With my timelines full of news coverage of the Kavanaugh case, you bet these ovaries just want to lay down and sleep.
Not to say that the case is not important, IT IS IMPORTANT, CRUCIAL EVEN, TO THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES, but it’s honestly exhausting and triggering to continuously hear about whether or not he will be appointed to the Supreme Court.
We get it, middle age white men run the government with an exception of a couple of women dispersed here and there. We get it, these old white men rather concern themselves with blaming each other’s parties’ than facing the reality that we live in a rape culture and that we need to hold rapists and sexual assaulters accountable.
But why are we not hearing more about what is happening in-
Indonesia? Sweden? Ukraine? Uganda? China?
Did you click the links?
No?
Which leads me to ask, as college students, as individuals, do we simply not care? Is our cognitive dissonance so high that we just keep up with the upcoming season premieres of our favorite shows? The fact that Kanye West changed his name to Ye? Have we come to the conclusion that No news is good news?
The media’s news coverage likes to create the illusion that the world is falling apart. Thereby having individuals become glum and negative and experience compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue: the state of being too exhausted to care anymore about something or someone to the point that one reaches the point of indifference and disassociation to the situation, person etc.
WE ARE EMOTIONAL BEINGS. We are all susceptible to compassion fatigue.
It is easier for us, as college students to scroll past events in the world like:
But what about –
Not going to lie, these ovaries found the cats and bears to be adorable.
Whatever you found yourself clicking on and caring about goes to show what you find to be in your comfort zone in exploring and what you found yourself caring about without experiencing compassion fatigue.
Due to the popularization of the media, we have been constantly bombarded with images of death, destruction, and the like BOTH DOMESTICALLY (Flint Michigan, the Mount Valley Pipeline etc) AND INTERNATIONALLY.
We sit behind the screens wishing that we could do something but end up either scrolling past while thinking Damn that sucks for them and moving on with one’s day. We fall into the slippery slope creating an empathy gap between us as individuals and of domestic issues and foreign issues affecting others.
By choosing to distance ourselves from the issues in the world, we are escaping the reality of things by seeking refuge in our own personal bubbles. But we have to realize that by choosing this, we are choosing for everyone. By not educating ourselves on world events, we lose the agency to talk about what is happening to others.
Compassion fatigue is real. It is hard to feel moral all the time, and we cannot possibly feel sorry for everyone around the globe. That is simply impossible. But we can become educated in what other individuals go through. We can choose the process in which we consume news coverage on Twitter, Facebook and the like. Sure we can feel sorry about what others are going through, but make that extra effort to read and educate yourself on what is happening because believe it or not, it is your world too.
Now I challenge you college students and viewers alike to push past compassion fatigue and educate yourselves on what is happening around you. Your T.V. shows can wait.
The ovaries have spoken.
Also if you haven’t yet registered to vote, please do!
(P.s. your voice does matter)
Also feel free to check out these accounts for the latest news:
Want to learn more about compassion fatigue?
and here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/w3cswrkk
Picture credits to: Unsplash Charles Deluvio PHCA
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
!!!!!!!!!!!! This! I loved reading about this. Honestly, compassion fatigue is something people never think about. They know it, they can feel it, but they can’t pinpoint it. Instead, the media shows them the ways they should feel guilty for it. Compassion fatigue is so so so real and it’s so important that people understand what is happening, and how they can help it! You’re not ovaryacting; you’re telling facts.
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I am glad you liked it! It is rarely thought about and it is so sad that only a handful of people know what is happening around the world as well as in their own backyards. But hopefully this post as well as following posts will provide a glimpse of what is happening outside of their direct circle.
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WOW Thank you I needed this. I feel so guilty for being so exhausted and now I can name it! Compassion Fatigue. This was such an interesting read. It sucks but you’re right I am too exhausted even reading American news that I barely get to focus on world wide issues. But it’s not an excuse it’s time to change!!! Thank you!
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Yeah! I am guilty of it too and when I first learned about compassion fatigue I was like oh… oh? OH. But I try to push past my discomfort and read about what is happening because again, it is our world too.
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I am so guilty of scrolling post news articles on my feed because of how anxious it makes me feel. It seems like the news is all bad and women in our world just can’t seem to catch a break! This post really makes me think to myself: Am I shielding myself from the truth? Thank you for catching my attention with another post that really makes me think about the things I can be doing to hold myself accountable for what’s happening in the world…including issues that don’t immediately affect me.
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I feel this on a personal level. I realize that I used to scroll past the news all the time and continuously be unaware of what was happening in the news. I came to the conclusion that that was doing more hard than good for myself and well, here we are. I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for your comment!
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This article was very insightful. I have never heard of compassion fatigue before but as I read I felt like I connected to each point made. I am very guilty of this. It seems easy to scroll past something that doesn’t effect you but the fact is that by doing that you lack an understanding of the current world you are living in. I will do my best to not succumb to compassion fatigue in the future because this seems important to me. Other people’s issues should be mine too and we should all join together to make the world a better place (as cheesy as it sounds).
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I am also guilty of it but like you I try to force myself to read and face reality. Thank you so much for your comment and it’s not cheesy at all, it’s true! It won’t happen in our lifetime but every little thing counts.
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Personally, I am committed to keeping up with the news no matter how disgusting and tiring it becomes. It is really, really hard to do so, so I COMPLETELY understand this phenomenon. I often have the urge to shut my laptop and never go on news sites again. My best friend has the opposite stance as me. She refuses to watch any news because she refuses to admit that the world is a shitty place (a consequence of a certain man in the White House who she supports
). The fact that she refuses to keep up with the news absolutely infuriates me. She thinks ignorance is bliss, but I think her ignorance is stupidity and denial. I love her to pieces, but why does she have to use “compassion fatigue” as an excuse for her beliefs?
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I totally understand where you’re coming from. I have friends that look to me for news because they would rather not see what is happening in the world and be secluded into their bubble. And that a certain man, gives me a migraine. I don’t think its ignorance though, I think it’s fanaticism and the fact that one can find information about any side and be supported in their beliefs. Also, individuals experience ‘cognitive dissonance’ and deny any accusations or ‘attacks’ to their persona. Again, not an excuse and is indeed quite sad as well as infuriating. But I guess we just have to educate others in every way and platform that we can so they have to face reality, whether they like it or not.
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I really appreciated this post. I think sometimes “compassion fatigue” is justified because we absolutely cannot fight every battle. You are correct that we are emotional beings and many of us do not have the emotional intelligence to deal with our own lives let alone expand into all of the problems in the world. Plus, to be fair, sometimes it feels like the world is ending and so what do we do? I think we have to learn to live in a space of contradiction where we do not always scroll past the terrible news, whether it be Kavanope or Syria, but we also take care of ourselves so that we don’t have to pull a “Thelma and Louise” to escape the terrible-ness that is what we are living in. I like getting my news from your blog posts, don’t discount the labor that you are doing to educate others, too. You can add yourself to that list of resources for news and updates.
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Thank you!! Your posts are always so needed & this definitely was! I’m ashamed to say that sometimes that is the case, it can be so overwhelming to constantly see things going wrong and thank you for letting me know I wasn’t the only one that suffers a little compassion fatigue every now and then.
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I am so glad you wrote about this! I have written a handful of papers on compassion fatigue because I think it is so prevalent in our society and is heightened by social media. My downfall to this is I am very passionate about the environment and often don’t make to other news around the world. I think there is good and bad to social media being the place to find out about what is going on in the world, specifically because it is so easy to develop a small scope or simply scroll past what is there.
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I agree 100% – it’s something that I am working on as well. A continuous challenge that’s for sure.
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