Digging for news from much dirt

It really is not news

What passes for news nowadays when I scroll down my newsfeed more than grieves me, there are titbits of information, knowledge and ideas shared but in the main, it is about forgettable event and people seeking notoriety, controversy, conspiracy, and gossip.

Just the headlines alone are off-putting, affairs of inconsequential people laid bare and publicised for no particular benefit, but it appears to sell. I see some that talk about the decline rather than the rise of people in their looks, their worth, or their fortunes. More sinister is the opinion mine of suggestion and supposition with no basis in truth to create feuds and turmoil in the lives of others.

A place for the nasty

If you deign to read any of it, the copy is just the beginning, scroll down to the comments and they are vicious, nasty, and horrible. I have come to accept that there are misery vampires out there who seek lives to suck the joy and happiness out of.

In other ways, it is just projection. What people say about things is probably more a reflection of themselves than of the issue they are commenting on. I still believe in the view of if I have nothing good to say, I will say nothing. However, if there is a contrary opinion is needed, it should be delivered in the nicest way possible, without malice, spite, or prejudice.

Putting my filters to work

Maybe, what I need to do to work on better filtering the kind of news I get, though there isn’t much I can do if random links are delivered as part of the advertising and marketing streams that even the somewhat salubrious sites need to exist.

In other ways, I think, about the following things:

• Is it newsworthy?
• Why is this important?
• Who? And that is many more questions, some you do not voice.
• What is the intention for this piece?
• What is telling or teaching me?
• What is the information shared and how does it help me?
• Is there anything here that can help make me a better person?
• Is this about the human experience of the marketing of misery?
• What good can come from reading this and then sharing it?
• Maybe I have an opinion on it, how can I express it well?
• Are these people just overexposed and in seeking notoriety?
• What is the example here worthy of my attention?
• Can I learn anything useful from reading this?
• Is this factual, truthful, an expose, or just opinion masquerading as such without the expert underpinnings to make such assertions or commentary? These pandemic times make that is a serious question to ask when we consume anything that purports to be news.

The list is neither complete nor exhaustive, but one should avoid clickbait, fantastic headlines that have no bearing on the story. Then one last thing, apparently informational pieces that cannot be placed on one page, requiring you to click through multiple pages weeding through stupid and uninteresting advertisements exploiting your apparent curiosity. I’ll be honest, I do not waste my time on that anymore.