divorcing the news cycle
Manila, 27 September—Can you be a good person if you don’t read the news?
Journalist Leah Finnegan, features director at The Outline, poses this question in this essay (READ: Can you be a good person if you don’t read the news? Ethics in news consumption via Pocket), which opens in the most relatable way possible:
Until recently, my religion had always been that of information. The most important thing was knowledge. Knowing about things. Having all the facts. Bearing witness and then communicating what was witnessed.
At first, of course, it was thrilling, being updated all the damn time—feeling like you were with some omniscient force, who saw everything, everywhere in real time.
There was a time when social media helped and informed people, instead of polarizing them or turning them against each other. Good, ol’ times.
One of the earliest use cases of social media for good that I encountered was for Ondoy rescue and relief operations in 2009. It has been eleven years since that fateful September Saturday, which really marked for me a permanent shift in my relationship with weather disturbances and rainfall. I still remember watching in horror and disbelief as waters rose so fast, stranding families on their roofs in epic floods all over the Metro.
At the time, I’d been on Twitter for about a year or so, and I saw how people used it to coordinate rescue and relief, as the rains knocked down electricity and telephone lines. I think that was the start of trad media’s engagement in the social media space, or at least from where I was sitting at the time, I remember 2009 as the start of some sort of netizen beat.
Eleven years later, here we are. At some point, people had to start thinking about monetizing things, and the easiest product to sell was us—our attention, our information. Net negative, as I’ve said, and as I’ve feared—we can’t get out.
There is so much news, and almost none of it is important, but you would not know that from a visit to social media, the grotesque excuse for a piazza where we are supposed to connect with people who are yelling at us, or any of the 24-hour websites that provide us with an overwhelming deluge of inanity. The news cycle — something that was once perhaps part of someone’s morning routine or nightly commute — has become an ugly, corrosive, all-encompassing force, not because more things are happening but because of how technology has expedited the pace of news.
I’m not a fan of speed. I think it makes people prone to mistakes, but being first-to-anywhere will always give anyone an advantage. Land it first, claim it first, get it out there first. As if that’s what true leadership is all about. Nobody cares about being “comprehensive”, about being “well thought-out”. If you’re not first, then what’s the point? This mindset makes me sad and mad alternately.
I’ve tried where I could to resist the Cult of Speed, but this resistance has not been possible everywhere—there are always spaces where speed is King. I hate these spaces with a passion. I think putting an inordinate amount of value on speed above all is what got us here in the first place. If people just slowed the fuck down, I think we’d be more thoughtful about things, more deliberate, more conscientious. Maybe people would not rush to share fake items and read first, or maybe they’d step back from their anger or whatever hyper emotion they’re having before reacting.
Or maybe not. Maybe we’d just be as awful, but at least it would be slower, lol.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to keep going is to step back. News outlets are not going to stop covering idiotic things because they must do so in order to survive, or so they’ve convinced themselves, so the burden of sanity lies with the consumer.
In the end, going to this “church” took its toll on me. There was no way the body could take an overload of information at such a punishing pace and at such regular doses—it’s the equivalent of being hooked up to a global firehose of information, 24/7.
It’s not sustainable.
Media recs
🎶 One of our favorite artists in forever Betty Who is holding a series of virtual concerts and we’re attending a couple of them this weekend. Because of time zone differentials, they’re at 9 a.m. on Saturdays/Sundays, so that’s how we found ourselves eating tapsilog and coffee while rocking out to her songs and covers LOL. She’s amazing. I think it takes extraordinary talent to perform live, much more perform live and full of energy even without a physical audience. Must be so hard for extroverts to gather energy this way, but she pulls it off! Interested? For schedules and tickets, check them out here: bettywhovip.com
🏳️🌈 We’re loving Juan Miguel Severo’s new web series, Gaya sa Pelikula, which premiered on Friday night. Extra-loving the fake dating AU premise too—can’t wait to see how it all unfolds on-screen.
🍰 As a final note, I’d like to share our favorite meme from this week:
Thanks for making it this far.
XO,
K