Social media feeds these days are filled with war, missiles, flames, smoke, rubble, sirens and screams of helplessness. Thirty second reels, reposts, forwards, shares ; we are expected to watch, react, comment and scroll to the next one. There was a time when news of war was factual, restrained, and sombre, delivered once a day at prime time, with the gravitas it deserved. Now it feels constant, crude, wanton and pushed into your face. Those waging the wars and those sharing the clips both seem to demand that everyone participate in it - virtually, this is war porn. Ennui and fatigue are already setting in, and we barely understand how this endless stream is reshaping us, how it dulls the senses, how it numbs us, how it plays havoc with our mental health. Endless fragmented images of destruction flashing past our screens, and us, blobs of flesh and blood consuming them without even blinking. Zombies, that’s what we’ve become. The sufferings of fellow men do not seem to move us anymore, what to talk of empathy.
