Media (social and otherwise)

We are so connected now that we can know anything. We have the reach to see things happening all over the world. But for us to see it, someone has to publish it.

Traditional media only publishes what they think will make them money. They try to out-do one another with the exotic and the bizarre. They are not interested in anything that is not bizarre and unusual.

We gain our perceptions of what is normal and true from what we see every day. So if the news every night tells us that there is a terrible economic downturn, and it’s going to get worse, of course we start to spend less. So the economy will downturn, and the media will be proved right! And we’ll keep spending less until the media is distracted by something else and forgets about the economy. And then the economy will recover. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that the recovery from the global economic downturn in 2009 coincided with the swine flu pandemic. All of a sudden the news you saw every night stopped any mention of the economy, and instead was full of swine flu. People started spending again and all was well!

What we see every day is what we come to accept as normal. And the media is showing us ‘bizarro’ earth. If you watch traditional media day after day, you’d have to come to believe that the worlds population is made up of terrorists, murderers, rapists and politicians. But in reality, by far the majority of the worlds population are good, normal people. By showing us the bizarre, the media is moving our perception of what is normal off centre towards the bizarro zone.

While a lot of people criticise social media, I think that it will be our salvation. It contains the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, but that is life, and it is in balance. In traditional media we see the bizarre. In social media we see reality. People living their lives, and sharing their experiences. We get to see drunken rants, and bigotted comments, but we also get to see peoples favourite recipes, and what they did on the weekend, and how they’re enjoying their lives! It doesn’t have to be bizarre to be seen! This I think is far more valuable to us than another hour of death, destruction and politics delivered by the TV news.

By sharing in peoples lives we get to learn that the majority of people are good, normal people. Don’t let your view of the world be distorted by the media freak-show.