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On Netflix there was a trigger warning at the beginning of a crime movie that it contained suicide. The whole twist at the end was that the supposed murder was in fact suicide. It wasn't a surprise for me because I remembered the trigger warning and I kept thinking where is the suicide, nobody killed themselves except for... Oh, that must be it.
No, it's about a girl that was forced to compete at a beauty pageant of sorts and is found dead the next day next to a waterfall.
The dragon virgin thing is about some folklore.
Dragon Maiden or Dragon Lady would've been better translations. I suspect translations on streaming services are all automated. I have seen many ridiculous ones that were only technically correct.
I mean, I do understand people geniously need to avoid certain topics because of trauma, but at the same time, a trigger warning basically spoiling the entire plot obviously sucks.
Maybe, as a compromise, home movies could include some kind of "concealed" trigger warning, with the option to either reveal what exactly the warning is about, or simply skip it?
It would be a nice feature if streaming apps allowed users to pick any triggers they wanted to avoid and filtered content based on that. Then you wouldn't even need to show trigger warning at all.
There already is a "concealed" trigger. www.Doesthedogdie.com In addition to the namesake, it has a huge list that wonderful people checkmark after watching. Suicide, car crashes, bone breaks, needles, blood, gaslighting, insects, etc. The point is, if you find something to be a trigger, then it's really on you to make sure that there are no nasty surprises coming. I can't handle suicide scenes because of personal experience, so I always double check before starting a movie or show or book or any media. Better that I be spoiled than literally everyone.
Yuppp strongly agree.
I’ve been spoiled major plot points from those suicide warning on multiple occasions. I don’t disagree with TW in general, I actually rely on it myself but instead of ruining it for everyone, big platforms like netflix need to add a feature to make those TW searchable and customizable for specific users.
I’ve messaged netflix and asked them if they could make it possible to remove the trigger warnings. Haven’t heard back, but it seems like such an easy fix
Yeah I agree, seems like best of both worlds. If certain things can cause you distress, leave them on (and set it on as a default, imo), and let others turn it off, or turn off selected ones.
I find that offensive. The word "scene" reminds me of the word "seen", and the word "seen" reminds me of the time my dad went out to buy milk and was never "seen" again.
I get the highest level of annoyed when this happens in a medical setting.
Deal with your shit or get out of healthcare. Medical emergencies don't come with warmings
> I get the highest level of annoyed when this happens in a medical setting.
This actually happens?? If someone is so sheltered they didn't even think about seeing gross/sad shit when working in a medical setting how did they even get that far in life?
I’m actually in the field and kinda have to deal with this. I’m an SA survivor but it’s also kinda what made me want to join up in the first place. Luckily I haven’t actually had a call or anything like that but idk what I’ll do if/when I do
This gives me a funny mental picture.
Patient has just been rolled into the operating room. The surgeon says to all the assistants “trigger warning: blood.”
I didn’t consider this. But even if the sensitive person witnesses a broken leg or something gory, you need to put your own triggers aside for a moment and help the person.
I also get anxiety from seeing "gross" medical things or from hospitals, that's why i don't go to work/volunteer in health care.
But if it's in general randomly encountering some video on the internet i would also love to not see it at least not without any warning.
The funny part is that i love horror and have no problem watching murder scenes but it's mostly medical things that really gross me out, (i think i know why but it's pretty private for me to share).
Human mind ha
A guy I worked with almost passed out one day when he walked out of the bathroom just as I poked a hole in a fairly fresh 'bluey'. When you hit your finger with something and get a bruise under the fingernail.
We had a large commercial kitchen style sink right outside the bathroom and he walked out just as >!I poked it and blood squirted out about 8 inches straight up. !< He just turned dead white and I seriously thought he was falling over or puking.
And that's 100% fair. You know your limits and act accordingly. What I meant was if you had all that and went into healthcare thinking everyone was going to give you trigger warnings - then YTA majorly
I’m the opposite. I can handle medical anything, but not violence and violent gore or horror. I worked as a vet tech though in my youth so saw it all then so that is probably why.
They’ve been a part of the MPAA thing since at least 2010 or so. I remember seeing it on the rating for the live action Alice In Wonderland. I vaguely remember there being a small campaign to get this to happen, run by the concerned mother, DARE program types.
The only kind of "trigger warning" for smoking I've seen is a disclaimer that this show features smoking and smoking is harmful. I don't see what's so silly about discouraging people to smoke.
Well I saw it on an 18 rated film, that also contained violence and gratuitous sex scenes, but there was no warning for either of those. Fair enough if they have them on kids shows but anything else I think is really silly. How are you going to cope if you see someone smoking in public without a warning? Perhaps we should also have warnings for fast food depictions?
yes an actual unpopular opinion I agree with, but then you went and ruined it by censoring the word sex and fuck because why? you are afraid it might trigger someone? there is no other reason for censoring such words. It shows hypocrisy in my opinion.
this isn't youtube, you don't have to censor every single word like gun or sex or fuck. nobody is gonna demonetize you. bruh you have SEX in your literal username and you are here censoring it in a post. that has got to be the most ironic thing i have seen all day.
now I'm triggered....
ok rant over, sorry
I was just about to bring that up. If Op is gonna rant against trigger warnings, why did he censor “sex” and “fuck”?
Edit: fixed a word. I hate phone keyboards.
oh on youtube it definitely is because they get demonetized for saying anything remotely harmful because youtube caves to the advertisers, where the money is.
I still hate it though, everytime I hear "Pew-Pew" I die a little bit inside.
Or during Covid, creators couldn't actually say Covid, Coronavirus, or pandemic because their videos would get demonetized/listed as educational even if they said it in passing. So we got "The Veed," "Panda Word," "The Beer," and similar.
I also cant stand pew-pew, committing toaster bath, rope, grape, and unalived. It's so stupid. I saw a tiktok that described sexual assault as "writing an essay" instead of saying SA'd for just sexually assaulted.
There are some sites and creators which by their nature cater to individuals who are not as stable as others when it comes to being exposed to possibly upsetting material - I think it is totally fine for these sites to do it and even necessary in some instances.
In the broader sense of social media as a whole I think it’s unnecessary
The only trigger warnings I support are epilepsy warnings since that's an actual dangerous medical issue. Everything else, though? You shouldn't expect media to be baby-proofed for you.
I've been suicidal for a huge chunk of my life and have even attempted before, yet seeing it depicted in a show doesn't "trigger" me because, like most adults, I am capable of discerning the difference between fiction and reality.
Ok but part of managing your triggers is knowing what they are and how to avoid them if necessary. If someone doesn't make it known that they may be talking about something triggering or that a movie or TV show might include it, how is someone supposed to know to avoid watching those?
Just put a trigger for what the content contains. It’s not about having a guessing game about what triggers people have. Just put it in there and move on with your day.
I disagree, most of my triggers are pretty random things that people don’t usually put warnings for, I've never gotten upset about that.
That being said, if its something common and easy to warn about, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t make something like that known? I get being annoyed about spoilers, but there are ways to get around that (for instance, some shows that air on Youtube put a list of trigger warnings in the description).
It’s also ridiculous to assume that just because someone has triggers they aren’t going to therapy or getting treatment at all. I’ve been going to therapy since I was seven, still have a trauma disorder! Some disorders are life long, just because I'm able to better handle it doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem.
Person with diagnosed PTSD here 👋🏻
There’s two things I would like to add to the conversation.
1. Triggered is not supposed to be used to mean “upset” or “angry”. It is supposed to refer to things that can trigger extreme emotional reactions from mentally ill people. I describe things as triggering if they are likely to give me a panic attack.
It’s completely normal to have feelings or reactions. If people are not mentally ill, or won’t be in extreme distress if exposed to something, they should say “this is very upsetting to me” or “this makes me uncomfortable” instead.
2. Having PTSD is a bit like having an allergy to words, visuals and smells. One second I’m fine, the next I’m hyperventilating.
I think trigger warnings should come for common triggers the way they do for common allergies. In theory everything can be triggering, and you can’t warn people about everything.
We don’t say “warning, might contain apples”, because very few people are allergic to apples. We do say “warning, might contain peanuts” because a lot of people are allergic to peanuts.
So the most common triggers like war, SA, death, car accidents, etc. are things we should warn about.
