Socially Distanced Media
How to avoid the outrage and stay informed.
This morning was like so many. One-handing coffee and peanut butter toast because in the other hand was my phone, scrolling through the daily barrage of news and reactions and, inevitably, outrage.
I used to call myself an information junkie. Now I know it’s more like an outrage addict. I still get the information, but I seek out the reactions. I dig into the threads and comments, looking for what others are saying about the information. I tell myself I’m looking for the story behind the story but inevitably those layers are nothing more than bite-sized op-eds.
And let’s be honest. I’m not reading those to expand my knowledge. I’m weaponizing it. Hardening my position, fueling my outrage with other people’s ire.
I know it’s getting bad, personally, when I start to argue online with strangers. It’s rare; I typically keep to the etiquette of only arguing with the people I know, which is a funny yet true bit of decorum. But things build and hit a critical mass and suddenly I’m calling out the comments of strangers. People who know people I know or total randoms. This never works, whatever works means, and neither of us ever wins, whatever wins means. And yet there we are, connected by only the air we breathe and the thread we’re both shitting into.
That’s when I know it’s time to stop. In the past that’s meant abstinence, signing off social media like many do. Just walking away (only to crawl back eventually).
This morning I felt that tipping point coming on thanks to yet another viral video tangled through with race, violence, guns, fear, privilege and, of course, Donald Trump. And my reaction was—it’s time. Social media lockdown in 5…4…3…
But then I write about it some and in the process I got a better understanding of why I reacted to the incident the way I did, what I would do differently in the same situation, and maybe why those involved did what they did. I spent some time with it and, I think, came out with some understanding. And that’s valuable.
So I won’t quarantine myself from social media, not yet. But I will treat it with some social distancing, to keep hammering a metaphor. A few rules I’m gonna try out for myself:
Don’t go looking for trouble — motherly advice but don’t go to Twitter or Facebook looking for “takes” on the news. If you’re going there to connect with people or to get information, fine. If you’re going there to see what other people “think” of the news (like many people, I do this constantly) and simply to plug into the outrage machine, just don’t. Don’t open the threads, don’t dig into the comments. Get your connection and your information and move on.
Remember it’s a mob — the majority of social media sources you engage with aren’t experts; they’re just people with opinions. Unlike any other humans before them, every single person now has a way to spread those opinions planet-wide. And like so many humans before them, they cluster together in their belief sets. It’s a mob, and like any mob it is ruled by not by logic but by momentum.
Find other sources — make sure you can read actual news stories from actual news sources that are responsible, verifiable, thoughtful. Pay for journalism. Like any harmful habit, one way to break this one is to replace it. If you still want to spend your morning with coffee, toast, and your phone, replace those toxic threads with content that’s been professionally vetted and published not always without error but at least with a responsibility to the truth. And if you’re going to read opinions, at least columnists put some craft and career into it. There’s something more at stake there, and more to back opinions up than just more opinions.
That’s how I’m going to try to keep myself informed but maybe a little less overwhelmed and outraged in the midst of all 2020 is throwing at us.