No, this writing has nothing to do with promoting my twitter page, but it has something to do with the overwhelming streams of information that we receive everyday from people, institutions, products, government, and so on through various media—twitter included. Some information I can take but most of it is just too much for me to handle, which is why I’m writing this blog.
I’m connected to my social media page most of the time, if not 24 hours. That is how I receive information and news. I was ignorant and I thought I could stay ignorant of what is happening around me but I find it harder and harder to do today. Being connected to my friends is like having the feeling that I’m hanging out with them all the time and that’s comforting. But receiving news about hate crimes, discrimination, and, in short, stupidity—local and international—is enough to ruin my day. Hence, I’m starting to avoid all news, especially local ones.
One of the reasons why I don’t follow the local news (too much) is because I get upset more often than I feel informed or moved by the story. It seems that our journalism is stuck at the level where it only serves to trigger sensation and opinion than to invoke critical thinking and hone social awareness for long-term effect. In other words, news doesn’t sell, sensation does.
I know what is written in the news is only a small part of what is actually happening around us and that fact also frightens me. Things happen and I can no longer ignore them. I am aware of the economic motives that the journalists and medias are facing, and let’s admit it, everyone has his/her own agendas. Nevertheless, I doubt that using hatred to fuel our cause would ever get us anywhere.
We still have a long way to go and we are taking a step back one pessimism at a time for every news sensation that we pay attention to and for every time we think that we do not want to be a part of the world because of our perceived helplessness. Every ignorant person (like me) and non-mainstream people (like some of you) would hate to admit that when a controversial news hits the headlines, we react. From shudder to tantrum, we react. For a moment, we are distracted from our orbits and lost our point of view of the world, which is living and dying as it revolves. It turns out, we do have a standpoint, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I care.
cockaigne™
Cockaigne 