Trigger Warnings

That's an interesting point, Lizbethann. The trouble, of course, is that people have phobias about different things, so we could end up with a list of possible triggers - buttons, clowns, the number 13 etc, and there'd be no time for the programmes . Maybe one day we'll be able to program our tv so that we get personalised warnings.

Snakes. I wish there were trigger warnings for snakes. My DH has the most severe snake phobia. It would help if before a wildlife programme someone would say " there are snakes in tonight's programme". DH is ok with programmes about the polar regions or under sea, but his tension with any other areas is palpable.

Total nannyism.

I'm with Germanshepherdsmum.
Ditch the warnings. And then the simple answer is, - if you don't like it, switch off.

PS On the other hand, totally irrelevant, I'm against Gransnet contributors who give themselves extremely long and complicated names. Or perhaps I should say I'm against the names - not the owners!

It's not just soaps though. Lots of programmes have trigger warnings. Interestingly, many repeats of things that went out without comment in the 70s and 80s now have warnings about offensive content, which is usually unacceptable language.

As I remember it, swearing was less acceptable then than now, but racially insensitive language was standard, and attitudes to women were jaw-dropping. I saw a repeat of Auf Wedersehn Pet, which I remember loving back in the day, and was quite shocked. All of which suggests that it at least some of the warnings are maybe to pre-empt complaints - if there has been a warning you can choose not to watch if you are going to be upset by 'attitudes of the day', and the channels can argue that you did so with informed consent.

I don't know - are we becoming more sensitive? People like Mary Whitehouse used to argue that if TV continued to show things of which she disapproved we would all become savages, but the reverse seems to have happened.

How will young people realise that life is hard and you have to get on with it?

Stopped watching soaps 15 years ago when they started ‘blending’ into one another!!

I don't watch soaps of any genre now. I am fairly unshockable.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m so fed up with these ‘some viewers may find upsetting’ warnings. Totally meaningless. It seems we have to be protected from any possible upset nowadays.

I agree with this...I posted sometime ago about a 'trigger warning' which totally spoilt the plot of a programme I was watching although the storyline was pointing clearly in that direction.

I'm an adult, I have an off switch.

There are situations in a learning environment where I can see they could be useful but elsewhere....no.

Meant to start with the warnings become meaningless after awhile ..,

I can never make out if Coronation street a comedy or serious drama type soap one minute it’s like a horror film the next too silly for words
I’m sure I only watch out of habit now, as more and more when it goes off I think what a load of tripe, many of the actors aren’t that great either… perhaps time it went off air and we had something bit more enjoyable all round

MerylStreep

Doodledog
I love the ones where it says, sexual content, sexual violence, swearing.
We always joke and say ^at least there’s no smoking 😂

Small mercies, eh?

Doodledog
I love the ones where it says, sexual content, sexual violence, swearing.
We always joke and say ^at least there’s no smoking 😂

MerylStreep

I always laugh at the Netflix/ Prime/ Disney + channels when they put smoking warnings up 😂
Yes, I know it’s bad for you but seriously I’m an adult watching an adult film.

Yes . That's the sort of thing that weakens the impact of the warnings, I think. I don't really listen to them now.

I always laugh at the Netflix/ Prime/ Disney + channels when they put smoking warnings up 😂
Yes, I know it’s bad for you but seriously I’m an adult watching an adult film.

Littleannie

Fanny Cornforth
I read the Daily Mail too, on my tablet. Every day. And enjoy it.
So put that in your pipe all those GN-ers who ridicule it.
Goes to hide behind sofa.

So what do you think about trigger warnings?

Littleannie

Fanny Cornforth
I read the Daily Mail too, on my tablet. Every day. And enjoy it.
So put that in your pipe all those GN-ers who ridicule it.
Goes to hide behind sofa.

Me too!
Head above the parapet, I really don’t care. 😜

I read the Daily Mail too, online . They are up to the minute with the news. This morning it was about Harry’s visit and now it’s about the shootings in the USA.

Fanny Cornforth
I read the Daily Mail too, on my tablet. Every day. And enjoy it.
So put that in your pipe all those GN-ers who ridicule it.
Goes to hide behind sofa.

Can you imagine the trigger warnings before a film like Schindlers List?

The News is tricky, I think. We know that it is likely to have distressing things in it, and it would take as long to reel off everything that might be upsetting as to read the news itself. I suppose the headlines give away what is going to be covered, and people could switch off after those if they thought something would be too much.

I was thinking more about drama. I tend to assume that after 9.00pm there will be 'adult themes' and don't need a warning for them - you can tell from the title and synopsis what they are going to be about anyway. I suppose that if something more than usually upsetting is going to be covered it makes sense (and I do think that warnings about flashing lights are necessary), but nine times out of ten the warnings seem unnecessary to me.

I’m just commenting on the warnings that I have personally heard.
Not the ones that are frequently ridiculed in The Daily Mail
(nb I am famously the only GNer who reads it)

I haven heard one that has annoyed me.
I really appreciate them on news stories on R4 (I don’t watch TV news)

A while back during the NHS Winter crisis, Shelagh Fogarty played the most distressing recording.
It was a son trying to get an ambulance for his mum, who audibly died during the phone call.

Shelagh played it completely without warning, and did actually say that she should have issued a warning.

It made me feel physically sick and nearly bought on a panic attack, which would not have been helpful as my DH was very ill in bed himself (partly the reason I was so anxious about ambulances)

I did complain to LBC, but just got brushed off.

In fact, I think that there is a lot of ‘scary’ stuff in the media (especially LBC) about health and the NHS that I sometimes think is unhelpful at best, counterproductive at worst.

MawtheMerrier

Look away now -spoiler alert.
Shakespeare - history plays and tragedies.

Everybody dies

Absolutely this, when it comes to degree courses - in fact A levels too. If someone has chosen to study a subject they should be aware of what it entails, and they are not mature enough to do the if they would be upset by people dying in a play. It's ridiculous to warn people about death in literature IMO.

Having said that, I taught English in a previous life, and we were looking at a series of texts about road accidents. A girl in the class asked to be excused, as she had recently lost a friend in an accident, which I completely understood. I think we need to be sensible about it, but that putting warnings on books is going way too far. I don't really understand what people are meant to do if they don't like reading about death (or failed love affairs, or illness, or whatever). Do they expect to answer different questions in the exam and have a personally tailored course?

Look away now -spoiler alert.
Shakespeare - history plays and tragedies.

Everybody dies

They do give away the plot sometimes.