What are the psychological effects of consuming violence online? | Sebastian Junger | Big Think

[Music] The Internet is sort of this crazy, amazing, and sometimes sort of bullying environment. It's a danger in a way. Today, it's an exciting and a dangerous place. Because of the internet, we can all of us now, with a few clicks, watch video of incredible atrocities being committed against other people. That's new in human experience.

I mean, usually, if you're watching someone's head get cut off, you're in a situation where you're either part of that and you have some moral responsibility, or your own head is about to get cut off. But either way, your body goes into a sort of fight-or-flight reaction, which is programmed by hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. When you see violence, your body readies itself to deal with violence.

So now, what we can do is watch violence from the safety of our couch. Our body doesn't know we're sitting on our couch; our moral debate in our minds isn't engaged the way it is when someone's head is actually getting cut off in front of you. That has real consequences psychologically for people.

Personally, I just don't watch anything online that I wouldn't be okay with seeing in person, seeing violence up close and personally. I know the effect that has had on my psyche, on me as a person, and I don't want it. I just don't watch it, and I do worry about young people who have access to this. It has to be harming them; and you know, we haven't had the internet long enough to see how that harm will play out through the course of someone's life. [Music]