As I was watching the stock market melt yesterday it dawned on me once again how the information age has become a tool that shapes how we interpret the world. It is almost like the chaos effect where a butterfly who flaps its wings in Chile and sets off a chain of events from its wing flapping that creates a hurricane. This butterfly came in the form of a Euro talking head (and it could have been anyone anywhere) making a comment about the tragedy in Japan. His comment was along the lines of how things were 'out of control' in Japan. The sensationalist media latched onto this comment and within minutes it was circulating world-wide and caused a 2% drop in the stock market! As it turns out, the comment was of course taken out of context and the 'out of control' was meant as a general statement of how unfortunate the circumstances are, as opposed to a comment directed at the radiation issues they are trying to control - which the stock market is particularly twitchy and nervy about.
I think 'out of control' is what the media is. They have no ability to filter pertinent information and they focus on to anything that will create headlines and web-site hits. This sensationalism has gotten so bad that news outlets can't objectively tell the news anymore - even NPR leans a certain way, and they are supposed to be the ultimate objective news outlet. Everyone has their spin on it and we sheeples follow along ...bahhhhh
We have become used to getting information instantly and we really are trying to drink water through a fire hose. Our puny little brains don't have the capacity to process everything going on. Technology has out-paced our ability to process the consequences (think kids sexting without realizing the downstream impacts as an example)...this has actually fascinated me as a social study/impact (not the sexting!! but our ability to process how quickly technology is changing and how it impacts our society as a greater whole)
I try to refrain from getting all cereal on the posts but alas my fingertips were a little 'out of control' themselves today as they tickled the keyboard. It is time for this little butterfly to go back to flapping his wings at work...
I think 'out of control' is what the media is. They have no ability to filter pertinent information and they focus on to anything that will create headlines and web-site hits. This sensationalism has gotten so bad that news outlets can't objectively tell the news anymore - even NPR leans a certain way, and they are supposed to be the ultimate objective news outlet. Everyone has their spin on it and we sheeples follow along ...bahhhhh
We have become used to getting information instantly and we really are trying to drink water through a fire hose. Our puny little brains don't have the capacity to process everything going on. Technology has out-paced our ability to process the consequences (think kids sexting without realizing the downstream impacts as an example)...this has actually fascinated me as a social study/impact (not the sexting!! but our ability to process how quickly technology is changing and how it impacts our society as a greater whole)
I try to refrain from getting all cereal on the posts but alas my fingertips were a little 'out of control' themselves today as they tickled the keyboard. It is time for this little butterfly to go back to flapping his wings at work...
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