How to write a trigger warning?

Trigger warning / Content warning: What are they, and how to use them?

If you have ever been on the Internet, you might have seen those mentions in an article, blog posts, social media, or others. What are they? In wording, TW stands for Trigger Warning, CW stands for Content Warning. But words aren’t enough to understand those small but essential acronyms.

When posting on the Internet, one does not control their audience. And this is the main reason why it is so important to know, how to write a trigger warning.

Content Warnings will be used to describe something that might upset readers and make them feel bad, without referring to a traumatic experience. It might, for example, refer to a phobia, to nudity, to blood, to birth, etc.

Trigger Warnings are here to prevent people who have experienced traumatic experiences to be exposed to something that might trigger a physical and/ or mental reaction. Trigger is the key word here. “Trigger*” is used to talk about PTSD and mental illness. “Triggered” and “offended/upset” are not the same concept.

I can be upset if I see a picture of a beautiful cake because I cannot bake, but it won’t trigger a post-traumatic reaction. Some common triggers are evocation and/or images of sexual violence, physical violence, violence on kids, war scenes, domestic violence, eating disorders, etc.

Of course, one doesn’t know every traumatic experience that exists, and some people might have had trauma with uncommon things. So no – you cannot always guess, and yes – you might sometimes miss something. That happens.

How to use Content Warning / Trigger Warning?

Now that we understand what they are let’s find out how to write a trigger warning/content warning.

When posting a picture on a social media, start your description with the warning type (“TW:” or “CW:,”) and then add keywords. Make them clear enough that people know whether they want to go on with the read or not, but not so descriptive that they might alone trigger a reaction.

Then, go next line, add a period, go next line, add a period, and repeat. By doing that, the description will be hidden, and your readers will be able to decide if they want to click on the “read more” option or not. If you do not do that, the text will appear right away, and the person deciding not to read your text will have it right under their nose.

CW and TW should not be mistaken for descriptions. No, you cannot write “CW: cute, adorable, love.”

CW and TW matter because you do not know who might read your text. When chatting with friends, we often know what we can talk about or not.

When writing on the Internet, we are open to people from all over the world with different life experiences. If you take two minutes to insert your TW, you might save someone from a panic attack, from nightmares, from suicidal thoughts, and you will show them that you acknowledge their experience.

So for 2022, let’s be as good at hiding triggering information as we are at hiding spoilers =)

This Blog Post about ” how to write a trigger warning ” was written by Leslie Many

LOOKSLIKEFILM is your most important daily inspiration when it comes to photography. Created by our amazing artists from all over the world!  You should probably check out our Facebook group and our Instagram feed above all.  Besides that, you can give us a follow on Pinterest as well.

Also, learn more about our LOOKSLIKEFILM Presets, which will surely improve your editing workflow.