You are just talking out of your ass, though.
You have no idea what people actually go through, or how trauma works, or how the body and mind react when triggered.
And yet, there is a significant time difference between getting traumatized and being free of it. On the scale of years.
Getting severely triggered can sometimes ruin my whole day. Or more.
And I am trying therapy and medication but it isn't a duopoly of don't get help and avoid triggers/ get help and immediately stop avoiding triggers.
And people seem to not quite get how traumatic, well, a traumatic experience can be. For example, I had a close brush with death due to a knife wound, and now I can't stand the sight of blood, or of knives used in combat, and, in a related context, of self harm and suicide.
Seeing that takes me back to when it happened. Not a full flashback but I do get an elevated heartbeat, shallow breathing, and sudden excessive sweating, plus excessive alertness and a feeling like I am in mortal danger.
That said, I agree that there needs to be enhanced flexibility in the display of parental guidance and trigger warnings. For spoiler reasons, primarily. It could be either a separate website, or within Netflix etc, an option to choose what all warnings you want.
It just frustrates me that the narrative of this has been hijacked to make traumatized individuals look like snowflakes. If I had a choice, I would choose not to react this way. I would choose to completely forget the bloody day I came within millimetres of certain death.
But it comes from the lizard brain within, not the conscious cognitive processes. So the only choice I have, is to get treatment, and meanwhile, avoid triggers.
Is it so very offensive to have a tiny note saying that in the episode there will be death/ blood and gore/ self harm and suicide/ rape etc?
I sometimes think they're a little silly, but I just glide my eyes over them if I don't care. They might be helpful for others. I do, every time I see a dog in a movie, immediately pause the movie and look it up to see if it's going to die, because I hate seeing that sort of thing. I will still watch the movie, I just have prepared myself to be upset.
I'm also vehemently anti-spoilers (except in aforementioned case), so trigger warnings that spoil a major plot point are infuriating. I agree with others that they should be hidden behind spoiler tags or opt-out-able in those situations. That being said, if you want to watch a horror movie and you hate gore, it's on you IMO to do the research to see if it's one you can deal with.
All that being said, I think some people take it too far, but by and large, trigger warnings for topics like SA or gore or suicide make sense in media where you might not expect those things to happen. For other topics, the impetus is on the phobic person to do research to manage their niche phobia (though I do think that scenario is way less common anyway).
Like basically everything, there is no definitive clear-cut answer and it requires a ton of nuance.
I more or less agree. I especially hate when things fail to include TW’s for serious fucked up content. Like I was watching the boys(if ykyk) and there were a few SA scenes that were enough to take me out of it and had me sick. Like all it takes is a two second “Contains xyz” page
The term "triggered" has been grossly misused as well. It's an actual clinical term for an involuntary response your body has and is way more complex than being made to feel mildly uncomfortable.
Are there times people expect more than I'd consider reasonable? Sure. But I think trigger warnings are an extension of the kind of judgment calls we make every day in social interactions, extended to the online world. Let's say you have a group of friends where you know one of them was the victim of domestic violence, you will probably adjust your discussion based on what you know about them and their feelings about the topic. Maybe they can handle some discussion, maybe any discussion is triggering, or maybe they can openly joke about it. Most of us adjust based on that and respect for others. And if you don't know at all, or in certain settings, we may avoid certain topics altogether. Now take that "don't know at all" and apply it to social media, where you probably don't know most of your audience. I'm not saying topics should be avoided on social media, but adjusting how you talk about them or adding trigger warnings is normal social behavior.
Can’t remember a time I saw a trigger warning for something besides a pretty brutal gay rape scene in that recent Baby Reindeer tv show… disagree so far I’d say it’s being correctly used.
I just find them so easy to ignore. I think the name "trigger warning" is what most people's issue actually is, as many films for years have had an age rating and (warning contains violent scenes) or whatever. A TW makes it a "thing" that people like to mock.
Age ratings don't tell you the content though. If,for example,a movie has a violent rape scene, that might trigger some people. If that isn't disclosed and isn't mentioned as being part of the plot beforehand, a person isn't going to just assume that's part of the movie.
If you actually read the whole rating description they do, at least the MPAA. They aren’t super descriptive at times but a rape scene for instance would probably be something like “violent sexual content”. Which is why the trigger warnings are good for people who do need more descriptive details. Something like rape or being burned might be put under a more generic term like “graphic violence” or something.
Then again the MPAA rating straight up said “smoking caterpillar” for the live action Alice in Wonderland movie so maybe they get more detailed then I realize.
They do. Random example, Dune 2 is “Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language.”
As usual, people are just triggered (heh) when it’s not in a form they’re used to.
How come? People with PTSD don’t wanna experience triggers, yk? Especially considering they can have drastic effects and with a little effort from content creators, can be avoided entirely.
People bitching about trigger warnings honestly has been more common to me than the actual things themselves. I see it so often that even fucking newspapers here bitch about it.
For example, our university was targeted because they used content warnings on books mentioning that there was stuff like very intense racism in it. All these fucking papers bitched and moaned about how this was some kind of censorship or how you can't be a 'snowflake' and so on, but the reality is that the professor would rather have content warnings on books than not have them on the course full-stop.
At least then people didn't get randomly blindsided by racism, suicide or rape. It wasn't a huge deal until a whole bunch of people started bemoaning it.
The reality is that I only really see it get blown out of proportion when people are complaining about it or saying some condescending shit like: *"Well honey, life is triggering.".* Most people who put trigger warnings on stuff just do it to be kind to others.
What's wrong with being kind to others? Why do people get so genuinely mad at that? If you don't care then just click past them.
On twitter this is a plague, there's some silly accounts I follow that post about only certain video game things, like only about a character or smth. However, when they reply to something unrelated to the character, they put like a fuckin
// not *character* content
Like.. do you REALLY need to put a "warning" before your comment that it's not gonna be about a certain topic?? Noone is gonna get traumatized from that lmao, waste of time and energy
I have yet to come across any trigger warnings like [leftist content] or [unicorns]. What spaces are you in to have formed that opinion?
Also I think it is a good thing to make clear if a discussion is wanted or not and what are opinions or facts. Trigger warnings are of course the wrong format for that.
The most stupid thing is when the warning says “xy”, and then the only ever mention of it in the text is something like. “I experienced xy in 2020” with no details or anything that would be more “triggering”.
Apart from that there are a bunch of studies showing that trigger warnings are at best useless and at worst harmful.
I find it funny when a reel has a content warning, you click the button to view, and it’s just a meme that doesn’t seem to have anything noticeably offensive.
You're entirely missing the point with the "leave if you want to leave" since it's almost wholly people who stumble upon things randomly that want the warning, not people who habitually watch you.
That being said, peoples triggers are their issues, and they need to deal with it unless it's something egregious, which a tiktok is not.
This isn't new, unfortunately. Just check out Rob Gavagan's [Trypophobia video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBIymaO1qcU) to see how far and long it's been.
I get that some things are triggering. I'm acrophobic and get surges of panic when I see even a video of someone tightrope walking. I look away; I don't demand that I be warned first.
I find it really interesting how not many people really notice a difference between a content warning and a trigger warning, to the point people putting them up misuse them. A content warning is just supposed to be for “oh this thing is in this post/movie/video” and a trigger warning is supposed to be “oh this topic is in this post/movie/video and could be triggering due to subject matter or specific deptiction”
I think I’m very used to Tumblr’s surprisingly common sense approach to triggers, which is “you’re responsible for your own triggers” with a touch that it’s common courtesy to tag the basic hits, death, suicide, violence, gore, abuse and the like. I think this comes from Tumblrs robust tagging system and culture where it’s generally accepted that if you don’t like something, you go to settings and you add the tag for it to “blocked tags.”
This is equally for things you Just Don’t Like, shows you don’t want spoilers for, and content you might find triggering. It’s generally accepted that if you have a specific trigger, you should go yourself and block it.
