These dumb topics all converged toward the end of the last week into some sort of controversy. I ignored it as best I could, but thanks to the constant news cycle and multiple info streams, I filled in the gaps. As predicted, the entire issue was irrelevant, inconsequential and forgettable, and remains so.
There are a hundred noisy, low-quality sources vying for my attention each day. Each one attempts to turn up the volume enough to interrupt what I am doing and get me to click or swipe.
Alarmingly, even the Google mobile search bar includes a news feed edging in underneath it that cannot easily be turned off. A Google product forums user named Patches23 echoed my feelings very well when he or she wrote, asking how to turn it off:
“I don’t ever want to see any news when I say ‘OK Google’ or tap on the search widget. I don’t want to see what’s trending, I don’t want to see anything about a certain politician. If I have to look at this shit every time I want to search for something I will throw the phone away. You will never see me asking for one news story from Android search so there is no history. How do I get rid of this, is the only way to disable feed completely and lose everything else that goes with it?”
Knowing the details of the Trump-Twitter-NFL controversy against my inclinations served as a reminder to me that I must take control of my information intake. There is very little value to me in passive news consumption. And there are costs.
Taking control is effortful. To do it I have turned to podcasts, Feedly and Amazon’s Send to Kindle Chrome extension. I use the BBC’s primary news site to see the important global stories. Sadly, I abandoned The Guardian once they committed to their all-Trump-all-the-time formula. Active use of Reddit is a big part of my effort too. Although configurable, Reddit is too easy to scroll through, so it remains risky.
Am I part of the trend of people moving toward news sources that simply reinforce their own opinions? I don’t think so. I think that kind of self-sorting is an effect of scrolling through a tailored news feed that has a long history of your viewing habits, such as Facebook’s. I think a deliberate and selective approach is much better than browsing the feed. I’d rather hunt stories like a shark than filter feed like a whale.
pseudoisaac 