The Big Break
Admittedly over the past twelve to fourteen months I slipped into being a bit of a news junkie. It was a gradual process, or slip (take your pick) between the never ending media coverage surrounding Donald Trump, his trials, and the election. The latter of which proved to be anticlimactic.
The news junkie gradual metamorphosis took various forms. From more traditional news talk shows – DVR’ed for convenience of course – to the nightly six-thirty news to social media. It also included news aggregators on my phone so I could thumb through in restaurants and doctors’ offices. When I look back it all seems rather absurd, really. It was so easy to get sucked in like watching a soap opera, or following Orenthal’s trial. The desire to catch up on the latest developments from yesterday became from earlier today, and then the last hour, or the last time the phone app was checked. Pro tip: rarely did anything ever change. The latest “bulletin” was almost always simply a re-wording of the same copy the earlier news team. From that perspective, very little was ever new. Perhaps the only notable exception to it was the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, and the twist of irony regarding that story was that I was out of the country and had no idea it occurred. I was informed of the shooting by a text from a friend, and that was the catalyst to check the news on my phone, which I had temporarily placed on pause during my business trip. From that point forward the news cycle was business as usual. The latest news returned to the same copy from the previous hours with virtually nothing being new about it.
It’s not you, it’s me.
On November 6, 2024, all that changed. The outcome from the previous evening had been decided, and apart from some very brief synopsis regarding the results (I gave my own at the time), the news cycle soap opera came to an end – for me at least. Wherever anyone lands on the political spectrum it doesn’t matter. Now, like a nauseating news cycle, it is simply a rehashing of the same debate, “What happened?” in perpetually, and it’s something that I can do without. The election result is no great mystery. There are no hidden details or underlying trends that can explain the outcome. That answer is actually quite simple, and to dwell on watching endless talk news programs would soak up my time and energy in a manner I do not wish to freely waste.
The election is over, and now there are other things I wish to move onto. I am still finishing up my autobiography, for example. It is not really intended to ever be published. Just a simple manuscript to leave behind for some select individuals when my time comes. In fact, I’ve been so busy writing that I’ve done very little reading over the last several months, and there are a few books on my shelf that need my attention once I’ve completed my own endeavor.
Downsizing
Since the election, I have not watched the national news, and as far as our local affiliates are concerned, I merely speed through the DVR recording to catch the weather forecast for the next few days. I’ve taken the stance that I much rather be uninformed than misinformed, and heaven knows there is plenty of misinformation and misinterpretation out there. The election polls that indicated a dead heat between Trump and Harris only strengthen the notion of lies, damn lies, and statistics. One can lose a lot of things in this world, fortunes and gemstones, but when you’ve lost integrity, you cannot get it back. As a result I don’t think the general public will ever hold political polls in high esteem ever again. Even weather forecasters have a higher accuracy percentage, and that plays into the hands of those who embrace conspiracy. It is also the argument for further downsizing. Why bother paying attention to the numbers when they don’t matter? I wouldn’t go as far as calling it fake news. That notion is something altogether different. No, the polls were irrelevant or insignificant news attempting to be more significant than what they were. The numbers were the numbers, and they ended up becoming meaningless – not unlike the FedEx Cup point standings for the PGA. (We all can pretty much name the top thirty golfers in the world, and so the weekly point totals are mostly irrelevant by the time they arrive at East Lake. Definitely the top fifty for sure. The standings could almost be filled out ahead of time. Scottie Scheffler won the FedEx Cup? Who didn’t expect that since, I don’t know, January?) In the end it is all cannon fodder to fill the news cycle, and time is probably better spent binge watching a favorite series off a streaming service or opening up a paperback.
Social Media
The ultimate example of soaking up time. I have spent more than my share scrolling through various feeds to seek out news bytes and to get a general feel for people’s reactions to major events. For some events, particularly sports – the World Series, the Super Bowl, The Masters – it can be amusing at times, but it must be framed in that context only. Beyond that, or spending the majority of your time scrolling over dinner ignoring family, takes things a level too far. Factor in that it has also been used for intimidation, bullying, and hate mongering, it’s downright abhorrent. Therefore I feel that the next logical step after taking a break from the news is social media. I am not logging off, deleting my accounts, and retreating from the outside world mind you, but rather I plan to make a conscious effort to keep the phone face down. For decades we lived with a little barrier between one another. We didn’t know what our friends were up to every waking hour, nor what their cats looked like in Halloween costumes. We were fine with it and we focused on other aspects of life. That is the irony of social media – as much as it brought people closer together, it ended up driving them further apart in the long term. It also desensitized people to a measure of callousness that hadn’t previously existed. People became more comfortable with a technology-based firewall between parties interacting solely by phone; they lost the ability to communicate in person. So they post on social media angrily that someone didn’t pass the ketchup instead of asking for it to be passed, “Please.”
By taking a break from the news, the eyewash that is social media, and making a conscious effort to keep my phone face down I hope to focus on other things. Particularly writing and reading. I’ve already engaged “Focus Mode” on my [Android] phone where I block apps and notifications for specific hours. That way I am not tempted to lift my phone to see notifications. (I will lift for text messages to me directly, but the goal here is to filter out those social media distractions.) By limiting – not deleting – I feel I’m putting social media back into its proper perspective. As in all things, the challenge is moderation. Too much of anything is never necessarily a good thing. I’m happy to say I did this with vegetables years ago, and their absence has made the quality of my cuisine that much better.
I’m still here. I have no plans on going anywhere, but like writing, I only do it when I have something to say, and that is my approach moving forward with social media. Mine is just a desire to scale things back – not to eliminate. Especially now with the holidays quickly approaching. It is an opportunity to reflect on what has come before, and make plans for what is to come.