This week the algorithms have been working overtime, and not in a good way.
Seemingly all from across the pond in the US we’ve been bombarded by snippets of disgusting revelations from Jeffry Epstein’s birthday cards. We’ve been forced to endure the ghastly video of Iryna Zarutska, which highlights the failings of the US judicial system but then hijacked into a racial argument. Finally we’ve bore witness to the ruthless assassination of Charles Kirk in front of a huge audience containing his own wife and Children.
This boils down to Peadophiles being exposed, and two murders. I’m not trying to downplay this news but I am trying to put it in perspective, for you and myself. According to multiple sources online the average amount of deaths across the world each day is around 150,000. I imagine some of these are peaceful but I also don’t think it would be a stretch to assume that some of these demises are much more brutal than the two we’ve just witnessed. Again, I’m not trying to downplay anybodies death here, certainly not the total figure either. The point I am trying to make is that even on our happiest days, where we receive no bad news and everything feels great, unimaginable atrocities are being committed across the world.
We are only affected by the news we hear about. The news we hear about is generally the news that someone decides is relevant. I don’t think it is long shot to say that those minds deciding what is, and isn’t valid news for us also have a vested interest in trying to influence our general mood and political feelings. I doubt we’ll ever understand the true motives, but this does happen and has been proven time and time again.
Social media is not healthy for the human mind. Our brains have not evolved to be able to cope with such large communities and a bombardment of information. In an evolutionary timescale it’s only been the blink of an eye since we were tribal primal beings, living in small communities where one could probably count the total people they knew on their hands and toes combined. Their issues would be local, maybe a lack of resources or a dangerous predator in the area. But these problems were tangible, and generally something that the members of that community had control over dealing with.
The internet has only served to speed up the news cycle, and in an attention economy it’s a well known fact that negative news sells. No-one clicks an article on a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary when below it there is an article that demands our shock, horror or outrage.
Even the tech space has been negative recently, and I’ve been sucked in. Just because one company is doing something we don’t like, doesn’t mean there’s not still enjoyment to be had elsewhere.
Do not feel guilty for wanting to detach from it all, even if only temporarily. I don’t want to belittle any of my readers by saying this, but we are all relatively significant to matters outside of our local villages or towns. Myself in the UK knowing of the crimes committed in the US has no bearing on their outcome, their due process will continue with or without me knowing about them. The levels of knife crime or mobile phone theft occurring in London will not increase or decrease just because I’m aware of it. The immigration levels in Sweden will not decrease on the basis of me reading about the crimes committed against the natives. Palestine and Israel, Russia and Ukraine will not both magically reach resolutions if I spend days depressing myself watching footage of war zones and trying to pick the side that I feel is most righteous. I think I’ve made my point.
It may not feel like it with attention grabbing articles littered everywhere but we do have a choice. If, like me you’re currently feeling overwhelmed by negative news, remove it from your life. If you want to maintain the feeling of being well informed you still can be, just limit the locale of the news you access. For example, stick to your local news site or newspaper. If you want more, maybe stretch to your County or State, or at the very most your own country. The rest of the world will continue with its own business while you can get on with yours, hopefully in a much happier way.
I don’t know who said this, not can I find the quote, but it has stuck with me: “The sins of the world are not ours to bear”.
Make your world smaller again, find beauty in the small things and enjoyment in the normal.
For me that entails a self imposed ban of the Reddit homepage. If I want to look at something I’ll go to that subreddit directly. Staying away from other negative news sources too. I’m going to make my world smaller, focusing on my family, my career and the tech that I enjoy.
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