Navigating the News

One of the books I read a page from (almost) every morning is 365 Prescriptions for the Soul by Dr. Bernie S. Siegel.  Dr. Siegel is a writer and retired pediatric and general surgeon who writes and teaches about mind-body medicine and the relationship between the patient and the healing process.  I find his one page essays on living a good way to start the day, even on days when I don’t agree with his suggestions.  A few weeks ago, in an essay titled The News, he suggested that I should Never watch the news before you go to bed, after you wake up or during the day and you’ll live a longer happier life.   I’ve been thinking about his advice on and off since I read it.

(Anti-)Social

Picture this, if you will.  Everyone’s electronic devices … phones, computers, tablets … are connected to a massive computer that monitors everything they do and uses that information to control what they believe, think and do.  Or.  Imagine that your devices and everything you do on them is displayed to a team of managers whose job it is to keep you online as long as possible and to drive you to look at certain advertisers’ information.  Sounds like a 1990s science fiction film, but it’s not.  These are two of the images the film, The Social Dilemma, uses to illustrate the ways that social media like Facebook and Instagram are damaging our society through manipulating what we look at based upon our actions online.  The film offers three areas of concern: mental health because studies show a decline in mental health and life satisfaction greater use of social media; decline of democracy because of disinformation campaigns on social media; and rising extremism because the majority of people in extremist groups were steered there by social media.

Biased

I posted this on my other blog, Both Sides Now, but I’m posting it here because it’s relevant to the purpose of both blogs.   It’s also think it’s a good post and gives me an opportunity to promote my new blog to readers of Older Eyes.  If you are one of the few who already subscribe to both, I apologize.

I like to begin my day with a cup of coffee at my side and my tablet in front of me, seeing what is going on in the world from the various news outlets. I have searched for years for a source of unbiased news (a phrase that should be a truism but turns out to be an oxymoron) but have finally settled on reading biased news from a variety of sources, then drawing my own conclusion. Over in the blogosphere or on social media, it is worse. Opinions masquerading as facts may not win the day but they dominate it. It is as if we are pre-programmed to be biased, which we are. The culprit is not some brain-hacker out of The Matrix but a fundamental characteristic of our species known as Confirmation Bias. Our Creator (or Evolution, you choose) has endowed us with a very strong tendency to sort through the array of information available to us at any instant and choose that which supports our current opinions, thus strengthening our belief. Some scientists explain that for our ancestors, dealing with simpler (but more critical) situations (like Is that a Sabre-Toothed Tiger and is it likely to eat me?), reaching a quick decision in the face of sensory overload was a matter of life or death. If this is the case, then Confirmation Bias is strongly linked to our Flight or Fight Response, becoming strongest when the situation seems threatening.

Hello President Trump …

… Goodbye Social Media.

I did not sleep well on election night.  A man I would not allow in my home is now the president-elect of the United States. My feelings about Donald Trump were clearly stated in my election eve post, Enough.  But now the election is over and he has won, fair and square, in spite of his carping about rigged elections.  If you look at the voting demographics it looks like certain parts of the Democratic base didn’t turn out for Hillary and it is likely that the third party candidates hurt her as well.   Let me say this … if you didn’t vote or voted for a no-show in protest, you don’t get to complain.

This is the point at which, in most years, I would try to accept the will of the people and hope for the best from the winner.  But I find Trump so reprehensible that hope is difficult to come by.  Last night, before I went to bed, I said a prayer for our country, which is the best I can do for now. Perhaps the man will turn out to have a conscience after all, or as several people have told me, his theatrics reflect the salesman he is … once the presidency weighs upon him, he will be a better leader. Perhaps the Republican leadership or VP Pence will help him find a steadier course, in spite of their failure to do so during the campaign.  I can look back to voting for Romney four years ago and hope for rightward movement in some of the areas in which I am conservative.  And I will keep on praying.