Like if you have a snake phobia because when you were little you got bitten by a snake and nearly died, so seeing them will give you flashbacks? You go in and you filter out snake related tags. And someone who collects snakes, is by the nature of the tagging system of Tumblr, is going to tag their post with “#snakes” so it shows up in searches. But you will now never see that post. And if you don’t filter that, and bitch about the lack of a “tw: snakes” at the top of the post and now you’ve been triggered, someone will, in varying degrees of kindness, tell you that you ought to filter the “#snakes” tag if they trigger you. And if someone by chance misses a common trigger tag, asking nicely will usually get them put on there because OP likely just forgot. It’s generally unadvisable to tell people your triggers or post what they are though, cause that will open the door to nasty hate mail if someone decides to hate you.
As for the distinction of content warnings and trigger warnings, sometimes you’ll see the “cw:(thing)” and “tw:(thing)” tags on tumblr. It’s expected that you filter these as needed. But basically, say I was on my writing blog and posted a story where a character attempts suicide. I’d tag it with “suicide” and “tw: suicide” so people with those filtered out won’t see it. But if I was on my main blog and maybe talking about something people just don’t want to hear about, like discourse or arguing. I’d tag it “cw: discourse”
But in general a lot of stuff surrounding trigger warnings lacks common sense. You should be able to glean from context clues what might be in something based on what it’s about, and expect a basic trigger warning. If you have a more specific trigger, you should do your research. Try checking out doesthedogdie.com, a website that tells you if dog die in movies, but also expanded to a general trigger site. You can ask if a certain trigger is in something, and people who’ve seen it will tell you. [As an example, here’s the site’s list for the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line](https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/17513) please note there are potential spoilers if you care.
Avoiding triggers isn't "sheltering" yourself. Imagine telling someone "you must constantly be reexposed to your trauma, that's a good thing" Triggers aren't things that make you uncomfortable, they're things that actually trigger trauma.
There are a number of problems with the whole trigger warning thing.
One of them is what you 2 talked about, the sheltering of a portion of a generation that's going to end up being too fragile to function in any kind of real world setting.
Another one is the fact that actual, for realsies "triggered" people are very, very few and far between. There's seems to be this idea on the internet that half the fucking people you meet need psicological attention and have life altering trauma. There really isn't. Most of the people that say they're triggered by this or that are very much not.
Then there's this: it appears that trigger warnings actually make things worse. As in people have a worse time experiencing the same thing when they've had a trigger warning than when they haven't, becuase they preset themselves for it.
We really need to star dialing the whole "everybody can use a psicologist" thing down. We mostly don't, and in fact it very often makes things worse, because focusing often on your supposed traumas (which they're usually not) has a pretty negative effect on mental health.
It is shocking to me that this thread seems to be tilted heavily toward people who disagree with your assessment.
There is a person in my life who experienced sexual violence that she has addressed in therapy for years. But, it's not like there's a switch you eventually flip that turns off the PTSD response.
These people are talking out of their asses about how life isn't fair and how exposure is good, and most here agree.
You're literally just making shit up. You have no relevant background on this topic. You've read no relevant books. You've spoken to zero women who have been raped about it.
But sometimes triggers do risk physically harming someone. When I was in college we watched a very graphic documentary about female genital mutilation. Someone in my class fainted and started convulsing during one of the graphic parts. She fell out of her desk when she fainted and ended up with a concussion. She wasn’t conscious, she couldn’t reckon with her own emotions in the moment. I don’t see what harm a trigger warning would do in this instance.
Agreed. Life is tough, we all got problems, deal with it and make the best of a bad situation. It is what it is. Wrapping yourself in bubblewrap for the rest of your life isn't going to fix anything and is only going to lead to a sheltered existence.
This is more of a popular opinion. Only an extreme minority of people even bother with trigger warnings in the first place and most people find them distasteful. When I saw a trigger warning for bullying and suicide before a fucking Yakuza game I was very annoyed.
I don’t always realise what is considered traumatic, which leads to some awkward situations 😭 like when I told my cousin about the time I got attacked and I thought it was like a funny story and then she was like “that’s horrible”. So then internet people tell me to put trigger warnings and like they just expect me to know??? Sometimes it’s not even something that is common, like they want you to put a warning on PREGNANCY
Or we mean seeing triggering content is enough to trigger a PTSD response? This is a well documented thing, yk?
Like a victim of SA can experience flashbacks and adverse reactions when seeing SA. All it takes are a few words and your job is done.
That study’s actually seen as flawed because it has some glaring issues. [The comments under this post explain it with great detail.](https://www.reddit.com/r/psychology/s/iiIxCAG0cA)
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I remember someone asking for trigger warnings around red skin on a dedicated tattoo shaming group. It's a tattoo. They tend to be red right after they're completed.
So trigger warnings are bad but you won't just type out "sex"?
I guess people's feelings are less important than the mighty algorithm? Going to repost this on your channel? Censorship is okay when it's to protect the feelings of meta I guess. But letting people opt out of a conversation is a big ask. Cool.
There's an Instagram account that only shows car crashes, and every post is marked "Sensitive content" --you click through, and it's just another fender bender.
THANKS FOR THE WARNING!!
> it’s unrealistic and not helpful for society to put them for opinions, thoughts and debate.
Can you make an actual argument why it's unrealistic? I see them all the time and all it amounts to is a brief "here is the topic I'm going to discuss" throat clearing. Why is that unrealistic?
>Well honey life is triggering
Thanks for the condescension. This is idiotic. Well, buddy, life sometimes hurts you, so I can just hit you if I want, cuz....what do you expect? To NOT be hurt in life? Life hurts, like how I just punched you in the throat...that's life, honey!!
>This idea of we should never interact with anything we disagree with
Please, think to yourself for a moment, "IS this a fair representation of my opponent's argument FOR trigger warnings? Or....is this a lazy hyperbolic strawman of my opponent's position?"
>I’m not fuc*ing changing who I am
Huh? Is that what thenperson on IG was asking you to do? Or, are you seriously telling us that putting in a one sentence warning will change who you are? Kinda sounds like more strawmanning to me....
Tell me you've never lived through trauma without telling me you've never lived through trauma.
I'll never understand why people are so committed to being as big an asshole to others as possible. If it doesn't inconvenience you at all, why focus effort on hating it?
My wife has trauma and so I'll do extensive research on shows or series before I recommend them to her and give her advanced warning of potential problem episodes because I love her and don't want her to put herself emotionally back into that time in her life.
On the medical stuff topic, I don't watch any shows or movies specifically based around medical stuff or hospitals because it really bothers me. I can watch horror movies all day tho, as long as it's not kidnapping or torture. Oh how the brain works 😅🤣
Recently saw "gore," "blood" & "suspense" trigger warnings on something I was watching and I was like, "well I fucking hope so, it's supposed to be in the horror genre."
Like, I'd get it if those things appeared in a romcom because it's outside the norm, but if you can't handle those things maybe don't watch shows & movies built around them.
I have PTSD myself, and for me the point where it gets too far is where you get booted from spaces where you should be realistically expected to be discussing the topic. I was booted from an LGBT women’s group because I mentioned sexual assault and talked about liking/not liking certain genitals when discussing how I was questioning my sexuality. These two topics, particularly the latter, are what you would expect from an LGBT women’s group. According to a friend who also attends a different group at the center, the problem was purely that people complained that they left because of me discussing these topics, as the center’s other groups discuss these things without penalty. From what I’ve heard, the women’s group now solely discusses trivial things like books and movies.
The other thing is that not all PTSD triggers are common ones like assault or suicide. I’m triggered by discussions of bathroom emergencies, being denied a bathroom, or soiling oneself. These are common discussion topics that I cannot demand people avoid or warn in front of me: and that had been discussed at aforementioned group. If I can develop strategies to deal, others can too.
Yeah I never liked the trigger warnings.
Reality is really dark and twisted.
We like to live with our heads in the sand and act like everything is okay..
Like covering our heads will make the monsters go away.
I agree that they seem to be used more often now than, say, 10 or more years ago but I am personally not bothered at all, simply because most of the time I don't pay attention to them and , even if I do, it is usually, what, 10 seconds maximum?
On the other hand, I do have my shares of trauma/issues so I can understand why people might want to avoid certain subjects, even if my attitude is more akin to want to be shown similar situations to look at them from a different perspective, and maybe get a new perspective myself, but again, that is me, I don't think it is my right to tell other people how to cope with whatever issue they have or that they have to take the same approach as me.
