{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T07:01:42Z","timestamp":1790146902975,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The digital age has transformed the way we experience and respond to traumatic events. Continuous and vicarious exposure to distressing visual content through social media and online news has created new pathways for psychological harm that existing diagnostic frameworks fail to capture. This perspective article examines how digital technologies have blurred the boundaries between direct and indirect trauma, enabling mediated exposure to evoke stress responses comparable to those arising from firsthand experience. Using the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel as a case study, it explores how the online circulation of graphic material has expanded the reach of trauma, reshaped its mechanisms, and challenged established clinical definitions. Building on the historical evolution of posttraumatic stress disorder, the article calls for new conceptual, technological, and clinical frameworks to address digital trauma -\u00a0a form of exposure defined by its pervasiveness, accessibility, and social diffusion.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1735379","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T06:19:33Z","timestamp":1790144373000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Rethinking trauma in an age of total visibility"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Noa","family":"Herz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University","place":["Philadelphia, PA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jts.2490050305","article-title":"Complex PTSD: a syndrome in survivors of prolonged and repeated trauma","volume":"5","author":"Herman","year":"1992","journal-title":"J Trauma Stress"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1756\u2013833","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj-2024-079458","article-title":"Diagnosis and management of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD)","volume":"388","author":"Stubley","year":"2025","journal-title":"BMJ"},{"key":"B3","volume-title":"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Dsm-V)","year":"2013"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/15325024.2015.1072016","article-title":"The reconstruction of criterion A in DSM-5: is it a true incorporation of secondary traumatization into the PTSD diagnosis","volume":"21","author":"Horesh","year":"2016","journal-title":"J Loss Trauma"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1177\/0957154x9901004005","article-title":"\u2018Pitiless psychology\u2019: the role of prevention in British military psychiatry in the Second World War","volume":"10","author":"Shephard","year":"1999","journal-title":"Hist Psychiatry"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/da.20767","article-title":"Considering PTSD for DSM-5","volume":"28","author":"Friedman","year":"2010","journal-title":"Depress Anxiety"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2318465121","article-title":"It matters what you see: graphic media images of war and terror may amplify distress","volume":"121","author":"Holman","year":"2024","journal-title":"PNAS"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1316265110","article-title":"Media\u2019s role in broadcasting acute stress following the Boston Marathon bombings","volume":"111","author":"Holman","year":"2014","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci USA"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpsychires.2017.12.006","article-title":"Media use and insomnia after terror attacks in France","volume":"98","author":"Goodwin","year":"2018","journal-title":"J Psychiatr Res"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.674263","article-title":"Media exposure and the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder following a mass traumatic event: an in-silico experiment","volume":"12","author":"Abdalla","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/20008198.2018.1468708","article-title":"Perceived control and avoidance in posttraumatic stress","volume":"9","author":"Hancock","year":"2018","journal-title":"Eur J Psychotraumatol"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/S42448-025-00225-3","article-title":"Children subjected to forced separation and wartime trauma: focus on hostage twins in the Hamas-Israel War","author":"Knafo-Noam","year":"2025","journal-title":"Int J Child Maltreat"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychiatry"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1735379\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T06:19:34Z","timestamp":1790144374000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1735379\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"references-count":12,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1735379"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1735379","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-0640"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-0640","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"article-number":"1735379"}}