The Mere Exposure Theory states that the more exposure you have to a stimulus, whether it is a product, person, place, etc, the more you will tend to like it. Familiarity tends to breed liking more than contempt. People can even get to like unpleasant things, such as when prisoners miss prison. You get used to the routine and when that changes people generally don’t care for it.
Exposure can be a bad thing as well since after a certain number of exposures you will begin to ignore the message and even begin to hate it. Also you can become desensitized to things after a certain amount of exposure. Things that used to outrage or hurt you become routine and normal.
I can think of many examples of this. Back in the 90’s Marilyn Manson was shocking and controversial. People were outraged by his violent and drug-fueled music, his cross-dressing, his anti-religious beliefs and his shocking performances. He was blamed for the Columbine massacre and represented everything that was wrong with America. I, of course, loved this about him. In 1999 he launched his Last Tour on Earth/Rock is Dead tour and I attended that concert. Brett and I went with our friend Dave who was not a big fan but was down for an adventure. We took a limo and I remember pulling up at the venue and the amount of protesters was crazy! I can say this, it was one of the most memorable, enthralling, insane concerts I have ever been to. Marilyn performed one hell of a show! Several years later I attended another one of his concerts and there was not a single protester there. Over time with exposure it became normal.
Another great example of this is Eminem. When he first arrived people were outraged over his misogynistic lyrics, his repeated gay slurs, his violent tendencies and the fact that he pretty much said what he wanted. In one of his songs he said that he was just saying the things you think about or talk to your friends about in the living room and that is so true! He was extreme and yet I felt like he was speaking my language. Nowadays you rarely hear anything about him and his lyrics have not changed significantly. People have become used to it.
I can think of several more examples such as 2 Live Crew in the 80’s (sex, misogny!), Jersey Shore (Guidos!), the Saw movies (Jigsaw!), 24 (ahhhhhh, love me some Jack Bauer), Kids (disturbing), South Park (love, love, love), The Clockwork Orange (craziness!), and a million more. But you get where I am going here. Exposure can be bad or good.
This leads me to TFS. What is that you might ask? TFS stands for Trump Fatigue Syndrome. When I started this blog I swore there would be no political posts so I am not going to get into his political views or policies. I love to watch the news, or I used to. In the beginning of his campaign I watched him to see what he would do next. He was shocking and kind of a joke, he kind of reminded me of the shock jock Howard Stern, even if you hated him you still listened. TFS has symptoms such as a “depressing sense of watching the same drama over and over again.” It starts with feelings of exhaustion and then panic when you realize that it may never end. The total and complete panic that you have 6 more years, possibly, of nonstop coverage.
I believe that the carriers of this “disease” are the media of both right and left. Every single news show covers Trump endlessly, I guess because that is what people want to see and it seems there is an endless interest in what he might do next. Fox News portrays Trump as the hero for the forgotten American while CNN portrays him as completely incompetent. The symptoms of this disease? Those on the right are feeling resentful that those on the left have such antipathy towards Trump. Those on the left have a rising feeling of exasperation about what Trump says and does. This is outrage leading to exhaustion. And I am so completely exhausted.
Trump no longer surprises me. He is depressingly, consistently, obviously outrageous. Just once can I please watch a news broadcast that never mentions him? I have stopped watching mainstream news and now I only watch Vice and John Olivier on HBO and Desus & Mero on Showtime. John Olivier is hilarious and he may mention Trump at the beginning but most of his stories are on completely different topics. Vice covers a lot of worldwide topics that I appreciate and it comes from a younger perspective that you don’t get on other news show. Desus & Mero are two black guys from Brooklyn commenting on news stories, ridiculous Internet shenanigans and life in general. If you are suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome give those shows a watch.
The fact that we have at least 2 more years of this and potentially 4 more after that makes me feel quite depressed. I know that other people must feel this way too regardless of your political views. My remedy for this depression? If you have a dog hang out with him/her more. Ditto for kiddos. Innocence is the only thing that can make this cynical world more tolerable. Life is more than the daily news cycle.
The night is calling... 