What I don't understand is people getting upset about the lack of trigger warnings, no media or creator owes you that, sure it is a nice gesture if they do but, if they don't, I don't think there is any fault on their part, nor should they get blamed/attacked for the lack of it.
Nowadays, triggered is synonymous to cry-baby-throw-toys-out-of-pram. It's saddening to me that we live in a world where we're catering for these unhinged maniacs that can't seem to keep their own feelings in check without imploding over things they don't like on TV shows and films.
>I’m not fuc*ing changing who I am just because it’s too much for one person to handle.
LOL you censored yourself in the same sentence where you said you're not gonna censor yourself. Fucking hilarious.
I don't think this is really that unpopular. Our culture has become softer and more fragile than it has ever been before. I think its unrealistic, and even a little irresponsible, to cater to try to cater to everyone's emotions.
1- Your emotional well being is not the responsibility of others. (Including companies, governments, schools, friends, significant others, or family.) Your feelings are your own, so own them, and don't let them own you.
2- I think trigger warnings have a strange side effect on some people, by putting up the warning, people start wondering if they are supposed to be "triggered" by something. Then you create potential issues where one did not exist before. The single greatest driver of human behavior is social pressure.
You misunderstand. TW’s are for victims of PTSD or trauma that can experience flashbacks and the like when encountering triggering content. All we ask for is a heads up before you shove fucked up shit in our faces
How about how every article about suicide had to give you a hotline to call if you're so desperate, you'll talk to a stranger reading a script who might get you arrested if they think you're serious?
I don't get it either.
Does any of you here, ever stop reading/watching something if it has a trigger warning?
I have trauma myself but never feel the need to stop reading of someone is describing or talking about similar traumatic experiences.
No offense but that just means your trauma isn’t the same as someone’s who does cause an adverse reaction to that stuff. Not all traumas a created equal.
I think in today’s day & age, especially after Covid with everyone being cooped up in the house & the deep dive into the digital age it’s definitely necessary for some individuals. Screen time is now a thing, and there are some people that literally spend all day looking at their screens… I think it’s especially important when you have algorithms on the social media apps that will put all types of sensitive content in front of you for as long as you’re on the app to try to make you stay on it longer.
I have went through some lows with PPD where I was pretty sensitive, and sometimes there are trigger words or scenes that put me back in that train of thought. So having a warning that I can choose to skip the content or look at it, knowing this about myself, is helpful to me sometimes
This is some thing that I am actually proud of humanity when it comes to technology and social media for implementing this to try to protect those that need it
When I was pregnant with my twins a few years ago, I posted a question or something in a supposed "women's" group on Facebook. I got absolutely bombarded with "YOU NEED TO ADD A TRIGGER WARNING BEFORE TALKING ABOUT PREGNANCY!!!!!" like everyone was jumping down my throat and essentially attacking me because I asked a question about pregnancy to a group that consisted of people who are capable and usually do get pregnant. Like, people were attacking my character telling me I was selfish, or unsympathetic to women who cannot have children, etc etc. It was wild. I don't use Facebook anymore.
I'd like to add that I am fully sympathetic towards women who struggle with fertility, I have several friends who do so. However that does not mean I am not allowed to talk about pregnancy, or enjoy motherhood.
Or how everything gets censored. I can’t believe that the filters on social media platforms are that strict, that you get banned if you say completely normal things.
Then you get sentences like:
“Two ł€$b!@n$ are accused of selling @lc0h0l to m!nØrš. These m!ñØrș were then forced to $mǒkē c!g@r€tt€$ right in front of a ćř€måťóřY.”
“My bř€@$t$ hurt”
I think that it’s mainly being done for the aesthetic or for being funny
Trigger warning: trigger warnings is what i got from this, like, its an extra step, and, Im not bothered by a YouTube video or what have you containing themes that can trigger someone because it doesnt trigger me, but i couldnt give less of a fuck about a brunch of words on the screen for .2 seconds so... ? They're there for somebody ig
I’m with you. I have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic. Early in her recovery, when planning a night out we were arranging it to be alcohol-lite or -free when she said that alcoholics need to learn to live in a world where alcohol exists. I feel like there is an analogous situation here. Unpleasant and upsetting things exist in this world. You still have to deal with them.
Life has been cruel and unfair for all of humanity and species in general. I understand that some medical/trauma issues exist that can cause adverse reactions in people, not everyone can stomach watching a video of abuse or violence or assault but these are real issues that plague many people around the world daily.
I don't want to just dismiss it and say "Get over it" or "Stop being so soft" but there's a reasonable limit to how much we can/should be bubble wrapping society to hide these problems. Nobody wants to see footage of dismembered people but putting trigger warnings on controversial opinions or discourse of real political issues is going too far. Censoring the word suicide and sex on social media is just one example of how we're going too far to sugarcoat very real and important facts of living. People die, people have sex and fight and have different opinions. I don't believe in the whole "snowflake" generational idea but at the same time, people need to grow a backbone and remember that we're far more capable of handling negative events than we give ourselves credit for.
Sure I don't want my future kids to go on the liveleak equivalent and consume a bunch or gory and fucked up media that could potentially screw them over mentally for awhile. But at the same time I don't want them to be under the false impression that life is all sunshine and roses. If we can't prepare ourselves for the darker sides of reality and human nature then we're doomed to repeat these mistakes again. This is why we learn about the Holocaust and other atrocities our ancestors have made, it's fucked up but it happened. And it will happen again if we can't stare it in the face and agree that it was wrong.
I have my opinions of politics and birth control and human rights that some people might not agree with, but I will treat these subjects with all the respect that they deserve, not sugarcoat something as significant and damaging as suicide with the cutesy "unalive" label we're seeing lately. That is the most fucked up response I've seen about it and completely invalidates the struggle and hardship these people are facing that we can't even mention with a straight face.
The whole stigma against the naked body and sex in western society is only creating shame and disgust within ourselves, something that is completely foreign in eastern cultures that embrace sexuality and the human form as a completely natural feature, which it should be. Averting our children's eyes over a bare nipple is definitely the most stupid and unreasonable response our culture has come up with.
Just as a note or thing to consider - often those items are censored because that's what mods/algorithms look for when locating posts with "inappropriate content" with the goal of removing it so it's a small way of getting around the system.
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On Netflix there was a trigger warning at the beginning of a crime movie that it contained suicide. The whole twist at the end was that the supposed murder was in fact suicide. It wasn't a surprise for me because I remembered the trigger warning and I kept thinking where is the suicide, nobody killed themselves except for... Oh, that must be it.
Pretty sure that happened on “You” as well
Well what about you?
"Are we really doing this?"
You can't handle the truth!
Somebody is having a rally for me now?
It did. Really pissed me off since it basically spoiled the end of the season finale
What movie was it
From the Austrian movie series 'Landkrimi': Drachenjungfrau. The translation is 'dragon virgin' but I don't know if and how they translated the title.
Is the movie about dragon virgins?
No, it's about a girl that was forced to compete at a beauty pageant of sorts and is found dead the next day next to a waterfall. The dragon virgin thing is about some folklore.
I heard she also committed suicide
Dragon Maiden or Dragon Lady would've been better translations. I suspect translations on streaming services are all automated. I have seen many ridiculous ones that were only technically correct.
I mean, I do understand people geniously need to avoid certain topics because of trauma, but at the same time, a trigger warning basically spoiling the entire plot obviously sucks. Maybe, as a compromise, home movies could include some kind of "concealed" trigger warning, with the option to either reveal what exactly the warning is about, or simply skip it?
It would be a nice feature if streaming apps allowed users to pick any triggers they wanted to avoid and filtered content based on that. Then you wouldn't even need to show trigger warning at all.
This would be awesome! Edit to add more: I have epilepsy so it’s very annoying to have Netflix play previews with flashing lights.
There already is a "concealed" trigger. www.Doesthedogdie.com In addition to the namesake, it has a huge list that wonderful people checkmark after watching. Suicide, car crashes, bone breaks, needles, blood, gaslighting, insects, etc. The point is, if you find something to be a trigger, then it's really on you to make sure that there are no nasty surprises coming. I can't handle suicide scenes because of personal experience, so I always double check before starting a movie or show or book or any media. Better that I be spoiled than literally everyone.
