“The Coddling of the American Mind”
by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt addresses the movement on many college
campuses to create safe environments that allow students express themselves and
learn without fear of discrimination or intolerance. However, there is a point
where this desire for tolerance becomes harmful to students. I do believe that
respect and tolerance should be advocated on every college campus, but you
cannot realistically wipe out every possible action or statement that might offend somebody. This kind of
idealistic thought is going to make students very unsuccessful after
graduation. However, I do think that some of these ideas, primarily trigger
warnings, do have an appropriate place.
I do not
think that trigger warnings should be demanded within the academics of a
university. I think that if a professor wants to prepare their students for the
graphic nature of a film or book, then they are welcome to do so. However,
students cannot demand that every professor disclose any material that could be
considered triggering or offensive. It is not their job to make sure that you
are educated within your comfort zone, and they are not targeting your anxiety
or trauma. The assigned works of a class are chosen to help you learn the material, which is the professor’s job. If you feel uncomfortable about a work,
feel free to speak with your professor about your worries, but ultimately you
should realize that if the subject matter of the class is too much for you to
handle, then maybe you should be in that class. I find it especially startling
that law students are asking their
professors to not teach rape law. If you want to pursue a career as a lawyer,
then you cannot ignore a section of the law because it makes you uncomfortable!
You shouldn’t limit your own education or restrict your peers’ education
because of your discomfort.
I do
think that trigger warnings could have a place in some social media. As a
Tumblr user, I think that trigger warnings can be very effective in making your
social media experience pleasant. I think that trigger warnings have an
application in social media because it’s meant to be a pleasurable, leisure
experience. If you don’t want to see graphic or explicit content on your
dashboard or feed during your leisure time, then you have the right to filter.
However, I commonly see people angry or upset at other users because they
choose not to tag triggering material. Even in social media, you cannot make
somebody tag their content. I think that because social media should be a
comfortable, pleasurable experience, so each individual has the right to avoid
these stressors. No matter how much you filter, unfriend, or unfollow, it is
not guaranteed that uncomfortable posts will be eliminated from your feeds. It
is not anybody else’s right to make you feel comfortable. Of course, nobody
should actively try to make you uncomfortable, but the general intent of any social
media post is not to make specifically make you feel uncomfortable or
traumatize you. As young adults, we should have the maturity and knowledge to handle
our discomfort appropriately.
I agree with your post a lot. There is a time and a place for trigger warnings and an institution for higher learning is not one of them. In my opinion, the entire point of getting a college education, especially one at a liberal school, is to expand upon your knowledge and to challenge the ideas you have held so firmly so far in your life. However, I can see both sides to the argument. Since this article is as much about the mental health of students as it is about them being big babies, I understand why students want to feel safe in a classroom. Across college campuses, including Furman’s, there is an increased amount of pressure to get a specific degree or perform in a perfect manner in order to be guaranteed a job in today’s messed up economy. This increases the amount of stress in a student’s life. I have seen plenty of times where a friend was so stressed out, that any little thing someone said would set them off in tear stricken panic. I don’t necessarily believe that discussing certain topics is as big of a deal as the article makes it and the bigger issue is the emotional and mental health of the student which causes the reaction. It seems that this trigger warning movement is a fad, much like the no gluten diet, and it hurts the few that actually could benefit from some type of heads up.
ReplyDeleteI think, like most things, that a grey area is appropriate when it comes to trigger warnings. To those of us who don't come into contact with trigger warnings on a regular basis in Furman classrooms, they seem like a rather absurd concept. However, it helps to remember that Furman is very homogeneous, even as far as small Southern liberal arts schools go, and what happens here is not necessarily the norm everywhere. I think a standard of reasonableness is, well, reasonable to adopt in regard to trigger meanings, by which I mean a situation in which a reasonable person would act in a certain way. On one hand, there is the concept of the "coddling" of American youth (an ancient concept, at that), while on the other there is the very real possibility for psychological distress as a reaction to things that wouldn't phase an average student, such as a combat veteran with PTSD being shown a film with unexpected explosions or gunfire. While there is always room for person responsibility and agency, we as a society also have a duty to make reasonable concessions for the sake of others, and this is no exception.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation on trigger warnings brought up many interesting points. While trigger warnings are not necessary for topics that simply make someone uncomfortable, they should be there for students for whom a topic could trigger a physiological or physiological response in result of a traumatic memory. I believe it is important in education to approach challenging topics, and to expand knowledge on them. That is why, especially in higher education, trigger warnings are a difficult thing to navigate. The issue becomes knowing how to determine where trigger warnings should be used, because there isn't really a way of knowing what might trigger this sort of response in someone. Trigger warnings are a fine line to walk, but are important to consider because those whom are actually affected by sensitive topics need that consideration.
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