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Raw 'n' Uncut: Drowning in the News
18 Plays8 days ago
How do we stay informed and educated without overloading our nervous system?
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Life's Effin' Nuts'
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome, friends, to another episode of Life's Effin' Nuts. I'm your host, JR. Life's Effin' Nuts, one man's stories and ruminations on being human in an upside down world.
00:00:22
Speaker
um
Southern California Fires and Personal Impact
00:00:26
Speaker
I briefly just want to acknowledge the
00:00:31
Speaker
The fires and the devastation, the tragedy down in Southern California, all the lives that are affected, all the suffering that's happening, um the lives that we've lost, the firefighters who are working on the front line, um all the residents who are inhaling all that toxic air, just the whole situation. um I grew up in Southern California.
00:01:01
Speaker
and my whole family's down there and thankfully everybody's safe um but my my parents and one of my sisters um both have been evacuated for long stretches of time ah thankfully they also they have a place to go so they're safe and they have a place to go and I'm grateful for that but there is a lot of a lot of suffering and a lot of devastation down there and I'm not on Facebook very often, but I occasionally go on just to check my notifications and I've just seen some posts from high school friends who've lost everything, who all of their childhood kind of memories are just gone, all like the favorite places they spent as children, how their house but plus like the community is just gone. So I'm just, my heart goes out to everyone and and I, um
00:02:02
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I hope for healing and for recovery.
00:02:06
Speaker
um
News Consumption Habits
00:02:10
Speaker
With the devastating fires and the and the tragedies that are happening down there, I've been thinking a lot recently about the way that I consume news. And and I've thought about this for a long time.
00:02:31
Speaker
as As you all know, we we live, most of us, and at least in the mainstream culture, live in like a 24-7, 365 news cycle. And that can be political news, entertainment news, sports news, cultural news, that, you know, there's an endless stream of Stories and content articles and pictures and videos just an endless endless endless stream of it And in some ways it's amazing and
00:03:13
Speaker
Humans have more information than we've than we've ever had, more awareness than we've ever had, more capacity to express ourselves, to tell stories, um to bring issues that need to be seen to to the surface. So in some ways, that's a great, wonderful thing.
00:03:40
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um
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But I also I'm I'm.
00:03:50
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Personally, I think a lot about. OK, let me let me OK, let's pause for a second, friends. Let's pause for a second here. All right, what I'm trying to say, I'm going to I'm going to give a specific example. It'll be easier because I was trying to kind of fumbling around my thoughts there for a second.
Media Consumption Phases
00:04:10
Speaker
Like, wait, what what is j r talking about? OK, so.
00:04:15
Speaker
I've gone through different phases in my life in terms of media consumption and keeping up with politics and oh world events and things like that. Sometimes I get really into it where I'm just like, sopping it up like a sponge.
00:04:35
Speaker
I want to know as much about the world around me as I possibly can, from local stuff to regional stuff to national stuff to international stuff.
00:04:48
Speaker
And I went through a particular phase, probably like in the, I would say like the six to nine months leading up to the past election, where I was probably like,
00:05:01
Speaker
I would say reading articles for a good 90 minutes per day. I'd wake up really early and read a bunch of articles and, you know, during my lunch break, I'd read some articles before bed, I'd read some articles and articles from many different publications, many different points of views and perspectives. Like I wasn't just like mainlining the the cable news program of my choice or something like that. i I was genuinely trying to understand and educate and think critically about things.
00:05:32
Speaker
And on top of that 90 minutes of reading every day, I you know was always listening to um political podcasts too, a variety of different political podcasts, you know on my drive to work, while I'm doing laundry, while I'm cleaning the house, while I'm doing dishes. So staying very educated and informed as much as I possibly could on on a wide range of topics and issues.
00:05:58
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and
00:06:01
Speaker
In some ways like I genuinely enjoyed it because i I I really enjoy I like journalism I like feeding my mind. I like being educated and aware So there was a genuine enjoyment But there's also this element where I kind of became a junkie about it ah a little bit To where Like I would kind of fiend Like i would I would be scrolling through different articles and I would like see an article or a headline. I'd be like, oh, we've got to read that one. And I'll like get all jazzed and juiced and excited for it. And it just felt like there was no end to the amount of articles that I wanted to read. There's just so much stuff out there.
00:06:48
Speaker
And also like I was like kind of like in and It would kind of get me into this Stimulated space high high stimulation space and I would I would want to like stay in that high stimulation space like the ah the idea of stepping away from The different storylines the different issues that were arising felt More or less unthinkable like it was I wanted like I was really in a
00:07:16
Speaker
I don't know I was I was I don't even know how to put it I was just like I was I'm i'm kind of thinking of a hamster wheel but I don't know if it's quite a hamster wheel but whatever you I think you get the point and
00:07:36
Speaker
after pretty much, and and I didn't even plan it this way, but after the election happened, i i for for the few days after the election, I read a lot of like the post-election coverage and a lot of the analysis and um thought pieces and just all a whole whole bunch of different voices and perspectives on on what had happened, what transpired.
Post-Election Media Shift
00:08:00
Speaker
And then, like I said, without even planning or thinking about it,
00:08:05
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I just lost ah an appetite for it. I just, I couldn't even bring myself to like read an article. Like I almost went like cold turkey. I almost went like from one side of the pendulum to the other where I just like almost instantaneously just felt like I do not want to read another article.
00:08:32
Speaker
And like I said, that all happened naturally, but then
00:08:37
Speaker
I've realized since the election, I've felt better, not consuming as much media, not reading as many articles.
00:08:50
Speaker
Like I feel less like a junkie. Like I feel like I feel more like I have more agency over the moment.