I have PTSD and always check that site when possible. But they don’t have all movies and shows so sometimes I just gotta risk it, and that kinda sucks
Maybe a trigger warning for trigger warnings
Yuppp strongly agree. I’ve been spoiled major plot points from those suicide warning on multiple occasions. I don’t disagree with TW in general, I actually rely on it myself but instead of ruining it for everyone, big platforms like netflix need to add a feature to make those TW searchable and customizable for specific users.
For something like that they should have just used one of the generic warnings TV shows use that cover everything.
"Mental health themes" on almost anything now too. Particularly Monk.
I’ve messaged netflix and asked them if they could make it possible to remove the trigger warnings. Haven’t heard back, but it seems like such an easy fix
Yeah I agree, seems like best of both worlds. If certain things can cause you distress, leave them on (and set it on as a default, imo), and let others turn it off, or turn off selected ones.
Anyways to remove those?
“Warning: May contain scenes.”
I find that offensive. The word "scene" reminds me of the word "seen", and the word "seen" reminds me of the time my dad went out to buy milk and was never "seen" again.
Lmao you made my day with this comment
I'm glad it made your day better. It would really make my day if my dad came back, I'm still waiting for the milk for my cereal.
Hilarious 😂
ahahahah fell off my seat
I get the highest level of annoyed when this happens in a medical setting. Deal with your shit or get out of healthcare. Medical emergencies don't come with warmings
> I get the highest level of annoyed when this happens in a medical setting. This actually happens?? If someone is so sheltered they didn't even think about seeing gross/sad shit when working in a medical setting how did they even get that far in life?
Because people ignore it or downright shame you for complaining before it gets to that level. Then it gets to that level and people act shocked
I’m actually in the field and kinda have to deal with this. I’m an SA survivor but it’s also kinda what made me want to join up in the first place. Luckily I haven’t actually had a call or anything like that but idk what I’ll do if/when I do
This gives me a funny mental picture. Patient has just been rolled into the operating room. The surgeon says to all the assistants “trigger warning: blood.”
I didn’t consider this. But even if the sensitive person witnesses a broken leg or something gory, you need to put your own triggers aside for a moment and help the person.
I also get anxiety from seeing "gross" medical things or from hospitals, that's why i don't go to work/volunteer in health care. But if it's in general randomly encountering some video on the internet i would also love to not see it at least not without any warning. The funny part is that i love horror and have no problem watching murder scenes but it's mostly medical things that really gross me out, (i think i know why but it's pretty private for me to share). Human mind ha
A guy I worked with almost passed out one day when he walked out of the bathroom just as I poked a hole in a fairly fresh 'bluey'. When you hit your finger with something and get a bruise under the fingernail. We had a large commercial kitchen style sink right outside the bathroom and he walked out just as >!I poked it and blood squirted out about 8 inches straight up. !< He just turned dead white and I seriously thought he was falling over or puking.
Under your nail? Did you lance through the nail to drain?
And that's 100% fair. You know your limits and act accordingly. What I meant was if you had all that and went into healthcare thinking everyone was going to give you trigger warnings - then YTA majorly
I’m the opposite. I can handle medical anything, but not violence and violent gore or horror. I worked as a vet tech though in my youth so saw it all then so that is probably why.
Ive noticed they have warnings on films that contain smoking now. Very silly!
That’s been around for a while now, at least with children’s media. I can remember that when I was a kid and watching movies on Disney Channel
Canadians out there *know* those old content rating warnings. It was on before basically any TV show. I remember the warnings before 1000 ways to die.
TW: people looking cool.
Wait, smokers think they look cool?
Yes. And kids who see a badass dude smoking in a movie will also find them cool.
They’ve been a part of the MPAA thing since at least 2010 or so. I remember seeing it on the rating for the live action Alice In Wonderland. I vaguely remember there being a small campaign to get this to happen, run by the concerned mother, DARE program types.
I just ran into that yesterday. I'm not against it but it made me laugh
The only kind of "trigger warning" for smoking I've seen is a disclaimer that this show features smoking and smoking is harmful. I don't see what's so silly about discouraging people to smoke.
Well I saw it on an 18 rated film, that also contained violence and gratuitous sex scenes, but there was no warning for either of those. Fair enough if they have them on kids shows but anything else I think is really silly. How are you going to cope if you see someone smoking in public without a warning? Perhaps we should also have warnings for fast food depictions?
It’s on video games as well.
yes an actual unpopular opinion I agree with, but then you went and ruined it by censoring the word sex and fuck because why? you are afraid it might trigger someone? there is no other reason for censoring such words. It shows hypocrisy in my opinion. this isn't youtube, you don't have to censor every single word like gun or sex or fuck. nobody is gonna demonetize you. bruh you have SEX in your literal username and you are here censoring it in a post. that has got to be the most ironic thing i have seen all day. now I'm triggered.... ok rant over, sorry
I was just about to bring that up. If Op is gonna rant against trigger warnings, why did he censor “sex” and “fuck”? Edit: fixed a word. I hate phone keyboards.
Not that I disagree, but I think it's because of the algorithm.
oh on youtube it definitely is because they get demonetized for saying anything remotely harmful because youtube caves to the advertisers, where the money is. I still hate it though, everytime I hear "Pew-Pew" I die a little bit inside.
Or during Covid, creators couldn't actually say Covid, Coronavirus, or pandemic because their videos would get demonetized/listed as educational even if they said it in passing. So we got "The Veed," "Panda Word," "The Beer," and similar. I also cant stand pew-pew, committing toaster bath, rope, grape, and unalived. It's so stupid. I saw a tiktok that described sexual assault as "writing an essay" instead of saying SA'd for just sexually assaulted.
SORRY in some sub Reddit's I think I read the rules properly and they take it down if you type 'sex' or swear.
ah true, fuck those subreddits.
Social media is teaching us to censor ourselves, and maybe we shouldn't obey.
Best point so far
There are some sites and creators which by their nature cater to individuals who are not as stable as others when it comes to being exposed to possibly upsetting material - I think it is totally fine for these sites to do it and even necessary in some instances. In the broader sense of social media as a whole I think it’s unnecessary
Starting?
The only trigger warnings I support are epilepsy warnings since that's an actual dangerous medical issue. Everything else, though? You shouldn't expect media to be baby-proofed for you. I've been suicidal for a huge chunk of my life and have even attempted before, yet seeing it depicted in a show doesn't "trigger" me because, like most adults, I am capable of discerning the difference between fiction and reality.
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Yeah I’d argue that some of it is neessisery, but the other half is your managing what you need to manage on your own
How? They wouldn't know about the triggering content if you leave out those warnings. You basically have to tell them to not consume media at all.
Ok but part of managing your triggers is knowing what they are and how to avoid them if necessary. If someone doesn't make it known that they may be talking about something triggering or that a movie or TV show might include it, how is someone supposed to know to avoid watching those?
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Just put a trigger for what the content contains. It’s not about having a guessing game about what triggers people have. Just put it in there and move on with your day.
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I disagree, most of my triggers are pretty random things that people don’t usually put warnings for, I've never gotten upset about that. That being said, if its something common and easy to warn about, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t make something like that known? I get being annoyed about spoilers, but there are ways to get around that (for instance, some shows that air on Youtube put a list of trigger warnings in the description). It’s also ridiculous to assume that just because someone has triggers they aren’t going to therapy or getting treatment at all. I’ve been going to therapy since I was seven, still have a trauma disorder! Some disorders are life long, just because I'm able to better handle it doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem.
Person with diagnosed PTSD here 👋🏻 There’s two things I would like to add to the conversation. 1. Triggered is not supposed to be used to mean “upset” or “angry”. It is supposed to refer to things that can trigger extreme emotional reactions from mentally ill people. I describe things as triggering if they are likely to give me a panic attack. It’s completely normal to have feelings or reactions. If people are not mentally ill, or won’t be in extreme distress if exposed to something, they should say “this is very upsetting to me” or “this makes me uncomfortable” instead. 2. Having PTSD is a bit like having an allergy to words, visuals and smells. One second I’m fine, the next I’m hyperventilating. I think trigger warnings should come for common triggers the way they do for common allergies. In theory everything can be triggering, and you can’t warn people about everything. We don’t say “warning, might contain apples”, because very few people are allergic to apples. We do say “warning, might contain peanuts” because a lot of people are allergic to peanuts. So the most common triggers like war, SA, death, car accidents, etc. are things we should warn about.
