Amy Poehler on Internet Media

by Teresa Lu

This morning, Amy Poehler gave us a couple of heartfelt ponderings through her webcam. In the latest episode of “Ask Amy”, she responded to a young viewer’s question about how much exposure to internet imagery is actually healthy or helpful to us.

The comedian somberly admits that she personally does feel bombarded by visual media these days, “In light of recent events, I’ve, and I’m sure you have, and the rest of the world, if not America have been looking at photographs that have been really hard to take. And I’ve been thinking about what these images do to our brain and to our heart. ”

Referencing the Boston marathon as an example, she says that although it is natural to want to know more about things, we must learn to recognize when the media is exploiting its subjects and impacting us, as viewers, negatively. 

As an alternative to the sometimes toxic flow of internet imagery which makes us “superficially connect to something”, she proposes we learn things “by reading about them or talking about them, or listening.”

She then gives the reassurance a lot of us probably need: “It’s okay to not be looking at what everyone else is looking at.” 

Here’s Amy’s video on YouTube.

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