How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?: Essays on Modern Life

by Pandora Sykes

But prolonged exposure to harrowing material can also make us numb. The success of true-crime documentaries and podcasts – with stomach-churning real footage and sensationalist storylines – reveals the unpalatable truth that, for many, there is a glee to be found in grimness. That one person’s difficult circumstances can be poured into pleasure for others is not a new idea. (Dickens, anyone?) But there is an argument to be made that the pleasure of watching a life less privileged than yours, as a form of entertainment, is a kind of exploitative tourism. That rather than amplifying vulnerable voices that are rarely heard, and often ignored by society, these voices are distorted and flat-screened into entertainment – and then relegated to background noise, as we half-listen while doing our laundry.