Too Much Attention

As this week’s tragedy was spotlighted in the news, I was truly saddened. I felt sad for the victims, for their families, for the people in Boston, Massachusetts, our nation, and the world. I was saddened that there is so much evil and hate in our world.

Yet, I wonder how much of this evil and hate is sensationalized by our media. Throughout the day, I watched endless news reports detailing the tragedy. During the week there were endless special reports about capturing the killers. There was so much attention given to these evil men. All day long, videos replayed the bombing at the Boston Marathon. I honestly did not need a blow by blow description of the investigation, killing, and capture of the killers. Now I’m watching reports about the aftermath and future prosecution of the captured killer. Enough attention to the bad guys!

I’m afraid that we are giving way too much attention to the bad guys. If someone wants attention, they look at all of this and think that they could do something bad like this to receive it. They might not care that it is bad attention because all they see is all of the media attention. I’m afraid of all the copycat unbalanced people who may look at this and want the same attention.

Our children are becoming desensitized to the evil around us. There is so much killing in video games, movies, and TV shows that children think it is all make believe. No wonder they don’t understand the impact of an actual gun shooting.

Why doesn’t all of the many good acts that go on around the world get attention? Obviously bad news sells and good news doesn’t. People seem attracted to the bad but I wonder if it is a bad habit that we have developed. Maybe we need to turn off the news and watch things that are more productive. Maybe if we stop giving all this negative attention to the bad guys, it might slow it up.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t know what is happening around the world but it seems like the regularly scheduled news reports are recapping what has been shown all day long. Why not stop the daylong show and just report it on the regular news programs?

Do you think we are giving evil to much attention? How can we change this? Please share.

Image: 'Evil monkey from the movie about the+evil+monkey+that+smiles+awkwardly'
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