Tag Archives: digital

Where do you get your news?

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Audio Recording of The Blog Post, ‘Where do you get your news?’

The question I have is simply this, where do you get your news?

For me, I have poor taste when it comes to news and media outlets. Much of what I see, hear and read for news is unverifiable, prejudiced, and unfiltered.

Let me explain.

I don’t read NYT or WSJ. I don’t watch Fox or CNN. I don’t visit MSNBC or Yahoo News. I don’t subscribe to UNZ or Daily Wire. I avoid spotify and youtube. So where do I get my news?

Let me just say this, I get my news from the worst of places; I have for years. And no, it isn’t Facebook, Twitter, Parlor, Gab, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or Snapchat either.

This news source I visit is the most hateful, biased, untrustworthy, and often revolting place to get the news. And yet, most of the above outlets get their leads from this source.

Before I simply tell you where, I want to consider the follow analysis of markets.

Analysis of Outdoor & Virtual Markets

I want you to look at the following pictures for a moment and then I want you to answer the following question, “Where do you spend your work day?”

Do you work in a market or at a computer?

If the answer is you work in an outdoor market, than your perspective on the world is influenced by other human market participants. Their opinions, their tastes and their behavior determine how you interact with customers, vendors, and administration in the market. All of which are very real, observable, and interactable.

The outdoor marketplace is a highly unfilterable place. Market participation is regulated by local custom, laws, manners and tradition.

If your answer is you work at a computer, than your perspective on the world is influenced by non-human implmentations of market participants: algorithms, user roles, and digital content. All opinions, tastes and behavior virtually represented determine how you interact with the representation of customers, vendors and administration of the digital marketplace. All of which are virtual, anonymous or obfuscated.

The virtual marketplace is a highly filterable place. Market participation is regulated by system code, user interfaces, and account status.

News Found in Outdoor & Virtual Markets

So what does the difference in outdoor or virtual markets have to do with my getting the news? Well, I’ll tell you.

When you participate in outdoor markets, one such topic that comes up while participating in them is the news. And the news is entirely independant of the unfiltered nature of the outdoor market. Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and all other prejudices and preferences will be present in the market, and they will be expressed subtly and explicitly.

When you participate in a virtual market, one such topic that comes up is the news. The news will be entirely dependant on the filtered nature of a virtual market. Prejudices and preferences will be filtered by the constraints of digital content, algorithms and user interfaces. And as such, market participant expression will be supressed implicitly and explicitly.

While news in outdoor markets is less verifiable, it is generally more reflective of the moods, opinions, and sentiments of the market. Conversely, news that takes place in virtual markets is more verifiable, and yet is often reflexive of sysadmins, power users, and bots.

Your Preference for News

So coming back to the question, where do you get your news?

For me, I prefer to get it from visiting places, watching what’s going on and asking others. I find it highly rewarding compared to visiting websites, watching content and posting comments. 

It bears repeating, where do you get your news?

Digital Minimalism is Not A Digital Detox, It Is a DTR

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Digital Minimalism is a DTR

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Samuel Morse Quoting Numbers 23:23 “What hath God wrought?”

In many ways, how Newport ended his book is an apt way to do so. Yes, the all too poignant words of Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the morse code, as he demonstrated the telegraph to the United States Supreme Court, are maddeningly accurate now staring down the end of the first quarter of the 21st century: WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?

For those of you who don’t know, I have read Cal’s work before. This, Digital Minimalism, is my second report on Cal’s work. I’ll admit that finishing this book has been as transformative as it comes when taken into light of the plague that has infected our species. No, I’m not talking about The Mind Virus of Pornography. I’m talking about connectivity.

I noticed something in the LaGuardia Airport Terminal on my way home from a recent vacation to the Liberty States: New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware. It only took a brief glance waiting in the terminal to see how sick our species has become since the advent of the smart phone in 2007. Sick with what you ask? Sick with distraction. In a very short time, these devices, powered with social media apps of today and the moneys being pumped into our attention economy, have entirely robbed our species of our most precious resources: our time, attention and care for others.

Take a thirty-day break

Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism

If you don’t believe me, then take up a challenge proposed by Cal Newport: “Take A Thirty-Day Break“

Now if this sounds obscene or impossible to you, consider that you may very well need to take a deep and difficult look at the relationship you have with your devices. If you are anything like me, then you will see this thirty day challenge as the reason you have been waiting for to get out. And shoot, you might even stop everything (including enjoying this post) and take on the challenge right now.

This is not a detox. I told you that from the get go. A detox implies that you will go back to doing what makes you sick. This is a transformation. You will never be the same after you have re-assessed your relationship with your devices. And if this is your first DTR (determining the relationship), you are likely in for a real awaking. But don’t worry, Digital Minimalism will equip you with the foundations and practices you will need to over come the challenge (literally, those are parts one and two of his book).

I am sure what you will likely find in those thirty days, just as I have, are things that you have missed that you weren’t even aware of. How about the joys of solitude? Or what about the power of face-to-face conversation, with someone you care about? And what about the rewarding experience of taking part in your community; a real, in-the-flesh, community of people who share common values with you? If you are scoffing here that you can get all that from airplane mode, messaging a friend, or posting to one of your preferred groups… you are probably sick.

“Turn on, tune in, drop out”

Timothy Leary

If you don’t understand what I mean by sick, and you don’t understand what sickness I am talking about, than you most certainly can not be a part of the cure.

If this is your first time hearing this, then may it awaken you to the truth of what is going on all around us every moment…

Are you ready?

Okay…

Here it is…

The all-consuming, attention-whoring, power of modern connectivity fueled by social media, general purpose mobile computing machines, and the trillions of dollars that tech giants have invested to keep you “turn[ed] on, tune[ed] in, drop[ped] out” of your life are what are currently holding you back and keeping you sick.

Undo what man hath wrought

Alixander Court referencing Digital Minimalism

To be free of the attention sickness, and to reclaim your life from the unintended slavery that the digital era has imposed on us as a species – power off your screens, go get Digital Minimalism at a book store near you, and undue what man hath wrought.

I’d love to know your comments below about what think about what man hath wrought.