News Overload
For some time now, I have made an effort to be better informed about the issues that most affect us as a country. Oh, I've always been kinda semi informed...I watched the news on TV and I used to read the local newspaper and sometimes, a copy of Newsweek. I suppose I kept up with things as well as most Americans do. And that was my problem...I was under informed or worse than that, I was often misinformed. Somewhere along the way, the broadcasting companies and the news reporters decided to inject commentary into the news reports. This started out as separate "personal view" segments at the end of a newscast, like the editorials in newspapers. Soon, news only networks and news only programming established themselves and whammo...the "expert commentator" was suddenly blending news and personal opinion. News became opinionated news. This was a positive factor in the evolution of news services in that veiled or inferred opinions by the newscasters were no longer necessary. The opinionated news reports could be countered by opposing points of views.
And so, now we have news on top of news. We have news 24/7 ... we have editorial views news, shock jock news, news analyst news, talk show news...we have world news, breaking news, headline news, entertainment news, business news, political news, current event news, special event news, financial news, sports news, human interest news...and on and on. In addition to all that news, delivered by television or radio, news paper or magazine, we now have the internet...blogs, message boards, news alerts... It's easy for one to be or to become well informed...except for one thing. News overload.
News or information overload is what I am experiencing. The result is that I have grown more sceptical and pessimistic. Most of the news we hear these days is not good. I suppose "the news" has always been full of all the bad and evil and shocking events we think we need to know about, but I've been saturated. I think I am becoming depressed. As I read the news, most of it from the internet now, I sit and wonder how anything gets done. Nothing seems to work well. Our government doesn't work well, our health car "system" doesn't work well. Our big companies are driven by greed, corruption and the quest for profits today as opposed to long range profitability. We can't manage our resources, our crime rates are high, our dollar is weak, we can't seem to properly educate our children and Brittany Spears has gone off the deep end.
What am I to do? Maybe I should take one of those prescription only "feel good" pills. Maybe I should just give up my effort to be well informed and put my head in the sand. Maybe I should move to the middle of nowhere and completely shut the door to the outside world.
My best option, I think, is to look back at history. Things are really no different than they have always been. Things have always been fucked up. The world has always been full of evil. Politicians have always been corrupt. Efficiency has always been an allusive goal. And yet, here we are. We still inhabit our little planet. Most of us still lead fairly decent lives. We enjoy ourselves. We enjoy our existence. We are capable of love and generosity and concern for others. I'll try to comfort myself with these thoughts. I have to...but it's not easy.
a c slim
1 Comment
Reader Comments (1)
Slim sir >
As you know, I’m about to relocate from you area to metro Detroit, in February. The words send a chill down my spine as they are being keyed.
I submit to you that things are not the same as olden days. As a member of our democracy now emboldened by the Internet I can keep pace with the news and each other in ways that in other times would be unimaginable.
I favor the way you think and write, sir. You are a credible Mouth from the South who is blessed with conscience and reason. As of two weeks forward you will have a periodic readership from the North and an erstwhile contributor to your classic observations.
Aloha.