The Truth is Relative
Hi,
I grew up in Kansas City, MO watching CNN almost every single day with my parents. I knew Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Wolf Blitzer probably better than most 10 year olds. I mean the Situation Room was my jam. I watched very closely as my parents reacted to various news stories. They really loved the political segments. At the time (2006) Barack Obama was all the rage. My parents would almost lean into the television when there was any mention of his name. CNN, being CNN, rarely said anything bad about Obama. My parents loved that, especially being African themselves, seeing a half African man potentially become President of the United States (POTUS) was extremely powerful to them. They loved the idea so much that they only watched news outlets or read news articles that told them what they wanted to hear which was: Barack Obama is great. Barack Obama will be the next POTUS.
My parents continued watching CNN until I left the house and still do today. So when I grew up, CNN was my go to news outlet. I would turn it on first thing in the morning and eat breakfast while catching up on recent news. But oh how things have changed. Today, I cannot watch CNN at all. It makes me kinda sick to be honest. It is so incredibly biased “news.” Everyday there is something new to be mad about or some Republican that did something wrong. In reality, it isn’t news. It’s all emotion. What they do is draw in viewers with things that make them angry, sad, or outraged. They prey on people’s emotions to keep them watching.
I’m not singling out CNN because most news outlets are guilty of this. Fox News, MSNBC, Huffington Post, etc. The list goes on. They use their viewer’s emotions to keep getting their views. Then, that viewer gets even more outraged, starts posting all over social media about, and starts telling other people that they should also be outraged about the same thing. I think you see what I’m getting at here.
I won’t lie and say that I haven’t fallen into that trap. I have been that person to post like 10 different Instagram stories in one day about numerous things I feel outraged about. But I realized that it doesn’t help anything or anyone really. Anger is a useless emotion, unless it creates some type of positive action. Notice how most news outlets tell people of something terrible that happened but don’t tell people how they can help? News outlets just want your emotions and that’s it. So you can keep watching or reading and keep getting emotional. That cannot be good for one’s mental health.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be aware of current events. 100% we should. It’s so important. Nor am I saying that certain current events shouldn’t make us angry. But we need to be careful on where we get our information from and we need to focus what we do with that emotion. We’re all allowed to feel emotions about certain things but we need to be productive with the emotion.
I love my parents but they were very naive. They gravitated towards news outlets that gave them information that made them comfortable and never challenged their beliefs. It’s so important to question and challenge our beliefs to ensure that they align with who we truly are. That’s why today, my main source of news is the local news. My basic CBS morning news local to Denver. They don’t usually play with my emotions and give me straightforward information that I need about what’s going on in the world. But if you do watch or read mainstream media, I suggest that you diversify. Maybe try listening to people you normally wouldn’t listen to just to get a new perspective. Gaining new perspective on an issue is so powerful in the world these days.
Thanks for reading.
