I’ve heard far too many times that the world just isn’t like it used to be; it’s a terrible, cold, harsh place now. I can’t say that I blame people for thinking this, as a simple flick of the television switch to almost any news station seems to heavily affirm this idea. Every other story is about terrorism here, a war there, and social injustice basically everywhere on the planet. Now look, I’m not naive enough to really believe that the world is perfect and has no issues, because it isn’t and it does. This does not mean however, that it is a terrible place to live in. This general anxiety over issues that constantly threatens to steal our peaceful state of mind seems to be a product of an over-negative media climate. A climate that has done only to instill fear and a sense of extreme cynicism that should not be so prevalent as it is.
First, the claim that the world is worse off now than it used to be; this is simply ridiculous. War is globally on the decline, nations around the world are making incredible advancements in science and medicine that dwarf most discoveries made in the last 100 years or so, and (in a more American-centric issue,) contrary to popular belief, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, is actually on the decline. To say that the world was better off 50 years ago when it was getting over the largest war in recorded history, when social discrimination was not only okay it was enforced much more strongly than today, and when the world was very clearly split down the middle against each other, is ridiculous.
So as informative as news stations may be, it may be more beneficial to simply turn off the more mainstream sources of news. I’m looking at you, Fox, CNN, Channel 5, as well as basically any other major news station on the air. Unfortunately over time, mainstream news coverage seems to have turned from what people should know about in the world, to what people are morbidly drawn to. It is almost impossible to see a whole news day go by without mention of some shooting here, a horrible accident there. I’m sorry, but no amount of cute animal videos is going to rebalance that either.
Granted, the news isn’t always so positive for good reason. Sometimes tragedies do happen, and sometimes people have to know about them to keep informed on the status of their home. It is not necessary however, for news stations around the Boston area to cover every homicide and every tragedy in the state. This is the equivelant to internet clickbait, and unfortunately it seems to be working just as well. Point is, while it’s easy to point out all of the world’s tragedies and preach that it’s all gone mad, it’s not at all an accurate representation of the state of the world. For every tragedy there will be a wonderful occurrence, discovery, or event that will (hopefully) restore some faith in humanity. They say that all news is bad news. My response to this, is that this is true only in the eyes of news stations, and should adversely not be true in yours.
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