ARE WE ON
THE BRINK OF
A S W E ’ R E
BOMBARDED BY
D E AT H A N D
DESTRUCTION ON THE
REG, THE RISK OF
THROWING IN THE
TOWEL AND BECOMING
SLACKTIVISTS IS AT
CRITICAL MASS,
WRITES MEL EVANSOUTR AGE
FATIGUE?
Z
Z
Z
HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
Calm? Centred? Or are you
pissed off? Feeling like the
world sucks and you’re sick of
hearing about it? Well, friend,
you could be on the brink of
outrage fatigue. And that’s bad.
This tricky precipice of
carefactor zero, dubbed outrage
fatigue, comes about when we
reach peak exhaustion from
raging at what’s going on in
the world around us. Thanks
to Gen Y’s need to be logged
in constantly, outrage fatigue
permeates our whole life. Fromsocial media to pop culture
and beyond, it’s wearing us
thin. I bet you’re feeling the
heat. But that’s no reason to
get out of the kitchen.
‘We are exposed to such a
large volume of information,’
says psychologist Jocelyn
Brewer. ‘We’re “infobese”.’
So we look at the news, we
feel momentary anger, react
with an emoji or perhaps shed
some tears on our commute,
but, ultimately, we move on.
With each news article, we’re
growing more and more tired
of being fired up. For no one
person, no matter how woke,
can maintain an indefinite
sense of outrage.
On the neverending nature
of info, digital anthropologist98 COSMOPOLITAN.com.au TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 136 116