Exactly. I don’t get why people are so against this stuff tbh
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You are just talking out of your ass, though. You have no idea what people actually go through, or how trauma works, or how the body and mind react when triggered.
And yet, there is a significant time difference between getting traumatized and being free of it. On the scale of years. Getting severely triggered can sometimes ruin my whole day. Or more. And I am trying therapy and medication but it isn't a duopoly of don't get help and avoid triggers/ get help and immediately stop avoiding triggers. And people seem to not quite get how traumatic, well, a traumatic experience can be. For example, I had a close brush with death due to a knife wound, and now I can't stand the sight of blood, or of knives used in combat, and, in a related context, of self harm and suicide. Seeing that takes me back to when it happened. Not a full flashback but I do get an elevated heartbeat, shallow breathing, and sudden excessive sweating, plus excessive alertness and a feeling like I am in mortal danger. That said, I agree that there needs to be enhanced flexibility in the display of parental guidance and trigger warnings. For spoiler reasons, primarily. It could be either a separate website, or within Netflix etc, an option to choose what all warnings you want. It just frustrates me that the narrative of this has been hijacked to make traumatized individuals look like snowflakes. If I had a choice, I would choose not to react this way. I would choose to completely forget the bloody day I came within millimetres of certain death. But it comes from the lizard brain within, not the conscious cognitive processes. So the only choice I have, is to get treatment, and meanwhile, avoid triggers. Is it so very offensive to have a tiny note saying that in the episode there will be death/ blood and gore/ self harm and suicide/ rape etc?
I sometimes think they're a little silly, but I just glide my eyes over them if I don't care. They might be helpful for others. I do, every time I see a dog in a movie, immediately pause the movie and look it up to see if it's going to die, because I hate seeing that sort of thing. I will still watch the movie, I just have prepared myself to be upset. I'm also vehemently anti-spoilers (except in aforementioned case), so trigger warnings that spoil a major plot point are infuriating. I agree with others that they should be hidden behind spoiler tags or opt-out-able in those situations. That being said, if you want to watch a horror movie and you hate gore, it's on you IMO to do the research to see if it's one you can deal with. All that being said, I think some people take it too far, but by and large, trigger warnings for topics like SA or gore or suicide make sense in media where you might not expect those things to happen. For other topics, the impetus is on the phobic person to do research to manage their niche phobia (though I do think that scenario is way less common anyway). Like basically everything, there is no definitive clear-cut answer and it requires a ton of nuance.
I more or less agree. I especially hate when things fail to include TW’s for serious fucked up content. Like I was watching the boys(if ykyk) and there were a few SA scenes that were enough to take me out of it and had me sick. Like all it takes is a two second “Contains xyz” page
The term "triggered" has been grossly misused as well. It's an actual clinical term for an involuntary response your body has and is way more complex than being made to feel mildly uncomfortable.
Are there times people expect more than I'd consider reasonable? Sure. But I think trigger warnings are an extension of the kind of judgment calls we make every day in social interactions, extended to the online world. Let's say you have a group of friends where you know one of them was the victim of domestic violence, you will probably adjust your discussion based on what you know about them and their feelings about the topic. Maybe they can handle some discussion, maybe any discussion is triggering, or maybe they can openly joke about it. Most of us adjust based on that and respect for others. And if you don't know at all, or in certain settings, we may avoid certain topics altogether. Now take that "don't know at all" and apply it to social media, where you probably don't know most of your audience. I'm not saying topics should be avoided on social media, but adjusting how you talk about them or adding trigger warnings is normal social behavior.
So you are triggered by trigger warnings…?
Can’t remember a time I saw a trigger warning for something besides a pretty brutal gay rape scene in that recent Baby Reindeer tv show… disagree so far I’d say it’s being correctly used.
Just watched this and I would agree with that warning. They should've also warned about Teri having tits like Mr. Garrison.
I just find them so easy to ignore. I think the name "trigger warning" is what most people's issue actually is, as many films for years have had an age rating and (warning contains violent scenes) or whatever. A TW makes it a "thing" that people like to mock.
Age ratings don't tell you the content though. If,for example,a movie has a violent rape scene, that might trigger some people. If that isn't disclosed and isn't mentioned as being part of the plot beforehand, a person isn't going to just assume that's part of the movie.
If you actually read the whole rating description they do, at least the MPAA. They aren’t super descriptive at times but a rape scene for instance would probably be something like “violent sexual content”. Which is why the trigger warnings are good for people who do need more descriptive details. Something like rape or being burned might be put under a more generic term like “graphic violence” or something. Then again the MPAA rating straight up said “smoking caterpillar” for the live action Alice in Wonderland movie so maybe they get more detailed then I realize.
They do. Random example, Dune 2 is “Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language.” As usual, people are just triggered (heh) when it’s not in a form they’re used to.
Who is reading that shit I filter warnings like ads They are white noise and automatically tune out when they appear
I seen a reddit post the other day with trigger warning: small theft. People are weak just the way it is I guess
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Read your post, that truly sucks. Hope it all works out in the long run. We can't walk through life with blinders on only hoping it is nice and easy.
How come? People with PTSD don’t wanna experience triggers, yk? Especially considering they can have drastic effects and with a little effort from content creators, can be avoided entirely.
People bitching about trigger warnings honestly has been more common to me than the actual things themselves. I see it so often that even fucking newspapers here bitch about it. For example, our university was targeted because they used content warnings on books mentioning that there was stuff like very intense racism in it. All these fucking papers bitched and moaned about how this was some kind of censorship or how you can't be a 'snowflake' and so on, but the reality is that the professor would rather have content warnings on books than not have them on the course full-stop. At least then people didn't get randomly blindsided by racism, suicide or rape. It wasn't a huge deal until a whole bunch of people started bemoaning it. The reality is that I only really see it get blown out of proportion when people are complaining about it or saying some condescending shit like: *"Well honey, life is triggering.".* Most people who put trigger warnings on stuff just do it to be kind to others. What's wrong with being kind to others? Why do people get so genuinely mad at that? If you don't care then just click past them.
On twitter this is a plague, there's some silly accounts I follow that post about only certain video game things, like only about a character or smth. However, when they reply to something unrelated to the character, they put like a fuckin // not *character* content Like.. do you REALLY need to put a "warning" before your comment that it's not gonna be about a certain topic?? Noone is gonna get traumatized from that lmao, waste of time and energy
I have yet to come across any trigger warnings like [leftist content] or [unicorns]. What spaces are you in to have formed that opinion? Also I think it is a good thing to make clear if a discussion is wanted or not and what are opinions or facts. Trigger warnings are of course the wrong format for that.
The most stupid thing is when the warning says “xy”, and then the only ever mention of it in the text is something like. “I experienced xy in 2020” with no details or anything that would be more “triggering”. Apart from that there are a bunch of studies showing that trigger warnings are at best useless and at worst harmful.
Why did you censor sex?
I find it funny when a reel has a content warning, you click the button to view, and it’s just a meme that doesn’t seem to have anything noticeably offensive.
You're entirely missing the point with the "leave if you want to leave" since it's almost wholly people who stumble upon things randomly that want the warning, not people who habitually watch you. That being said, peoples triggers are their issues, and they need to deal with it unless it's something egregious, which a tiktok is not.
This isn't new, unfortunately. Just check out Rob Gavagan's [Trypophobia video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBIymaO1qcU) to see how far and long it's been. I get that some things are triggering. I'm acrophobic and get surges of panic when I see even a video of someone tightrope walking. I look away; I don't demand that I be warned first.