00:09:05
Speaker
Like when I was in that kind of junky phase, I felt like anytime I had free time, I just kind of impulsively would just read articles or listen to podcasts. Now, when I have for free time, I kind of think to myself like, hmm, what would I like to do right now? And so there's more agency, if that makes sense. I feel, I feel less beholden to the, to the, to the machine of the 24 seven news cycle.
Emotional Impact of Political News
00:09:33
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and also i feel like
00:09:40
Speaker
I feel I feel like specifically with politics and specifically like with the current state of politics with such so many like such like intense division and so much hyper partisanship and so much.
00:10:03
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um Raw rage and distrust.
00:10:11
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that it feels like um for me it felt it started to feel almost like or at least in retrospect impossible to like consume political news or political thought and not like get agitated in some kind of way.
00:10:35
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Like it it, in retrospect, like i I couldn't do it in a way that was like purely educational or like somewhat neutral, like in inevitably it would like stir up intense feelings in me. And not to say that that's wrong, but I just, I've, I've recognized that.
00:10:58
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Anyway, so.
00:11:01
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Yeah, definitely cognizant that since I've been consuming a lot less media, I feel better. I feel better. um But it that it begs the question, it brings something up. And this is something I think I've thought about for a lot of my life.
00:11:23
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How important is it
00:11:26
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to like I guess for me like as someone who aspires to be a moral being I'm wary of putting my head in the sand or
00:11:48
Speaker
kind of like living in my own little war world, blocking out all of the things that are happening in the world around me. Like some part of me has that desire to do that for like, because i for like self preservation in some ways. But is it wrong? Is it morally wrong to not be aware of everything that's happening around the world. And like also, like where is the line? like how How much should I be educating myself? Should I be um tuning in to the different crises that are happening around the world, the wars, um the injustices, the suffering, the existential threats and challenges?
00:12:41
Speaker
Am I articulating myself well? yeah You guys get what i'm where I'm going with this, do you? I'm kind of asking this large question on the role of media, of journalism, of being educated and informed.
Informed vs. Overwhelmed: Finding Balance
00:13:00
Speaker
Like where's the dividing line between being a engaged conscious citizen
00:13:09
Speaker
And then on the other side spilling over into this kind of like mass consumption mode where I'm just like taking in so much information and and in the process of that.
00:13:28
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kind of freaking my system out because I don't know if it's natural or normal. I don't know if the the human brain the human mind is supposed to or equipped to know about things that are happening all around the world at any given moment like
00:13:53
Speaker
it To me it seems like there's just a ah ah point where it becomes too much. like It's not actually constructive for me to know about every act of injustice and suffering that's happening in the world right now at this very moment as I speak.
00:14:11
Speaker
like that that's just too much for the human brain. Like how like, like just the way our brains are wired, if like if I'm in that heightened state where I'm just aware of all these atrocities, all these injustices that are happening, all these crises that are happening, that I won't be able to walk across the street, like it will put me in a state of like, hyper awareness and paralysis, hyper awareness and or paralysis.
00:14:36
Speaker
I think but I guess I guess I guess the one of the important factors to to sort of incorporate into this equation is like what I do with the information.
Importance of Action over Passive News Consumption
00:14:52
Speaker
So I guess it's like it's one thing if I'm kind of just like constantly consuming and becoming aware of all these horrible things that are happening in the world.
00:15:07
Speaker
and then I'm letting them just like stew in my gut or stew in my mind and like just kind of mess up my mental health versus I guess like the the healthier version would be you know if we learned about things that
00:15:30
Speaker
are not or maybe not learned. But if we're if we're if we either a learn about things or be or just like continuously staying informed about situations that are immoral, unjust, etc. And then that inspires us or compels us to try to take action to get involved. So I guess that that is a very important distinction and variable.
00:16:01
Speaker
um
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's what you do with it. and And I guess, and even even with that being said, I still think there's probably value in boundaries,
00:16:21
Speaker
that that it's just not sustainable, I don't think to just like constantly 24 seven, just be feeding ourselves with just Like I said, I keep using the same words, atrocities, injustices, horrors, devastations, all around the world, thousands and thousands of miles away.
Engaged Global Citizenship
00:16:40
Speaker
Or in some cases, it could be five miles away, whatever whatever it is, but just that, that I think, yes, it's important to be informed. Yes, it's important to be educated. Yes, it's important to be like an engaged global citizen.
00:16:59
Speaker
ah to be involved either either locally, regionally, nationally, internationally to to do something. Because I feel like if we all just kind of like, well, it's happening across the world for me. I can't do anything about it. I'm just going to hang out on my porch and drink a beer or whatever. If we all did that, then
00:17:19
Speaker
You know, we're probably moving toward, I mean, we might already be moving towards planetary collapse or civilizational collapse, but like definitely if we're all just like, yeah, like not my problem. So, so I think it's important to be an engaged citizen, an engaged global citizen. Um, but I guess just for me, having, having some balance is important.
Balancing Awareness and Well-being
00:17:47
Speaker
Um,
00:17:49
Speaker
to be educated, aware, informed, but then also to have moments where like, okay, like there's a lot of horrible, horrible, horrible things happening in the world. And right here where I am in this very moment, at least for me right now, I'm i'm i'm sitting here in my car recording this and it's pretty quiet, blue skies, birds chirping.
00:18:18
Speaker
And so here in this moment, right now, like things are relatively quiet and peaceful. And I think for me sometimes just to like take care of my system, I need to like be like, okay, I can like, I can chill for a second. Like right now in this moment, I am okay. I am safe. I can take a deep breath. Um,
00:18:48
Speaker
But then, you know, there's gonna be other moments where that's not the case, where there's something happening, like, right in my immediate circle, vicinity, that needs tending to. yeah Anyway, ruminations and reflections.
00:19:07
Speaker
Life's effin' nuts, man, trying to make sense of it all, woo!