From this news-bearing publication, in which there is certainly much worth reading, I bring you the suggestion that you might do well to look away from time to time.
Once an offering from George Alagiah confined to the six o’clock TV slot, the news is now a general state of shifting awareness which pervades our consciousness. If without intel on the latest story that’s dropped, you’re duty-bound to feel deep shame at your obliviousness – a cultural ignoramus. Between the news notifications everyone seems to receive and the onslaught of information guaranteed on social media, we’re processing a dozen different items at once whilst somehow permanently scrabbling to catch up on the mass we’ve yet to read up on. The insanity of world affairs makes it surely necessary to stay in the loop to form an opinion and try and act on it for good – but is it our duty to do so?
The expectation to engage with an incomprehensible array of international occurrences will naturally compromise the average person’s mental state. But as citizens of a supposed democracy, arguably to harness the little power we do have, we must maintain an awareness of both domestic and international affairs, for if we do want change we should probably be backed up by solid reasoning. Yet this can immediately be countered by the argument that what we gain is confusion rather than knowledge. The perpetual mass of information induces an inability to distinguish true from false, not to mention a feeling of exhaustion which leaves us powerless to act on anything.
This epidemic of unreliability was driven home recently, albeit trivially. My friends and I, coming across a picture of Harry Styles at the Grammys in a miniskirt, proceeded to have an extensive debate on the validity of his choice, only to discover that the images were, of course, AI-generated. The moment was surprisingly humiliating, and beyond all frustrating – we’d just spent half an hour of precious time debating utter meaningless mush instead of doing something useful. Beyond this, even if we consider the more well-respected news sources like the BBC, their biases are evident; the selective editing of their BAFTAs coverage last month is just one example, not to mention the influence of funding.
Though the excuse of “not really keeping up with the news” feels particularly abrasive when applied to many grave topics, I question the presumption that we must always have an opinion on the flimsier ones. There’s strong irony in this, I know. This discussion taking place in an opinion section adds a sort of meta weirdness to the whole argument. And I’m in quite the moral quandary writing it, just as you might be reading it. Far from reaching a satisfying solution, I can only suggest that you base your knowledge as far as possible on your lived experiences, and shed that dogged guilt that drags you by your hair onto the BBC News site everyday – it may well turn out to be for the best.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
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Keeping up with the news: A moral duty?
From this news-bearing publication, in which there is certainly much worth reading, I bring you the suggestion that you might do well to look away from time to time.
Once an offering from George Alagiah confined to the six o’clock TV slot, the news is now a general state of shifting awareness which pervades our consciousness. If without intel on the latest story that’s dropped, you’re duty-bound to feel deep shame at your obliviousness – a cultural ignoramus. Between the news notifications everyone seems to receive and the onslaught of information guaranteed on social media, we’re processing a dozen different items at once whilst somehow permanently scrabbling to catch up on the mass we’ve yet to read up on. The insanity of world affairs makes it surely necessary to stay in the loop to form an opinion and try and act on it for good – but is it our duty to do so?
The expectation to engage with an incomprehensible array of international occurrences will naturally compromise the average person’s mental state. But as citizens of a supposed democracy, arguably to harness the little power we do have, we must maintain an awareness of both domestic and international affairs, for if we do want change we should probably be backed up by solid reasoning. Yet this can immediately be countered by the argument that what we gain is confusion rather than knowledge. The perpetual mass of information induces an inability to distinguish true from false, not to mention a feeling of exhaustion which leaves us powerless to act on anything.
This epidemic of unreliability was driven home recently, albeit trivially. My friends and I, coming across a picture of Harry Styles at the Grammys in a miniskirt, proceeded to have an extensive debate on the validity of his choice, only to discover that the images were, of course, AI-generated. The moment was surprisingly humiliating, and beyond all frustrating – we’d just spent half an hour of precious time debating utter meaningless mush instead of doing something useful. Beyond this, even if we consider the more well-respected news sources like the BBC, their biases are evident; the selective editing of their BAFTAs coverage last month is just one example, not to mention the influence of funding.
Though the excuse of “not really keeping up with the news” feels particularly abrasive when applied to many grave topics, I question the presumption that we must always have an opinion on the flimsier ones. There’s strong irony in this, I know. This discussion taking place in an opinion section adds a sort of meta weirdness to the whole argument. And I’m in quite the moral quandary writing it, just as you might be reading it. Far from reaching a satisfying solution, I can only suggest that you base your knowledge as far as possible on your lived experiences, and shed that dogged guilt that drags you by your hair onto the BBC News site everyday – it may well turn out to be for the best.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
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