More or Less Informed?
- Thread starter Sytes
- Start date
Spawned from another topic - internet forums will always share a broad spectrum of opinions.
Can you imagine a world dependent on the annual Encyclopedia Britianica door knock and FOX/CNN/MSNBC t.v. NY Times/LA Times newspapers as our source of information?
Hah! IMO, today's caustic two party system, media bias would dominate the trenched political world beyond current setting!
At least we have the ability to view the actual SCOTUS cases and actual Congressional Bills/Acts, etc.
IS society more or less informed today versus the pre Internet? I'd say far greater. Though my abacus days suggest far lazier(?).
belshawelk
Well-known member
Two answers:
Wrong/less informed of facts. News is all political. Long gone are the days of Walter Cronkite and others that didn't have have a narrative. They just reported what the facts are.
In the good old days you had to actually read a newspaper or listen to the radio. Your mind actually had to work to absorb information. Now you its fed to you like a feeding tube.
I personally am so happy to hear schools starting to ban cell phones. As a former HS coach its a major distraction that served no purpose. Kids may actually have to have meaningful conversations and listen in class, ( so these days they can be properly indoctrinated)
I remember my teacher turning on the radio for Reagan's "tear down the wall speech". It was powerful listening to it.
While I am at, i got paddled in school. Served it purpose well, and they didn't call my parents to ask. Surprisingly by today's standards I actually survived getting a foot up my ass.
Sorry went off topic
Wrong/less informed of facts. News is all political. Long gone are the days of Walter Cronkite and others that didn't have have a narrative. They just reported what the facts are.
In the good old days you had to actually read a newspaper or listen to the radio. Your mind actually had to work to absorb information. Now you its fed to you like a feeding tube.
I personally am so happy to hear schools starting to ban cell phones. As a former HS coach its a major distraction that served no purpose. Kids may actually have to have meaningful conversations and listen in class, ( so these days they can be properly indoctrinated)
I remember my teacher turning on the radio for Reagan's "tear down the wall speech". It was powerful listening to it.
While I am at, i got paddled in school. Served it purpose well, and they didn't call my parents to ask. Surprisingly by today's standards I actually survived getting a foot up my ass.
Sorry went off topic
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Conservation - a subset of which is politics - I'd say more.
Politics - more, but so much so that the BS has washed over the truth. If someone is honest with themselves, it is very had to discern truth from fiction, net-good from net-bad, the 20th "the sky is falling" of this decade from something that may eventually bring the sky down - and that is for someone who tries to pay a modicum of attention. For those who are casual in their aquisition of information, they get what they get and they don't throw a fit.
Politics - more, but so much so that the BS has washed over the truth. If someone is honest with themselves, it is very had to discern truth from fiction, net-good from net-bad, the 20th "the sky is falling" of this decade from something that may eventually bring the sky down - and that is for someone who tries to pay a modicum of attention. For those who are casual in their aquisition of information, they get what they get and they don't throw a fit.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
Society as a whole is certainly more informed, but facts have less meaning. The tribalism has trickled into every crack and it is almost impossible for many to retain some independence. The result is people chose to learn and know less, especially if it contradicts what they want to believe. However, they also want others (experts if you will) to have more perfect solutions. We are all a hot mess.
BrentD
Well-known member
Absolute Truth.
pabearhunter
Well-known member
For some people that don't do their homework they are mislead.
I've pre-digested what I'm about to write into a meme so that everyone who is TLDR can follow along.
Back when the world was young, Star Wars hadn't been ruined by CGI and you had to really put in some effort to find new music, movies, books, etc it was easy to pick up a paper and read about what was happening locally, state-wide, nationally and internationally in a local paper. The news was at 6 & 10, and there were morning shows, but those were for old people, shut-ins and when you were sick and your mom gave you seven up and saltines to make any malady go away, especially if it was a stomach issue. 60 minutes, 20/20 and a few other shows were on in prime time offering longer-form television journalism. Books were still important to everyone's lives, and the Libraires' card catalog had a class unto itself so you could learn how to find the knowledge you sought through the Dewey Decimal System (Still relevant today).
Cable television came onto the scene and I remember watching MTV for the first time in Chris Meig's living room. We were all astonished at how far we'd come. I catfished a mid-20's woman in the late 80's with one of the first intranet options available for home use because I didn't know what catfishing was then, and the internet was just invented.
Since 1972, the speed, delivery mechanisms, volume and questionable veracity of information have increased exponentially. What used to take up a warehouse in terms of computer power now fits in the palm of your hand. We've uploaded everything but our consciousness to the cloud, and I imagine that's coming soon. As a species, we've decided that volume is far more important than any other aspect of information like truth, empathy, critical thinking, etc. We consume information like we consume a fast food value meal - quickly, no real nutritional content and then we wonder why our brains are flabby and weak.
Over the last 2.5 decades, what I've seen is that we are quicker to anger, faster to judge, seek to find weakness in order to make ourselves feel better, actively reject truth when it does not comport with our values while we trivialize our politics into yet another spectator sport. We belittle those with more knowledge when it challenges our assumptions, we roll in ignorance like a dog in a mud puddle.
Perhaps the strangest thing I've seen is that as more information becomes available to us, humans tend to make their own circles smaller, cutting off new data, new wisdom and new thinking in favor of the bubble of comfort that comes from surrounding yourself with like-minded people.
We've traded volume and comfort for wisdom and grit. We've elevated narcissism and vapidity over humility and grace.
So yeah, we have far more information but the quality and veracity is lacking significantly but I would say that we as a people are far less informed than we were before every opinion had a youtube channel and followers.
