I’ve recently become aware of the great amount of my time I waste reading pointless news: which is a lot of news these days. I don’t advocate for being uninformed, but there seems to be this swell of information (and this is me speaking as someone embedded in American news) that is repetitive and not really building on anything substantive. I don’t know the reason for this, whether it’s the need for a 24 hour news cycle tied to advertising or something or another, and honestly I don’t really care. Because at the end of the day it is our choice how to engage with the media.
I think Trump is trash. I probably will never think otherwise as he never does anything that isn’t trash. He’s ineffective and incompetent. I know this. Yet I still read stories about him waving to supporters from a hermetically sealed car, with secret service agents held captive inside, for a photo-op while having Covid-19. Why does this matter to me? In some ways I feel that the news’ primary purpose is no longer about information exchange as it is about creating a sense of engagement and emotional reaction.
On the BBC there is always commentary at the end of most articles, immediately giving feedback on what the news item means to a certain person. Why is this given? Why are Twitter user’s options being quoted within articles about current events? I know there are exceptions when this would make sense; where “on the ground” accounts are needed.
This makes me feel the news is meant to put a wet blanket on me a bit in the same way that I feel social media already does. It fulfills and also dilutes. Of course this isn’t across the board. Reading a good Economist article and I can be reminded what it means to have someone clearly lay out facts and relationships of those facts to me as a reader in a way that is meant to educate.
Perhaps the only non-trash thing that Trump does is call out Fake News. Because while the news he talks about isn’t fake, it definitely is not news in the pure sense of the word. It’s something a bit more trashy.
Maybe trashy is just the way the world is these days. I do know that not clicking on google alerts and random chum bucket links has made my brain feel healthier. It makes me feel clearer and like bombs aren’t going off in my brain like being at a dinner party where a few children under the table take center stage. I honestly started writing this because as I sat on the couch in my studio looking at a cockroach majestically scale this small Everest of drywall debris (solo ascent) out in the loading dock, I realized I had subconsciously taken my phone out and was reading an article “Why this VP debate actually matters”. Thanks BBC, no Thanks.
Here’s to becoming less trashy and, like that cockroach, scaling some small victories of my personal surroundings.