We're in a state of crisis and I personally refuse to take any part in the mess.
As a 19-year-old millennial in today's society, I've seen the media cover some of the biggest headlines in politics of both this decade and century. From Hurricane Katrina, to 9/11, the War on Terror, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the nation's first black president, and perhaps our nation's craziest election between potentially the first woman president, and more devastatingly potential, the nation's first billionaire, reality star turned republican front-runner, and throughout all of this there's been consistent neglect in coverage from fearless journalists who ask questions challenging the public for the sake of perspective and honest journalism.
I've watched the major news outlets cover some of the most significant news of our times with incredible neglect in comparison to, say, the coverage given to Beyonce's "Lemonade" album or "Formation" video; however, since opting out of watching the news, I have been brought to an overall lack of stress or feelings of impending doom and an increase in mood consistency not affected by outside forces. Naturally, this curious millennial had to deeply assess the epiphany he'd stumbled across. How had he recovered the happiness he'd felt as a child when he was once ignorant to all of the troubles in the world? Isn't it dangerous to not know what we are facing as a nation? Simply put, the answer is both yes and no.
Socrates once said, “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” In examining the media outlets, the competition between major media outlets to get people to watch their particular station has completely superseded the necessity of quality journalism and detailed news updates on the things that matter long term for the overall population. I use the quote from Socrates because the media capitalizes off of the authority it has over what is seen as important to discuss. According to Socrates, the strong minded a.k.a. "the leaders" of the world will pay attention to the ideas; ideas in the media would be issues of legislation and amendments. Average minds will discuss events; events are a majority of the media, usually what's going on right now, or breaking news. Weak minds discuss people; people obviously being celebrity issues and drama. From focusing less on the media, I've gotten an outside perspective as to how media is being run today.
Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club, says that "There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." This being the reason competition is so high to get the attention of the people. Where once there was a time where men and women read the paper and discussed issues from informed points of view on their own free will, we have lost interest in news and current events and only tune into our major media outlets when a crisis is taking place that is being heavily discussed by the overall public. This is when both quotes come into play at the same time.
Growing up in a household that watched the news every night year round, I've noticed the difference between how news is reported regularly versus how news is reported in times of crisis; but also from understanding that most don't share my level of awareness, I hold none of my fellow citizens accountable for their lack of understanding. I rather blame the media because over time the news has proven itself unreliable and predictable as far as coverage is concerned to the point where a majority of people would simply rather not watch. How the media catches you is by first focusing on the event, giving all the details necessary to get you excited enough to keep checking for updates. The next step to successful crisis coverage, is a solution to the nation's outcry; this will cause the media to start talking about legislation that could be passed to prevent this issue from taking place again. After sparking political and religious debates amongst the people making the issue feel personal, this new attention on political and religious morality turns our attention from both the event and the idea. Instead of further digging into the actual event to uncover an idea to solve the problem at hand, we will spend the rest of our time discussing the actual people in authority that share opposing viewpoints until everything blows over, or new information is released large enough to start the cycle over. Not to inform and push for unity and understanding, but rather to further divide us by pitting those of different political, religious and moral beliefs against each other and further divide us as a whole.
So what do you do? Well, simply put, stop relying on mainstream media outlets for the information you feel you personally need to know. Search for more information yourself to get educated on topics that personally affect you, and do not allow yourself to get consumed by the excitement of your peers, whom are receiving their information from mainstream media outlets, to make you feel there's more you have to worry about than there actually is.
In such a state of socio-economic decline, we are realizing that money is losing it's worth, and the mind is priceless. Preserve your sanity by only learning as much as you personally feel you need to know about a situation, form an educated opinion, and then turn the tv off and continue your own life. Do not allow yourself to be consumed by the mainstream agenda to the point where you put your own life on hold.