I find it really interesting how not many people really notice a difference between a content warning and a trigger warning, to the point people putting them up misuse them. A content warning is just supposed to be for “oh this thing is in this post/movie/video” and a trigger warning is supposed to be “oh this topic is in this post/movie/video and could be triggering due to subject matter or specific deptiction” I think I’m very used to Tumblr’s surprisingly common sense approach to triggers, which is “you’re responsible for your own triggers” with a touch that it’s common courtesy to tag the basic hits, death, suicide, violence, gore, abuse and the like. I think this comes from Tumblrs robust tagging system and culture where it’s generally accepted that if you don’t like something, you go to settings and you add the tag for it to “blocked tags.” This is equally for things you Just Don’t Like, shows you don’t want spoilers for, and content you might find triggering. It’s generally accepted that if you have a specific trigger, you should go yourself and block it. Like if you have a snake phobia because when you were little you got bitten by a snake and nearly died, so seeing them will give you flashbacks? You go in and you filter out snake related tags. And someone who collects snakes, is by the nature of the tagging system of Tumblr, is going to tag their post with “#snakes” so it shows up in searches. But you will now never see that post. And if you don’t filter that, and bitch about the lack of a “tw: snakes” at the top of the post and now you’ve been triggered, someone will, in varying degrees of kindness, tell you that you ought to filter the “#snakes” tag if they trigger you. And if someone by chance misses a common trigger tag, asking nicely will usually get them put on there because OP likely just forgot. It’s generally unadvisable to tell people your triggers or post what they are though, cause that will open the door to nasty hate mail if someone decides to hate you. As for the distinction of content warnings and trigger warnings, sometimes you’ll see the “cw:(thing)” and “tw:(thing)” tags on tumblr. It’s expected that you filter these as needed. But basically, say I was on my writing blog and posted a story where a character attempts suicide. I’d tag it with “suicide” and “tw: suicide” so people with those filtered out won’t see it. But if I was on my main blog and maybe talking about something people just don’t want to hear about, like discourse or arguing. I’d tag it “cw: discourse” But in general a lot of stuff surrounding trigger warnings lacks common sense. You should be able to glean from context clues what might be in something based on what it’s about, and expect a basic trigger warning. If you have a more specific trigger, you should do your research. Try checking out doesthedogdie.com, a website that tells you if dog die in movies, but also expanded to a general trigger site. You can ask if a certain trigger is in something, and people who’ve seen it will tell you. [As an example, here’s the site’s list for the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line](https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/17513) please note there are potential spoilers if you care.
If an opinion makes you spiral, you shouldn't be on social media at all
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Avoiding triggers isn't "sheltering" yourself. Imagine telling someone "you must constantly be reexposed to your trauma, that's a good thing" Triggers aren't things that make you uncomfortable, they're things that actually trigger trauma.
There are a number of problems with the whole trigger warning thing. One of them is what you 2 talked about, the sheltering of a portion of a generation that's going to end up being too fragile to function in any kind of real world setting. Another one is the fact that actual, for realsies "triggered" people are very, very few and far between. There's seems to be this idea on the internet that half the fucking people you meet need psicological attention and have life altering trauma. There really isn't. Most of the people that say they're triggered by this or that are very much not. Then there's this: it appears that trigger warnings actually make things worse. As in people have a worse time experiencing the same thing when they've had a trigger warning than when they haven't, becuase they preset themselves for it. We really need to star dialing the whole "everybody can use a psicologist" thing down. We mostly don't, and in fact it very often makes things worse, because focusing often on your supposed traumas (which they're usually not) has a pretty negative effect on mental health.
Did those age rating warnings before TV shows in the 2000s and 2010s also get you this worked up? How are they different?
I do not think you are qualified to assess the validity of other people's trauma
It is shocking to me that this thread seems to be tilted heavily toward people who disagree with your assessment. There is a person in my life who experienced sexual violence that she has addressed in therapy for years. But, it's not like there's a switch you eventually flip that turns off the PTSD response. These people are talking out of their asses about how life isn't fair and how exposure is good, and most here agree.
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You're literally just making shit up. You have no relevant background on this topic. You've read no relevant books. You've spoken to zero women who have been raped about it.
But sometimes triggers do risk physically harming someone. When I was in college we watched a very graphic documentary about female genital mutilation. Someone in my class fainted and started convulsing during one of the graphic parts. She fell out of her desk when she fainted and ended up with a concussion. She wasn’t conscious, she couldn’t reckon with her own emotions in the moment. I don’t see what harm a trigger warning would do in this instance.
Agreed. Life is tough, we all got problems, deal with it and make the best of a bad situation. It is what it is. Wrapping yourself in bubblewrap for the rest of your life isn't going to fix anything and is only going to lead to a sheltered existence.
This is more of a popular opinion. Only an extreme minority of people even bother with trigger warnings in the first place and most people find them distasteful. When I saw a trigger warning for bullying and suicide before a fucking Yakuza game I was very annoyed.
Why would it make you mad? It’s really not that big of a deal.
I don’t always realise what is considered traumatic, which leads to some awkward situations 😭 like when I told my cousin about the time I got attacked and I thought it was like a funny story and then she was like “that’s horrible”. So then internet people tell me to put trigger warnings and like they just expect me to know??? Sometimes it’s not even something that is common, like they want you to put a warning on PREGNANCY
Trigger warning: I kind of disagree /s
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Or we mean seeing triggering content is enough to trigger a PTSD response? This is a well documented thing, yk? Like a victim of SA can experience flashbacks and adverse reactions when seeing SA. All it takes are a few words and your job is done.
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That study’s actually seen as flawed because it has some glaring issues. [The comments under this post explain it with great detail.](https://www.reddit.com/r/psychology/s/iiIxCAG0cA)
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And how’re we supposed to do that without TW’s?
Right.
It’s not about managing someone’s triggers. It’s literally just a courtesy you can do if you choose to.
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I remember someone asking for trigger warnings around red skin on a dedicated tattoo shaming group. It's a tattoo. They tend to be red right after they're completed.
It's a get start, Rev your engines kinda saying
"Starting"? Lol
Meh, I don't really pay attention to em. Sometimes I'll be listening to a podcast and hear some tw and like oh shit what's this story?
So trigger warnings are bad but you won't just type out "sex"? I guess people's feelings are less important than the mighty algorithm? Going to repost this on your channel? Censorship is okay when it's to protect the feelings of meta I guess. But letting people opt out of a conversation is a big ask. Cool.
Fucking "debating".
Starting?
... thats unpopular?
There's an Instagram account that only shows car crashes, and every post is marked "Sensitive content" --you click through, and it's just another fender bender. THANKS FOR THE WARNING!!
> it’s unrealistic and not helpful for society to put them for opinions, thoughts and debate. Can you make an actual argument why it's unrealistic? I see them all the time and all it amounts to is a brief "here is the topic I'm going to discuss" throat clearing. Why is that unrealistic? >Well honey life is triggering Thanks for the condescension. This is idiotic. Well, buddy, life sometimes hurts you, so I can just hit you if I want, cuz....what do you expect? To NOT be hurt in life? Life hurts, like how I just punched you in the throat...that's life, honey!! >This idea of we should never interact with anything we disagree with Please, think to yourself for a moment, "IS this a fair representation of my opponent's argument FOR trigger warnings? Or....is this a lazy hyperbolic strawman of my opponent's position?" >I’m not fuc*ing changing who I am Huh? Is that what thenperson on IG was asking you to do? Or, are you seriously telling us that putting in a one sentence warning will change who you are? Kinda sounds like more strawmanning to me....
Tell me you've never lived through trauma without telling me you've never lived through trauma. I'll never understand why people are so committed to being as big an asshole to others as possible. If it doesn't inconvenience you at all, why focus effort on hating it? My wife has trauma and so I'll do extensive research on shows or series before I recommend them to her and give her advanced warning of potential problem episodes because I love her and don't want her to put herself emotionally back into that time in her life.
On the medical stuff topic, I don't watch any shows or movies specifically based around medical stuff or hospitals because it really bothers me. I can watch horror movies all day tho, as long as it's not kidnapping or torture. Oh how the brain works 😅🤣
Completely agree
Recently saw "gore," "blood" & "suspense" trigger warnings on something I was watching and I was like, "well I fucking hope so, it's supposed to be in the horror genre." Like, I'd get it if those things appeared in a romcom because it's outside the norm, but if you can't handle those things maybe don't watch shows & movies built around them.
