Many of us have become observers of the world around us, seldom thinking of the consequences of our in-actions.
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For the past ten days I’ve been home with the flu. Just me, my dog Habib, cat Sam and an endless stream of media nonsense from the TV. I knew my mental state had taken the same decline as my body when by day 4 Donald Trump started sounding like a viable option for president.
Normally, when I have the strength to turn off the television, I can shake it off and do something more productive, like convince Sam and Habib why they should get along. But there I was. Hour after hour of media sound bytes ticked off. Out of the foggy haze, I started seeing a pattern.
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The conversation was directed and purposeful. An inordinate amount of time was given to Donald Trump’s attack on the Clintons and trying to get the Clintons to respond. The FDA’s new food guidelines were reported with little fanfare or question. Cutting back sugar was the big news on most media outlets. No one thought to ask if those new guidelines would address our obesity problem, cardiovascular issues, or free people from the multitude of drugs they are on because of the food they eat. Ironically, pharmaceutical commercials punctuated nearly every break.
Entertainment news, which wasn’t much different than “hard” news outlets, paraded the same tired celebrities to promote the latest and greatest rehashed cop show or new, but similar, shows of the past. Of course, the hosts gushed over the celebrities like, well, like celebrities.
Even in my Dayquil inspired stupor I wondered what happened to us as a country. When and how did mindless media engulf us? Hasn’t someone noticed this kind of dribble coming out of the 200+ channels before?
Here are a few facts most Americans don’t know:
- The United States incarcerates more people than anywhere else in the world at 698 per 100,000. (That is, with the exception of a small country in Africa, which has less than 100,000 people.) One report shows the U.S. holds up to 25% of the entire world’s prisoners, though we only have 5% of the world’s population.
- 17.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) goes toward healthcare in the United States, more than any other nation in the world, though the quality of our healthcare is dead last compared to other developed nations.
- Gun deaths are higher in the United States than any other modernized country.
- The United States ranks 17th out of 34 nations in education, though we rank 5th in spending per capita.
- The biggest discrepancy in wealth is in the United States, with just 10% of the population holding more than 75% of the wealth. The gap is the biggest it has been in 30 years.
What Bill Clinton did 20 years ago has no bearing on the very real fact that we have a country full of poor, ill educated, obese, gun toting citizens being fed what the media wants them to hear and the government wants them to eat.
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What Bill Clinton did 20 years ago has no bearing on the very real fact that we have a country full of poor, ill educated, obese, gun toting citizens being fed what the media wants them to hear and the government wants them to eat. And it was quite clear, during my time on the couch, the media’s sole purpose was to sell more products.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist kind of guy, but there is a system in place. As long as controversy, Kardashians, and complacency distract us, we’re going to be stuck listening to the nonsense the media and financial stakeholders want us to hear. No matter who becomes president, our problems won’t be fixed.
Why is thinking so hard?
Like the fast food industry created tasty snacks combining sugar, salt and fat, the entertainment industry has learned to appeal to our basic desires. We like warm, fuzzy personal stories that make us feel something. We are, after all, social creatures.
The late Dr. Paul Grice, discovered the four maxims, or principles of communication, our brains naturally listen for in conversations. We listen for honesty, information, relation, and clarity. If we feel these four objectives are present, we will engage with the person on content.
The news industry has learned that polarizing statements and controversy brings back viewers again and again.
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Honesty, of course, is relative. But if we want to believe what we are being told – Bill Clinton is bad, therefore Hillary Clinton would make a terrible president – our brains concur and continue listening. The news industry has learned that polarizing statements and controversy brings back viewers again and again.
Information has crossed the line from something that is new to something that reinforces what we already believe, even if it is something we have been taught to believe by osmosis. When we hear the same rhetoric, it becomes more ingrained. Research shows that we will eventually become an extreme version of the rhetoric to which we subscribe unless a safe opposing point of view enters the picture. Unfortunately, a safe opposing point of view doesn’t create controversy, which doesn’t draw viewers or advertising dollars.
News and entertainment organizations have learned to lull us to sleep by making their talking points the only talking points talked about. Collectively, we’ve bought into a system that says unless it is talked about on a major media outlet, it isn’t that important.
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Relation, or relevancy, has become the focal point of any communication plan. We are bombarded by information from our smart phones, televisions, and now washers, dryers and refrigerators. Consequently, we have trained ourselves to become reactive to new information and pay attention to only that which has immediate impact. News and entertainment organizations have learned to lull us to sleep by making their talking points the only talking points talked about. Collectively, we’ve bought into a system that says unless it is talked about on a major media outlet, it isn’t that important.
If you’ve ever wondered why the same story plays on station after station, it’s because the message or talking points of conversation are tightly controlled in American Media and the message we are supposed to hear becomes crystal clear. To see something different, tune into Al Jazeera or the BBC, which are not owned and controlled by American Corporations. The stories are not only off the beaten path, but often come without the frills of dramatic music and condescending rebuttals.
Our brains, like any other muscle, have to be exercised. And, like taking your muscles to the gym, some days are harder than others. The Stroop Test, which shows the word of a color, such as the word “blue,” but colors the word green, (e.g., Blue), asks participants to say the color, not the word. This initiates two functions in the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).
The DLPFC is the reasoning function of our brain that makes sense out of honesty, information, relation, and clarity. However, its function is also nearly automatic. We put the pieces together based on what we believe. If your eyes see green and you know the rule is to state the color not the word, you want to follow the rules because that makes sense. But that’s where the ACC comes in.
The ACC in our brains causes us to pay attention. It’s the part of our brain that gets alerted when something is out of the ordinary. It is involved in decision-making and impulse control. So, though we know we are supposed to say green, we are automatically reading the word blue. The ACC tells us not to say the word blue, but instead, speak the color we see.
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If we paid as much mental attention to the media as we did with that little exercise, it would exhaust us. Many of us willfully choose ignorance over the constant stream of otherwise mental conflict and discomfort thinking would undoubtedly cause.
The question is, how long we can ignore the problems that plague us as a country? Even with the racial, financial and religious polarity we face, the United States ranked 31 out of 34 developed countries for voter turnout. A paltry 53.6% of eligible voters voted in our last presidential election. Many people truly believe their vote doesn’t matter. Perhaps they’re just waiting for the media to tell them what to do.
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Photo – Flickr/ Jacob Bøtter
I challenge you, I dare you, to get rid of your television. Many of us have already.