The Internet & Traumaporn: The "Ethical" Consumption of Tragedy in The Digital Age

In this week's episode, I explore the internet's love of "traumaporn" content and how this is changing the ways in which we engage with tragedy in the modern day, aiming to answer the question: Is there any ethical way to create and consume traumatic content online?

Timestamps:

4:09 Defining “traumaporn”

9:27 Online discourse around traumatic content

14:06 Why do we like traumaporn?

19:58 Commodification of traumaporn

21:50 Soft White Underbelly

26:03 MrBeast

28:50 Is there an ethical way to create and consume traumatic content online?

Find our podcast YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC18HclY7Tt5-1e3Z-MEP7Jg 

Subscribe to our weekly Substack: https://centennialworld.substack.com/ 

Join our Geneva home: https://links.geneva.com/invite/7eb23525-9259-4d59-95e3-b9edd35861a5 

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infinitescrollpodcast/

Follow Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenmeisner_/ 

Sources:

https://themighty.com/topic/mental-health/trauma-porn/ 

https://www.vox.com/technology/2024/3/21/24107166/poverty-porn-youtube-explained 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trauma%20porn 

https://bybrittanyjohnson.substack.com/p/lets-dig-deeper-what-trauma-porn 

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23596969/bad-news-negativity-bias-media 

https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a32802688/stop-sharing-trauma-porn-black-deaths/ 

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/08/9994208/trauma-porn-black-lives-matter 

https://medium.com/mindmapper-collective/am-i-addicted-to-trauma-porn-4fc1c20fce26 

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/trauma-porn-black-death-and-pain 

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JME-11-2021-0205/full/html?skipTracking=true 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2024/02/06/lost-in-the-scroll-the-hidden-impact-of-the-attention-economy/ 

https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/attention_economy_feb.pdf 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140728-why-is-all-the-news-bad 

file:///Users/lauren/Downloads/Social+Media+as+a+Stage+A+Behind+the+Scenes+Analysis+of+Performative+Activism,+%E2%80%9CCancel+Culture,%E2%80%9D+and+Effective+Allyship.pdf 

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/801570/summary  

https://centennialworld.com/morbid-curiosity-why-are-we-so-obsessed-with-each-others-suffering/ 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jeffrey-dahmer-netflix-serial-killer-thirst-1234596780/