Attention Span of America

Tragedy happens yesterday, we all want details. Understandable.

But there is an issue with the way stories cycle through the media, and the things it says about America. The News has become a big business, and TV Ratings are priority. Sure, maybe you could say the media is state propaganda...but still, they need to get as many people to watch as possible.

We saw that within weeks after the James Holmes shooting, it was old news.

Israel-Palestine have a ceasefire, and updates on the situation stop.

Syria, there's still a conflict over there, right?

Why can't we keep a consistent focus on the big picture? Even here on ATS, a huge percentage of the activity is related to this shooting yesterday.

Why weren't we discussing gun laws two days ago, the issues are basically the same as they were. Should we increase regulations or not? One mass shooting among many shouldn't cause a major shift in the debate.

How about the fiscal cliff? Is anyone talking about tax rates/spending/deficit today? Isn't this a more worthy topic than gun regulation?

The war in Afghanistan? That's still going on...


The point is that we're constantly talking about these topics on a reactive basis. It's whatever's hot, that's what we decide to talk about. Meanwhile, there is a slew of issues that are here with us on a daily basis and are much bigger.

Even gun control, that's a small potatoes issue. All the arguments are focusing more on whether or not regulations will prevent violence and less on the true big picture debate on how much freedom should be sacrificed for public safety.

The gun control debate is the same as the internet privacy debate in this manner.


Not only are we brushing aside what the big picture issues truly are, but we are doing it in favor of these explosively divisive topics.

Whether it's Israel/Palestine, or increasing gun regulation everyone is getting so attached to their side in the debate that we're forgetting that we all basically agree on what we want.

Which is Peace.


There is a ton going on in the world, and we can't allow the media's propensity for disproportionately focusing on the newest breaking story to allow us to forget about the big issues, even for a moment.


Even more, we shouldn't allow these issues to let us lose sight of our commonality as human beings that essentially want the same things: quality of life.

These issues have legitimate points on both sides, there is no reason to write off someone who disagrees with you as less of a person. Let's have some common respect.


Let's remember that there are systemic problems in our society that plague us from the local to the global levels. When a new story breaks, it's important to view it in the context of everything else. It's important to discuss the issues that arise with mutual respect and open mindedness.

Let's combat the decreasing attention span of America by staying level headed and focused on big issues at all times. And remember that we agree on more that we disagree.

I feel like ATS isn't much better than the media in this respect...

Exploiting the hot story for "ratings." You start a thread called "Guns are Evil" yesterday with a hyberbolic OP....you got yourself 20 flags at least

Sounds like a CNN strategy.

reply to post by PatrickGarrow17


Peace is the biggest threat to those that control us!

Look at those who have been assassinated who have spoken out and gotten people to get together insteading of fighting amongst themselves.

Patrick, all of this fighting is not an accident, we have been programmed this way so that peace will NEVER be attainable. For those who promote it, oh well, say hello to MLK, JFK and Malcolm X for me.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by PatrickGarrow17

 

Peace is the biggest threat to those that control us!

B.I.N.G.O. not much more could be said.

reply to post by seeker1963


Yep, and it's not even just physical peace. We need more peace in our ability to discuss our issues without verbal attack. More recognition of common ground and less demonizing of the opposition. In my opinion peace in discussion comes before peace in action.

It's not just this shooting...every day the most discussed topics tend to rise from a breaking story. We're talking about the disease in the context of the symptom, instead of talking about the symptom in the context of the disease.

We need to stop hacking weeds and start pulling roots.

The point is that we're constantly talking about these topics on a reactive basis. It's whatever's hot, that's what we decide to talk about. Meanwhile, there is a slew of issues that are here with us on a daily basis and are much bigger.

You have a valid point OP. In trying to think about this, imho it has to do with time, the need to process and our minds tend to want to deal with one thing at a time. In this day and age information overload is a real issue.

Part of the appeal, need, for ATS is it allows us time to mull over and discuss/process events, until we gain some sense of understanding and thus I suppose the illusion of control. In rl we must worry about so much minutia we do not have much time to worry about things that do not directly affect us, there is some necessary denial there too I think.

When I am bombarded with endless news that is tragic, and I can have no impact on the outcome, sooner or later I am gonna shut down and just not care.

Perhaps it has mostly to do with control, to face the lack of it, is just not gonna work for the way we are wired. We move on in order to be more comfortable with ourselves and the world. So yes it is about attention span, but more about what is behind that.

ATS is a community. Communities come together to grieve, to talk. What happened yesterday has us all needing that community contact.

Sad to say, that in a week or less, something else will occur to knock us sideways again. Then we deal with the fresh news, and push aside the old. It's a survival tactic.

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
We need to stop hacking weeds and start pulling roots.

OK
This one sentence caught my attention, simple yet so profound because it encapsulates how I and I'm willing to bet a few others here feel as well.

"TPTB Are evil!"

"Yeah"

"What are we going to do about it?!"

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by PatrickGarrow17

 

Peace is the biggest threat to those that control us!

Look at those who have been assassinated who have spoken out and gotten people to get together insteading of fighting amongst themselves.

Patrick, all of this fighting is not an accident, we have been programmed this way so that peace will NEVER be attainable. For those who promote it, oh well, say hello to MLK, JFK and Malcolm X for me.

edit on 15-12-2012 by seeker1963 because: (no reason given)

AWESOME QUOTE!!!!!!!! AWESOME POST!!!!!!!!!

All of what you said is so true.

I leave most of these stories alone when the journalists start interviewing each other.
I think I started noticing it after the Challenger disaster and it seems to happen after every huge story.
It will continue until the next breaking news.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I agree that crickets should be a bigger part of the food supply, I don't think that will solve all our problems.

"What are we going to do about it?!"

There are a lot of things to do about it. A lot of our problems don't require drastic sweeping action. Simple things like giving a few hours of community service per month go a long way to address a lot of the systemic problems. Taking care of the poor and building stronger communities in general reduce the reliance on centralized institutions. People doing this type of stuff can multiply into real progress over time.

There really isn't a need for a major overhaul of the system. A lot of the issues can be addressed within it. Companies are generally a reflection of consumer behavior. Government is generally a reflection political behavior. We just need more people who see the problems to take it upon themselves to be an example of the cultural shift toward more responsible ethics that America needs more than any government policy change.

Just my opinion, we aren't quite so close to collapse. We don't need to advocate revolution so much as focus on small steps to make a difference over time and get society on track.

Americans are at the point where they are literally the puppets of their government,....

reply to post by liam8126


That's an extreme generalization, but, I'll give you a chance...

What countries have less puppeted populations?