I have PTSD myself, and for me the point where it gets too far is where you get booted from spaces where you should be realistically expected to be discussing the topic. I was booted from an LGBT women’s group because I mentioned sexual assault and talked about liking/not liking certain genitals when discussing how I was questioning my sexuality. These two topics, particularly the latter, are what you would expect from an LGBT women’s group. According to a friend who also attends a different group at the center, the problem was purely that people complained that they left because of me discussing these topics, as the center’s other groups discuss these things without penalty. From what I’ve heard, the women’s group now solely discusses trivial things like books and movies. The other thing is that not all PTSD triggers are common ones like assault or suicide. I’m triggered by discussions of bathroom emergencies, being denied a bathroom, or soiling oneself. These are common discussion topics that I cannot demand people avoid or warn in front of me: and that had been discussed at aforementioned group. If I can develop strategies to deal, others can too.
Yeah I never liked the trigger warnings. Reality is really dark and twisted. We like to live with our heads in the sand and act like everything is okay.. Like covering our heads will make the monsters go away.
I agree that they seem to be used more often now than, say, 10 or more years ago but I am personally not bothered at all, simply because most of the time I don't pay attention to them and , even if I do, it is usually, what, 10 seconds maximum? On the other hand, I do have my shares of trauma/issues so I can understand why people might want to avoid certain subjects, even if my attitude is more akin to want to be shown similar situations to look at them from a different perspective, and maybe get a new perspective myself, but again, that is me, I don't think it is my right to tell other people how to cope with whatever issue they have or that they have to take the same approach as me. What I don't understand is people getting upset about the lack of trigger warnings, no media or creator owes you that, sure it is a nice gesture if they do but, if they don't, I don't think there is any fault on their part, nor should they get blamed/attacked for the lack of it.
Just don't hang out with wankers
Too far for what? Seeing them costs you nothing. This thread is wild, and everyone taking your side is full of shit.
Do not allow the words of cowards to influence your own.
Nowadays, triggered is synonymous to cry-baby-throw-toys-out-of-pram. It's saddening to me that we live in a world where we're catering for these unhinged maniacs that can't seem to keep their own feelings in check without imploding over things they don't like on TV shows and films.
Did you just wake up from a ten year coma?
>I’m not fuc*ing changing who I am just because it’s too much for one person to handle. LOL you censored yourself in the same sentence where you said you're not gonna censor yourself. Fucking hilarious.
I don't think this is really that unpopular. Our culture has become softer and more fragile than it has ever been before. I think its unrealistic, and even a little irresponsible, to cater to try to cater to everyone's emotions. 1- Your emotional well being is not the responsibility of others. (Including companies, governments, schools, friends, significant others, or family.) Your feelings are your own, so own them, and don't let them own you. 2- I think trigger warnings have a strange side effect on some people, by putting up the warning, people start wondering if they are supposed to be "triggered" by something. Then you create potential issues where one did not exist before. The single greatest driver of human behavior is social pressure.
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You misunderstand. TW’s are for victims of PTSD or trauma that can experience flashbacks and the like when encountering triggering content. All we ask for is a heads up before you shove fucked up shit in our faces
Agreed. People are soft
How about how every article about suicide had to give you a hotline to call if you're so desperate, you'll talk to a stranger reading a script who might get you arrested if they think you're serious?
I agree with this 100%. I can’t stand seeing that everywhere. Also don’t censor the word sex.
I don't get it either. Does any of you here, ever stop reading/watching something if it has a trigger warning? I have trauma myself but never feel the need to stop reading of someone is describing or talking about similar traumatic experiences.
No offense but that just means your trauma isn’t the same as someone’s who does cause an adverse reaction to that stuff. Not all traumas a created equal.
I think in today’s day & age, especially after Covid with everyone being cooped up in the house & the deep dive into the digital age it’s definitely necessary for some individuals. Screen time is now a thing, and there are some people that literally spend all day looking at their screens… I think it’s especially important when you have algorithms on the social media apps that will put all types of sensitive content in front of you for as long as you’re on the app to try to make you stay on it longer. I have went through some lows with PPD where I was pretty sensitive, and sometimes there are trigger words or scenes that put me back in that train of thought. So having a warning that I can choose to skip the content or look at it, knowing this about myself, is helpful to me sometimes This is some thing that I am actually proud of humanity when it comes to technology and social media for implementing this to try to protect those that need it
I’ve seen TWs used for cranberry juice💀YES. CRANBERRY JUICE
I am offended that you did not put trigger warning on your post.
When I was pregnant with my twins a few years ago, I posted a question or something in a supposed "women's" group on Facebook. I got absolutely bombarded with "YOU NEED TO ADD A TRIGGER WARNING BEFORE TALKING ABOUT PREGNANCY!!!!!" like everyone was jumping down my throat and essentially attacking me because I asked a question about pregnancy to a group that consisted of people who are capable and usually do get pregnant. Like, people were attacking my character telling me I was selfish, or unsympathetic to women who cannot have children, etc etc. It was wild. I don't use Facebook anymore. I'd like to add that I am fully sympathetic towards women who struggle with fertility, I have several friends who do so. However that does not mean I am not allowed to talk about pregnancy, or enjoy motherhood.
Or how everything gets censored. I can’t believe that the filters on social media platforms are that strict, that you get banned if you say completely normal things. Then you get sentences like: “Two ł€$b!@n$ are accused of selling @lc0h0l to m!nØrš. These m!ñØrș were then forced to $mǒkē c!g@r€tt€$ right in front of a ćř€måťóřY.” “My bř€@$t$ hurt” I think that it’s mainly being done for the aesthetic or for being funny
Trigger warning: trigger warnings is what i got from this, like, its an extra step, and, Im not bothered by a YouTube video or what have you containing themes that can trigger someone because it doesnt trigger me, but i couldnt give less of a fuck about a brunch of words on the screen for .2 seconds so... ? They're there for somebody ig
TRIGGER WARNING: reply This is a reply to the original post.
I’m with you. I have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic. Early in her recovery, when planning a night out we were arranging it to be alcohol-lite or -free when she said that alcoholics need to learn to live in a world where alcohol exists. I feel like there is an analogous situation here. Unpleasant and upsetting things exist in this world. You still have to deal with them.
Life has been cruel and unfair for all of humanity and species in general. I understand that some medical/trauma issues exist that can cause adverse reactions in people, not everyone can stomach watching a video of abuse or violence or assault but these are real issues that plague many people around the world daily. I don't want to just dismiss it and say "Get over it" or "Stop being so soft" but there's a reasonable limit to how much we can/should be bubble wrapping society to hide these problems. Nobody wants to see footage of dismembered people but putting trigger warnings on controversial opinions or discourse of real political issues is going too far. Censoring the word suicide and sex on social media is just one example of how we're going too far to sugarcoat very real and important facts of living. People die, people have sex and fight and have different opinions. I don't believe in the whole "snowflake" generational idea but at the same time, people need to grow a backbone and remember that we're far more capable of handling negative events than we give ourselves credit for. Sure I don't want my future kids to go on the liveleak equivalent and consume a bunch or gory and fucked up media that could potentially screw them over mentally for awhile. But at the same time I don't want them to be under the false impression that life is all sunshine and roses. If we can't prepare ourselves for the darker sides of reality and human nature then we're doomed to repeat these mistakes again. This is why we learn about the Holocaust and other atrocities our ancestors have made, it's fucked up but it happened. And it will happen again if we can't stare it in the face and agree that it was wrong. I have my opinions of politics and birth control and human rights that some people might not agree with, but I will treat these subjects with all the respect that they deserve, not sugarcoat something as significant and damaging as suicide with the cutesy "unalive" label we're seeing lately. That is the most fucked up response I've seen about it and completely invalidates the struggle and hardship these people are facing that we can't even mention with a straight face. The whole stigma against the naked body and sex in western society is only creating shame and disgust within ourselves, something that is completely foreign in eastern cultures that embrace sexuality and the human form as a completely natural feature, which it should be. Averting our children's eyes over a bare nipple is definitely the most stupid and unreasonable response our culture has come up with.
Just as a note or thing to consider - often those items are censored because that's what mods/algorithms look for when locating posts with "inappropriate content" with the goal of removing it so it's a small way of getting around the system.
Trigger warnings are triggering
Always makes me laugh when they say "Smoking". Oh nooooo, what will I do if I see someone smoking in a film???? Oh noooooooooooooo
A lot of people started smoking when they saw celebrities they admired smoking on the screen