It may very well be my ironclad naivety, but the older I get, the more the people around me have begun to itch for something to express themselves emotionally to.
Although I do not profess to be anything much out of the ordinary, I am observant. I have seen a great array of our nation’s communities. How we treat each other has changed.
We are incredibly sensitive and reactive.
While this may have its ups, we do have a responsibility to be mindful of the downsides.
There is a definite desire to feel angry nowadays.
Anger is the sole requirement now for a social movement. Anger is seemed to legitimize any communication. That anger is cheered and encouraged, at times surmounting the cause itself.
This is of course, instead of creating solutions or even worse—being an agent of change, yourself. Surprisingly, you have to do more than be extraordinarily angry at every fake news article peddled around to qualify as an agent of change.
This dynamic causes me worry at times. What it comes down to is that we must be healthy individuals to experience healthy communities.
Our increasingly virtual life does not make this easy.
The results of the media’s grooming of our reactions and the alarming encouragement of clickbait journalism are harmful realities. Many media organizations churn out story after story of warped reporting, full of sensationalism that if not transgresses entirely, borderline lies in the name of profit.
Many consumers of this media have personalities that are vulnerable to this type of sensory overload—and politics in its nature preys upon them. Everything begins to blend together, and then perfectly reasonable people begin to become accustomed to behaviors that are abnormal, deranged and unhealthy.
Most of us reading have an understanding of social media. We understand ‘scrolling’ through the newsfeed for something worth ‘liking’ or now ‘reacting’ to. What that constant scrolling does is to both encourage and normalize the behavior to seek out polarizing content.
We may begin to react to what we see while scrolling as if we have invested ourselves fully in understanding it.
It is not normal to look at a news article with an inflammatory title or sensitive content and immediately react as if you had invested yourself in its verifiability.
This content is created to sit just within the range of relativity that we consider it valid in that peripheral sphere. It’s an online, mass hysteria arms race. No one’s winning but the bank accounts of ‘journalism’ fat cats.
We process information we do not verify in that peripheral sphere of ours until we find something we react to. The structure relies on this formula.
That behavior is one that is not naturally yours. It is a useful sickness that blights those that are unable to take care of themselves in an attempt to make you act for them.
Before you know it, you can really believe that it’s “just you” when you’re yelling and screaming about something you found upsetting.
It’s not. You can be reasonable, effective and emotional without falling for the ploys of ‘big journalism.’ You deserve to be the person who decides your reactions, don’t be groomed to develop unhealthy behaviors.
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor