Episode discussion topics
What a mess: Profit-motivated niches and confirmation bias zones abound. Anything that you read or watch that only confirms what you already believe is traveling a well-worn road of confirmation bias. Treat it like junk food. Find something else to read, watch, or listen to that challenges your perception.
Just like tobacco products, processed mock foods, and social media. Big media products (from the likes of CNN, Fox, MSN, etc.) or bogus media products (from the likes of NewsMax, OAN, etc.) are...
Episode discussion topics
- What a mess: Profit-motivated niches and confirmation bias zones abound. Anything that you read or watch that only confirms what you already believe is traveling a well-worn road of confirmation bias. Treat it like junk food. Find something else to read, watch, or listen to that challenges your perception.
- Just like tobacco products, processed mock foods, and social media. Big media products (from the likes of CNN, Fox, MSN, etc.) or bogus media products (from the likes of NewsMax, OAN, etc.) are engineered to be addictive and unfulfilling so you keep coming back for more.
- Fear and anger are laced into their products to stoke our emotions and hijack our thinking with these emotional responses. Those offer a subconscious backdoor of hijacking your survival instincts via the amygdala in your brain (a.k.a. our lizard brain - of fight, flight, or flee fame).
- Watcher beware the energy vampires, this channel will suck your life and may kill you. Fear and anger shorten our lives and erode our rational minds.
- There is no warning or nutritional labeling for media, so it is near impossible to verify the validity of news (what is junk or food) without exiting your bias zone to see what other points of view are being presented on the same subject. That also sounds like work for a lot of people, but it's not more than changing the channel. But leaving the comfort of your bias zone can be scary, bring your courage and remember they're only words. The worst of which lead us to hate one another and see each other as less than human or possessed.
- Creating distance and controlling how much you let in into your life will help create more calm in your environment - big media is designed to be addictive, by triggering strong emotions. It is not motivated to be informative or nutritious, it is junk food full of sugar and cortisol, the stress hormone. Here is an article from psychology today for reference, "Anger's Allure: Are You Addicted to Anger? Reasons why anger can be a hard habit to break."
- This is one of the few times I might think of the good old days, say when you knew you were reading a tabloid by its cover. Now there's a blend of it mixed into everything under every cover. One needs to be skilled up and vigilant to avoid it.
- Calls to Action:
- What is one to do? Use your agency and freedom of will to control what information you consider.
- Get on a media diet by getting a handle on your media faucet. You need to be in control of your consumption and enforce limits for yourself as a habit. It is up to each of us to protect ourselves. Look away. Turn it off. Tune it out. Take a break. For instance, use a timer or DVR to allow yourself to watch specific programs, with a purpose, within a fixed time frame like one hour. Too many of us just leave the TV or YouTube on steady stream flooding our environment and disrupting or distracting our concentration.
- Choose to be open to information that you may not agree with. It doesn't mean you have to change your position. Strategically it makes sense to understand all counterarguments so that you may better see the whole landscape. Also, be open to changing your mind when it aligns with your innate, natural, or common, sense of morality.
- Choose your time and your content with care. It's your choice how to spend your limited time on Earth. No pressure.
- Pick sources that give you multiple perspectives covering any given topic so they can act as plot points in triangulating the relative truths among all the stories. Each reporter presents their version of the truth based on the information they were able to obtain or blanks that are choosing to fill in.
- Aim to have a balanced and fact-filled diet. Think of the food pyramid or building a diversified portfolio of information sources. Don't only eat potatoes or trust only one type of source for information. That is not good for you or your brain. Beware the fast-food of journalism, "entertainment media." If it makes you scared and angry, then it's not entertainment. If it does not make you more informed, then it is not journalism. Stop wasting your life on it.
- Support independent journalism. Reputable sources are worth a subscription. Also, beyond picking a single news site or magazine, you can check out some of the new curation-based services like INKL and others.
Your hosts: Michael V. Piscitelli and Raymond Wong Jr.
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