Week 7 Jocelyn Centeno A02

Week 7 Jocelyn Centeno A02

The reading “How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on Campus” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explains why censorship on campuses is not a way to help students thrive in the academic setting. Shielding a word or phrase claiming to have trigger inducing effects is “vindictive protectiveness.” What vindictive protectiveness does is keeps students in a safe bubble that shields them from triggering situations. This goes against the socratic way of thinking which teaches students how to think instead of what to think. Certain conversations can be uncomfortable and angering, but we should not censor them due to their content. Academia is supposed to give us the tools to make decisions by ourselves and when we try to silence other types of voices then how can we?

As a millennial the internet is my whole world. I admit I could spend more time studying, but I hear a ping or buzz and immediately it’s an hour wasted on social media. Sometimes though I feel like this sort of vindictive protectiveness can overtake the comment section of a post. For example, a popular site I like to go on is Tumblr. Tumblr is a mixture of every social media put together. Although people stay “woke” on this site, it can be quite suffocating. I feel as though if someone says I believe in god then it is automatically assumed that that person is a pro-life supporter. Or if someone says that they love their parents then someone else will comment “well some people don’t have parents so shut up” or “some people have abusive parents and it’s triggering to post something like this.” Every time I log on it feels like someone tries to one up someone for staying more “woke”. As if it is a contest to be more feminist or more supportive of the LGBT movement or more supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement. Although not related to censorship, the effect of this “wokeness” means that people who have differing opinions will often be shamed for having a different opinion. It has gotten so extreme that people have to delete their blogs altogether for fear of being the targets of hate mail. I think people need to step back and actually listen to each others for once. This type of bullying is hypocritical because tearing someone down to lift someone up does not equate to you being a “woke” person.

Question: Do conservative students of schools that have more liberal values tend to feel isolated?

References:

Lukianof, G., & Haidt, J. (n.d.). The Coddling of the American Mind. The Atlantic, (September 2015), 1-27.

Better Watch What You Say [Photograph]. (n.d.).