Back when the world was young, Star Wars hadn't been ruined by CGI and you had to really put in some effort to find new music, movies, books, etc it was easy to pick up a paper and read about what was happening locally, state-wide, nationally and internationally in a local paper. The news was at 6 & 10, and there were morning shows, but those were for old people, shut-ins and when you were sick and your mom gave you seven up and saltines to make any malady go away, especially if it was a stomach issue. 60 minutes, 20/20 and a few other shows were on in prime time offering longer-form television journalism. Books were still important to everyone's lives, and the Libraires' card catalog had a class unto itself so you could learn how to find the knowledge you sought through the Dewey Decimal System (Still relevant today).
Cable television came onto the scene and I remember watching MTV for the first time in Chris Meig's living room. We were all astonished at how far we'd come. I catfished a mid-20's woman in the late 80's with one of the first intranet options available for home use because I didn't know what catfishing was then, and the internet was just invented.
Since 1972, the speed, delivery mechanisms, volume and questionable veracity of information have increased exponentially. What used to take up a warehouse in terms of computer power now fits in the palm of your hand. We've uploaded everything but our consciousness to the cloud, and I imagine that's coming soon. As a species, we've decided that volume is far more important than any other aspect of information like truth, empathy, critical thinking, etc. We consume information like we consume a fast food value meal - quickly, no real nutritional content and then we wonder why our brains are flabby and weak.
Over the last 2.5 decades, what I've seen is that we are quicker to anger, faster to judge, seek to find weakness in order to make ourselves feel better, actively reject truth when it does not comport with our values while we trivialize our politics into yet another spectator sport. We belittle those with more knowledge when it challenges our assumptions, we roll in ignorance like a dog in a mud puddle.
Perhaps the strangest thing I've seen is that as more information becomes available to us, humans tend to make their own circles smaller, cutting off new data, new wisdom and new thinking in favor of the bubble of comfort that comes from surrounding yourself with like-minded people.
We've traded volume and comfort for wisdom and grit. We've elevated narcissism and vapidity over humility and grace.
So yeah, we have far more information but the quality and veracity is lacking significantly but I would say that we as a people are far less informed than we were before every opinion had a youtube channel and followers.
ismith
Well-known member
“Monkeys, Guns and Money”, isn’t that a Warren Zevon song?
I went home with a waitress the way I always do
How was I to know she was with the russians, too?
I was gambling in havana, I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!
An innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck between a rock and a hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes, I'm down on my luck
Well, I'm down on my luck
I'm hiding in honduras, I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns, and money
The shit has hit the fan
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Send lawyers, guns, and money, hiyah!
Send lawyers, guns, and money, ow!
The song is a great example of what I was talking about. Today, you don't need to send the lawyers, guns and money because they'll be there before you call to stand in front of a camera and turn it into an informercial.
After Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine is when our media really started to fit the shan. We lost the necessary gov't lever to ensure fair and impartial broadcasting because human nature is drawn to greed, excess and amassing power. The boardroom take over of the editorial room is the greatest disaster to freedom of press and speech that we've faced as a nation, but because we get season 43 of the Kardashians and Fail Army vids, we're cool with it.
I was in the grocery store Friday and overheard a lady talking in the chip aisle "We have 500 different kinds of potato chips to choose from but we only get two shitty choices for president."
And that's the world today - far fewer choices on stuff that matters, tons of bad information to confuse and muddle us, comfort to distract us and two really shitty choices for a leader.
But we celebrate, because tonight there's a new episode of the Acolyte.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
It's almost like the more information we receive, the more difficult it becomes to make an informed decision. I will add that somewhere along the line Ben describes, we stop accepting that there were tradeoffs that needed to be made and sacrifices to be endured to deal with problems. Before 24/7/365 info at our finger tips, we voted and let our leaders determine what tradeoffs need to be made. Now, no one wants sacrifice anything and just blames the "other guy" for the problem.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
"So I opened up my truth parsed for special interest benefits machine this morning..."
-Me
-Me
The delivery boy has been replaced with the algorithm to help deliver the news you want right to your finger tips.
Click on this amazing story about Lindsay Lohan's journey of recovery, motherhood, and some upskirt stuff.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
For today's flurry of circumspection:
I saw them open from Brian Williams at a birthday party for a 11 year old at Chuck-E-Cheeses in Lodi, NJ.
Not what I excepted. Too much Ranch dressing. Cannot reccomend.
The opportunity to be more informed is definitely greater than it used to be. The information is there and easily accessible, but I don't think very many people are better informed than in the past.
The old saying " I'll believe it when I see it" has been replace by "I'll see it when I believe it."
The old saying " I'll believe it when I see it" has been replace by "I'll see it when I believe it."
406dn
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2019
- Messages
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It is hard to disagree with any if this. The fairness doctrine did provide guardrails to political discourse, since each side was able to make the case, and rebut a case at the same time. There was no advantage to having a political pundit as the host, so it was played closer to down the middle.
There was an earth quake at our home last Thursday. My wife, who is not nearly as political as I am, retired to the other room. Biden was so horrendous at the beginning of the debate that it was undeniable. It is impossible to deny that he has lost his fastball, maybe entirely.
My view of Trump has not changed over time, and it is not a favorable view.
One of them is going to be the next president, unless something totally off the radar screen shows up. How it ends well, is difficult to see. My boomer generation is handing a shit sandwich to our children, and grandchildren.
I am in a total quandary over how I will vote this November. As posted by Ben, two shitty choices.
