How Can We Better Understand Ourselves Through The News We Read?
We keep thinking to ourselves that there is a piece of news that we’re missing out somewhere. So we’re compulsively clicking and scrolling through the same sites over and over in hope to discover something major being reported on an adjacent reality. Somehow, our attention hardly latches on as much to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and wildfire.
It feels too innocent, too accidental and too slow to quench our disgusting addiction to depressing news stories. Instead, we are immediately drawn to autocracy, barbarism and road rage. It is as though news worthy to be read nowadays ought to be immersive than isolated. If readers are able to partake in the news and point fingers at who is right and wrong, then thumbs up.
If readers are unable to have a say in what is going on, then boo!
Many of us read the news the same way we chance upon discounted online air flight tickets. We are headline readers. We are quick to share “cheap flights from $50” without reading the terms and conditions, the same way we are quick to share “businessman who hired hitman to attack his mistress found guilty” without first understanding the situation. What happens when we don’t see any discounted air flight tickets?
We soon realise how little difference travelling or not has made to our lives. Similarly, we soon discover that news, supposedly to be a form of education, is morphing into a form of entertainment for us. Like young kids with their eyes glued to their phones, we are addicted to spotting depressing news stories and having our voices be heard.
It appears that there is something existentially alarming in finding out how little of a room we occupy, and how little allegiance we command in the minds of others.
This approach to reading the news is not something we’re unfamiliar with. It has always been accessible to us by the accidental overhearing of conversation at the wrong moment. Instead of an affectionate head shake and acknowledge that it is something not meant for us, we would rather go with a contemptuous eye roll and pass judgement. The best way to know whether our judgement is right? We call in a friend, yet another uncertified judge, to hear our side of the story of the side of someone else’s story.
It is easier to get all riled up about someone’s action than to think about the growing abyss between rich and poor and the world’s gradual tilt towards a free market. We like to judge, but we don’t like to be judged upon. It is like seeing a candid photo of ourselves. We’re smiling, or at least we hope that our natural stance appears friendly. But the truth is we are oblivious to how dumb we look.
We are constantly judging and judged by our naked silliness and stupidity, mostly of ourselves by assessing others.
We are all vicious two-faced hypocrites. We tell others not to do so, but we do it ourselves. We are blind to our hilarious flaws, blatant contradictions and fiercely loyal to what keeps us miserable. We know that such an approach to finding entertainment in news is unhealthy. Sure, we might be informed of some of the latest updates in the world, but we’re simply looking out for that latest debate to be a part of.
If we’re just getting addictive little hits of outrage and vindication by reinforcing the same crude notion of being an lackluster part time vigilante, then how is it any different from that pretentious school prefect who bullies the bully?
I know I am perhaps the person least qualified to dish out any kind of useful advice on such a matter. But as Bon Jovi puts it aptly, “I’ve made mistakes, I’m just a man.” It is tempting to want news that is convenient and easy to digest. But readily available and comfortable news, much more to say news that make us laugh till we fall, tend not to be the kind of news we want to educate ourselves with. We all know the feeling of the unwelcome, do-your-homework realization that if we want a good piece of news, we probably got to stop reading the top trending articles on the cover page. Maybe now is the time where it’ll be more worthwhile to prioritise our time reading books than feeding on the commercial interest of the media industry.
