However, I saw this part:
Suffice to say the part of the brain that is all into looking at porn is in a much different place than the one that is steeled for incoming harsh images. I never knew what hit me. I can still remember the feeling, like a cold iron rod got shoved into my gut and turned. I was totally open, totally floored, totally taken. I was a wreck. [...] I was stuck, shaking, completely undergoing a panic attack. The way I got myself out of this fine mess was to go onto the MUSH I was running, find someone not idle, and have me call him and talk on the phone for an hour. We talked about life, people, stuff.. just anything for me to hear a person's voice, normally modulated, discussing anything but the truly horrible thing I'd seen. [...] So I know the effect this sort of shenanigan can have.What he is talking about was the first time he ever got exposed to a "goatse" type image.
Internet shock image stuff has never affected me that way. I can and always have been able to flick thru the gallerys on rotten.com, and critique the lighting and composition. (This is not to say I could probably just as easily handle "being on the scene", as it were. I suspect that the smell would make me heave.)
I wonder why? I honestly dont know.