Humans are naturally sensational creatures. We are constantly looking for information that is new, exciting and unusual. It would not be interesting to hear about the president of the United States eating breakfast, unless, of course, he was on a new diet in which he only ate the bone marrow of Moroccan chickens. Why is this interesting? Because it’s weird, and we as sensationally-seeking individuals are inclined to pay attention to things that seem out of the ordinary.
This is encoded in our DNA. In the hunter-gatherer days, when things seemed out of the ordinary, it could usually be attributed to the fact that something was either better than usual or worse than usual. Maybe a particular wild berry caused someone to die: bad, but interesting. Maybe a different wild berry caused someone else to develop noticeably stronger muscles: good, and interesting. The sensational attachment to these things is typically good. Adopting good behavior and avoiding bad behavior will typically lead to a better life.
Now, I want to bring this same idea to the concept of media with respect to the shift towards technological dependency. As media is able to spread at rates like never seen before, the diffusion of crazy ideas follows the same pattern. Whether it’s on Instagram, Twitter, or someone’s blog, media is absorbed at astounding rates. From the outside this doesn’t seem that bad, as being entertained is a necessary part of living a good life. However, I find that when everything new and innovative is happening online, some of the things in life seem less interesting. There is essentially a treadmill of media: we go to platforms to consume information, are entertained briefly, and then we go back searching for something more exciting and more innovative than we saw before. It’s a tough cycle to break out of, especially with the presence of questionable and “fake” news creating news articles that are created specifically to get an emotional reaction from the viewer.
By using media to appeal to the sensational elements of humans, the ones producing the content are essentially leveraging an individual’s natural tendencies in order to further one of their own priorities (often making money). As a generation that lives more and more in the virtual world, how ethical is it to create a world in which there is so much bullshit media that has no purpose other than to create an emotional draw from individuals?
“The victim of the lie is, in the degree of his deprivation of truth, shut off from the world of common experience and isolated in an illusory realm to which there is no path that others might find or follow”
-Harry Frankfurt, Truth, Lies and Bullshit
Hey Andrew, great post! I agree with your assertion that the quality of journalism and the spread of information has been compromised in favor of "novel" tidbits, often without significance. Maybe we can try delivering news of yesterday's events in a wacky costume? Unfortunately I don't see an easy fix here - in my opinion the dilemma is a larger symptom of the damage to attention technology has caused.
ReplyDeleteWholeheartedly agree with your points on sensationalism and human curiosity/behaviour. I think that your narrative could have been made more explicit if the quote from Frankfurt could have been placed at the start. With a more critical analysis and link to your examples then the build up to the point of media would have demonstrated your insight in this topic in a better way. Also, I think that your third paragraph can be split up to make it clearer to your readers the direction of your argument in that particular moment. I think that your point of the treadmill of media could have been made more impactful if you simply made that sentence the start of a new paragraph. If not, I loved your article as it delved into the basic human biases and reasonings!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew nice post. One criticism I have is that I'm not entirely convinced by your argument for why humans are sensationally seeking. Instead of basing your argument on human evolution, you could reference a study on the psychology behind why people are drawn to sensational information. I really like the topic you chose and the way you compare people's media consuming habits to a hedonic treadmill. Another way you could improve your post is by expanding more on concepts presented in our reading and use that as evidence to further support your claims.
ReplyDelete