Now, don't get me wrong here when my words seem to bash the virtues of self-expression and the freedom of choice. My intentions are however on the contrary.
At times of crisis, economic - as of now, and social- as of every other day, we find obituaries being written not of men, nor institutions alone, we find it being done for independent "Dailies" too,the Seattle Post-Intelligencer being the latest to pass away. Independent journalism is finding it hard to sustain in its ancestral format: ink-on-dead-trees(aka. newsprint) and is rather being pushed into the safe haven of cyberspace.Though its existence is ensured, the melodrama here, is dedicated to the emergent structure of social thought and attitude, that this reality shall nurture.
News today, is an entity not just in the hands of the journalist(the creator) but also in the hands of the audience(the consumer).Its a product, manufactured by either the liberal, objective, analytical and conscientious journalist(good manufacturing practices) or the prejudiced, subjective, careless , insincere journalist. Further, the commodity is available in the open market (cyberspace), wherein every individual has the privilege to choose what she wishes to gain access to.Now I, as any other grazer of news in the cyberfarmland is my own farmer, my own harvester.Each of us in the public community is our own editor and our own gatekeeper.We select the kind of news and opinions that concerns us the most.
Now, the question arises, what exactly could be so disheartening in such a reality. Well its just this-- there's good evidence that we generally do not want good information. As reader's we generally gravitate towards news/information that seems to validate ideas or opinions that we already hold. And when every individual with his limited intelligence,begins to feast on news that seems to "embed him in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber" *, only God can save him.
Continuous reassurance of one's beliefs makes him intolerant to any alternative perspective.As a society,we become closed insular congregation of people with similar convictions.
Bill Bishop in his work The Big Sort:Why the Clustering of :like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, argues that
The nation grows more politically segregated-and the benefit that ought to come with having a variety of opinions is lost to the righteousness that is the special entitlement of homogenous groups.We become polarised communities and intolerance becomes a subconscious virtue.Further, there runs the risk of opinions,discussed within the community tending to become more homogenous and more extreme. We fail to see the world as it is, truth becomes a matter of conformity to a held belief. It becomes a new dogmatic religion, and this shall mark not the elevation of an intellectually higher being, but the decadence of society into another disintegrated whole.
The Daily Me , shall be our accompaniment at the coffee-table and the rest-room.News shall blend into commodity of self-indulgence and entertainment. We'll find our wisdom,limited though it may be, confirmed and reconfirmed, to mark each of us as wise, if not the wisest of the folks around.The danger lies in us being the architects of our coccoons of monochromatic-world-perception,in a reality that is permeated with color and brilliance.
