterous events are more engaging on the emotional level. intrepid says it all " I think that America has been "programmed" to obsess on this type of stimuli." people somehow manage to get thrills out of breaking news, it is good entertainment for the feeble minded. lets look at laci peterson. an isolated murder case, are there not hundreds of murders all around the world everyday? why is this one so deserving of such excesive media coverage? simple, the american population feeds off of the ever twisted plot to fill their own lack of emotional engagments. its like a grand sick soap opera.

Originally posted by SapphireHarlequin
I just think the human race has a morbid curiosity for these things.

Like when youre told that someone is dead. Usually your first question is "How did they die?"
[edit on 13-9-2004 by SapphireHarequin]

This can also be concern. Most people would hope that people pass quietly, without pain.

Originally posted by sturod84
lets look at laci peterson. an isolated murder case, are there not hundreds of murders all around the world everyday? why is this one so deserving of such excesive media coverage? simple, the american population feeds off of the ever twisted plot to fill their own lack of emotional engagments. its like a grand sick soap opera.

I say the same thing all the time...What's so special about this?! Doesn't this same thing happen a hundred times over every day...

As an example, just look at the thread in ATS on killer pit bulls...all driven by media coverage of only pit bull attacks...or the news outbreak two years ago with shark attacks....I guess no one's gotten bit since then?!

From the way I see it, it's a complex combination of emotions that are involved which create this desrie for people to "stay tuned":

1. amusement
   
2. curiosity
   
3. concern
   
4. fear
   
5. anger
   
6. ignorance
   
7. apathy
   

I'm sure loads more could fit in here...but I don't think it's just one emotion that keeps us drawn in...it's its own emotion that plays off of many other factors, including the way the material is presented...

And then the media love to throw in these nice photoshopped images that represent their coverage topic - It seems like they're always ready for anything to happen - like it's someone's job to think of tragedies all day and create logos for them...crazy...