Many people believe that trigger warnings are wrongful and are actually "coddling" today's university students. The professor in the podcast, Kate Man, who teaches Philosophy at Cornell, defends the use of trigger warnings. She believes they are beneficial to her students' mental health. Trigger warnings and safe spaces give people the opportunity to step back and enter the conversation when they are ready, and to step away when they are not. Everyone comes to class with a different background, different experiences and different opinions, but things still need to be talked about. When trigger warnings are given by the professor or other students, they help to enhance and enrich conversations because people are more willing and involved in the interaction. A trigger warning is something that can be as simple as a single sentence heads up. It can be something that a professor provides so that a student can come prepared to dive in to topics. A trigger warning can even be considered a simple act of kindness.
If you haven't caught on, people of older generations believe that us millennials are ruining the world. We are killing the housing market, the car sales and even the napkin industry. Millennials are sometimes referred to as a "13 year old from last century". People think that we are afraid of commitment, afraid of moving out of our parents house, and easily offended. While some of these may be right, the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces do not relate. I think that just out of common courtesy, these practices should be used. People should be able to feel safe and to be comfortable in their surroundings.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who is in support of these trigger warnings. I don't think people should be discouraged at all from attending because sensitive issues need to be talked about - that's how understanding and changes occur. Everyone has free will though, so they can make the decision whether they stay of not, but I think it's important that we still encourage attendance and participation. I don't believe schools should be able ban trigger warnings, but that it should be up to the discretion of the professors and implemented when appropriate. In the real world, we don't always know when possibly sensitive topics will arise, so we have to deal with those, but it's important to note how we can decrease negative consequences by placing these warnings in a more controlled environment, being the schools in this instance. Just because we have to deal with the issues in every day life, doesn't mean we should force those uncomfortable instances in schools. They'll still be discussed, but more appropriately.
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