A serious question for DUers watching tornado coverage

[Bluzmann57]

Does it seem sort of wrong to watch stuff like this all the time? I mean, it's kind of like a car wreck where one knows it's horrible but yet still can't look away. And, truth be told, I was watching all tornado, all the time for a while too.
But I just had to look away and have some sort of diversion so I went outside to do more work that needs to be done and now I'm watching a baseball game. I'm not making any judgements about anyone, but somehow it just seems kind of creepy to watch wall to wall coverage of a disaster. Or maybe it's just me.

[quinnox]

1. I haven't watched any of it, and yup, I get really annoyed and tired of how the cable networks

do 24 hour sensationalist tinged coverage whenever a disaster happens, I get sick of it. So I decided to not turn on the tv at all during this latest one.

[mokawanis]

2. I watched it for about 30 minutes

and then I stopped watching it. Excessive repetition, even when covering a heartbreaking disaster, is pointless.

[KaryninMiami]

3. I had to turn it off- after Boston, I learned my lesson in overload

It's not that I am lacking in compassion- not even close. During Sandy and the Boston Marathon I was glued to the TV- both wore me down to the core. Probably because I am from NY and Boston. This time, when they reported that all of those kids were gone- I had to find something else to do. Went down for a swim- now I'm watching movie. Will check back in a few minutes and then probably watch Mad Men or the Food network. It's just too painful .

[Life Long Dem]

4. Tornado debris.

http://tinyurl.com/m537f2a

[quinnox]

5. yikes!

[hrmjustin]

6. I watched the thing while it happened. After that I just check for updates.

[nolabear]

7. I think it's natural to want to know. But these days you can get unrelenting coverage

and that's not good for you. You can get a little "addicted" in the sense that people can get anxious and then want to continually check and keep up in order to both feel better and push that button that says "Watch out!"

The 24 hour contest to push your buttons and keep your attention (and so sell you something) can keep you in a cycle. Breaking it is a really, really good idea.

[wercal]

8. I don't have cable

I haven't for 9 years.

I noticed that I sort of went through a 24 hour wall to wall cable news detox. I don't miss it. I'm sure right about now, they are repeating the same footage multiple times, while a talking head speaks in the background...trying to sort out information while on air (and often getting important facts like the number of fatalities completely wrong).

I have been looking for coverage on the internet though. I don't know if I'm rubbernecking at a terrible accident, or if I hope that the next time I click the death toll will have dropped, or if I'm just worried about 'it could be me next time'.

I do see a positive aspect to the coverage - I see what a tornado can do, and it affects me. I have purchase a weather warning radio...I generally stay glued to the weather when tornados are likely...and I'm just generally more aware of the threat. That's all because of the heavy coverage these things get.

[peacebird]

9. Storm porn.... Watching initially is one thing, but then it quickly becomes storm porn....

[RebelOne]

10. I have been watching it mainly to see if those 3rd graders are rescued. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

11. I watched this afternoon while it was happening.

This evening I've been watching local weather updates and listening to the storm sirens going off. It's going to be a long night.

ETA: My new phone just alerted me to a tornado warning in my area. I didn't know it's would do that. Cool!

[MNBrewer]

12. I was watching

but it finally got to me so I turned it off. The tragedy got to me so I decided to chat with friends online.

[applegrove]

13. We all used to sit around a fire and tell each other stories. We did that for 100,000 years.

We want to know the stories of others. In a case like this it 1) makes you horrified 2) makes you glad for the heroics and to be part of that part of the human race that includes such wonderful people 3) makes you feel lucky to be so safe in your own world and hold your family a little tighter 4) makes you wonder about climate change and that perhaps you will pay attention to the next news story about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 5) Makes you sad for the loss of life and injuries. 6)You learn stuff (that is why you have the ability to speak - to learn stuff). 7)You reconnect to the world a little wiser about humanity, even if it is only a tiny bit. I know as a kid I used to hear the oral tradition from my grandmother who was born in 1898. Her husband was born in 1882. He was a country doctor, she was a country nurse. Before radio was invented. All they had were their stories. I listened, hard, to my grandmothers stories. It is bred in my bones.