I find images such as the one above extremely disconcerting for some reason. They cause me about a 7⁄10 level of discomfort, verging on moderate pain. It also sticks in my head for a dozen or so minutes after viewing. I’d strongly prefer to never see one ever again, please.
I don’t know if this is something unique to my brain, or if this is a step towards a real life BLIT, but wow. Awful to experience, I have extra empathy for epileptic people now.
Me too (though to a much lesser extent for this particular image; a little more for certain other such images). Reading Scott Alexander say that such images look a lot like LSD hallucinations made me change my mind about whether I’ll ever want to try LSD.
I’m curious: Imagine that you haven’t seen this article yet, and that you are now going to read this article for the first time. It contains a message “trigger warning: XYZ” at the top (for some value of XYZ).
Which value of XYZ would give you the best idea of what kind of images the article contains, so you could have made an informed decision not to look at them?
(I imagine something like “weird disturbing pictures that seem like hallucinations”. But would you have predicted your reaction from reading such text? Would it actually have stopped you from looking?)
It wouldn’t have stopped me. But now that I’m acquainted with images such as this, if someone put “Trigger warning: Shoggoths” or something similar on future posts, then I would take heed of such warnings.
I have been tentatively identified as having a very early form of cancer. They dug a tumorous lymph node out of my neck two days ago, although more is still left inside. More tests will happen next Monday. I don’t truly think, with my rational mind, that there is a connection between the cancer and this image. However, I am emotionally disturbed. To me, the above image seems essentially like a visual depiction of cancer. When I look at the image, my throat seizes up, and my brain flinches in pain.
The rearmost parts of my brain are paranoid, and demand that I mention this diagnosis just in case this image truly behaves like a BLIT for some people. Again, I don’t actually believe in this idea. But if anyone else gets cancer sometime soon, please let us know. Because I’m disturbed and disgusted, I feel violated.
I find images such as the one above extremely disconcerting for some reason. They cause me about a 7⁄10 level of discomfort, verging on moderate pain. It also sticks in my head for a dozen or so minutes after viewing. I’d strongly prefer to never see one ever again, please.
I don’t know if this is something unique to my brain, or if this is a step towards a real life BLIT, but wow. Awful to experience, I have extra empathy for epileptic people now.
Me too (though to a much lesser extent for this particular image; a little more for certain other such images). Reading Scott Alexander say that such images look a lot like LSD hallucinations made me change my mind about whether I’ll ever want to try LSD.
I’m curious: Imagine that you haven’t seen this article yet, and that you are now going to read this article for the first time. It contains a message “trigger warning: XYZ” at the top (for some value of XYZ).
Which value of XYZ would give you the best idea of what kind of images the article contains, so you could have made an informed decision not to look at them?
(I imagine something like “weird disturbing pictures that seem like hallucinations”. But would you have predicted your reaction from reading such text? Would it actually have stopped you from looking?)
It wouldn’t have stopped me. But now that I’m acquainted with images such as this, if someone put “Trigger warning: Shoggoths” or something similar on future posts, then I would take heed of such warnings.
Update:
I have been tentatively identified as having a very early form of cancer. They dug a tumorous lymph node out of my neck two days ago, although more is still left inside. More tests will happen next Monday. I don’t truly think, with my rational mind, that there is a connection between the cancer and this image. However, I am emotionally disturbed. To me, the above image seems essentially like a visual depiction of cancer. When I look at the image, my throat seizes up, and my brain flinches in pain.
The rearmost parts of my brain are paranoid, and demand that I mention this diagnosis just in case this image truly behaves like a BLIT for some people. Again, I don’t actually believe in this idea. But if anyone else gets cancer sometime soon, please let us know. Because I’m disturbed and disgusted, I feel violated.