Mindhunter, Tiger King, Night Stalker: what do all these shows have in common? Hunting a serial killer. They are also notably some of the most viewed running crime shows. . Why? Well, in a world of new social media and free entertainment, it can be easy to forget that these truly disturbing things are meant to scare us.Instead, they spill from our minds and are blurred into false reality. The key factor to this is: desensitization. People are less scared of or affected by violence. So is such a disconnect truly problematic or are people just mindlessly watching tv?
Let’s face it: people are exposed to some pretty disheartening things in our daily lives, so who’s to say people aren’t just watching it because it’s so normalized in today’s society? Arguing that seems to be a stretch as everyday people bear witness to thoughts at younger and younger ages. True crime does not get to be an exception as if it is continuously being marked off of and seen as just another form of television people are more likely to have an emotional reaction such as fear or empathy as they watch violence take over their screens.
So while the people watching the crime shows are not at fault, blurring the lines of fiction and reality, along with overexposure, can not be good for the masses’ emotions of the future. Shows such as the few noted hold great importance in explaining the stories of the victims and spreading awareness; the issue is that people are not aware. The shows are only taken at face value, something for someone to sit down with for fun. Ignoring any real emotion that is supposed to be evoked, people are unable to see that these are real traumas- someone really lives- that someone really did die. People have created a total disconnect at the price of wanting to just keep their comfort.