Living in a twenty-four hour news culture is interesting, to say the least.
It can be rather annoying, to say the most.
I have just heard another unsolicited opinion regarding Natalee Holloway and her plight in Aruba. Although I might clarify that I do indeed feel for her and her family, I will also understand that some might think otherwise. So be it. What I especially did not care for in this particular point of view is that it was wildly inaccurate and too easily glossed over other important and major issues which are also involved in this situation. All of this brings me to the central thesis of this particular posting: a society of twenty four hour news has dumbed down our culture, created a false perception of individual expertise, and stretched our limit to care. Allow me to expound. . .
First, such a news-oriented culture has taken the limits of what makes for good reporting and journalism and have denegrated them into lifeless, overdrawn, beat-a-dead-horse approach to the happenings of our world. Further, the endless debates of journalistic integrity and unbiased reporting have been fueled by how much time the talking heads have to review the same two or three points of any given story. And with all of this information, we have not grown smarter or wiser because we take little to no time internalizing the data and quickly follow our emotions to the next big thing.
All the while (and this is my second point), we find ourselves believing that we are a more insightful and discerning lot as we have all of these televised experts providing us with so much information and commentary. This leads to what I consider to be a falsified sense of individual expertise - each person believing that they are some sort of knoweldgable entity on just about every topic that has crossed cable news in the past week. This is one of the primary faults found in the example cited above, in which the holes in said argument were considerably large. We think we know when we do not and miss out in actual wisdom.
Third (and I have noticed this much within myself), this attitude toward the world's events has stretched our limits to care. With so much being reported (it is not as though more is actually happening. . .) one finds the necessity to get away from hearing any more lest the cranial cavity explode. To follow all of these stories ad nauseum is to actually feel less concerned about them, not more. The tendency to make insensitive or shallow/crude remarks and jokes about very serious situations increases because we just have no more tears to shed. As humans we are limited in the amount we can stretch ourselves. There is only one omnipotent and omnipresent who does not tire nor grow weary. Limiteless beings are like that, limited beings are not. Further, those who push all of this information on us often make us feel uncaring and insensitive if we do not care along with every story that taps across the wire. Even when we've got no more to give.
In order to break this cycle we must remove ourselves from the media. Regularly. Often. This will restore our ability to think and grow wise, understand our place in the world, and care about those who need to be cared about. I wonder how many tears are wasted on people and situations which are televised but beyond our control when there are individuals who surround us that just need someone to hurt with them. We must know that those who are not God should not attempt to perform his job.
But, then again, the ratings are up. . .
1 comment:
i love your point. As I was reading this post, I was thinking about that line in Hotel Romanda referencing the American response to the news coverage: "The American will see that and say 'that's terrible,' and go back to eating their dinners." We become desensitized to what is going on in the world, we are spoonfed just enough to make us comfortable with the fact that we know it is going on, but not uncomfortable enough to do anything about it. Too sad. And that not to say I am any less guilty. And so what is to be done?....
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