It's OK To Turn Off The TV And Put Your Phone Down
At times, it has been tricky to figure out what I am going to blog about for my daily Token CEO related blog. Today was not one of those days.
What started with coronavirus and has now combined with nationwide protests is a 24/7 media-cycle to match the constantly changing news. It is not crazy that someone may find themselves glued to the TV on your news channel of choice. Whether it be FOX News or MSNBC, all the major networks have adapted to systems where they are constantly trying to push out new news constantly. I cannot even tell you how many times I am sitting in my apartment with the news on in the background and "BREAKING" is said super loudly. I'd estimate about 5 percent of the time the news would actually qualify as so. This constantly cycle of categorizing news as so important it gets this BREAKING label makes it difficult to turn off or look away. Unless you're someone who is fine feeling uninformed, which is I'm sure incredibly blissful and something I wish I was capable of, it is really hard to unglue your eyes and ears from these news sources. "We have breaking news from _______ after we go to commercial" has become incredibly commonplace and, again, generally factually inaccurate. When I worked in traditional news, the term "breaking" was used to basically identify deaths, life-threatening developments, major sports trades and not much else. It is important to understand that the vast majority of news is for-profit news and the longer the viewer watches, the more money advertisers will shell out. Most of the news networks, whether you're far left, far right or somewhere in the middle, are going to spend most of the time teasing and rambling to keep you watching. That is their job.
Social media is the same way. Regardless of whatever personal echo chamber you have created for yourself with whomever you choose to follow, people are feeling the need to constantly tweet out "news" or information that is technically words but lacks and substantial substance. No one is really safe from this, regardless of who you are. I've been caught up in it myself and I'm sure you have too. As someone whose job it is to scour the internet and lurk for hours a day, I understand how hard it is to look away, even when I am not working.
To bring this rant back to earth, what I'm trying to say is regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, your feelings on any protests or frankly how you feel about anything at all, it is important to just put the phone down, turn the TV off and excuse yourself from the constant news cycle, you'll be better off for it. Also, if the news is really important enough, it'll make its way to you one way or another.
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To listen to today's episode of Token CEO and hear Erika's thoughts on the current state of media, here's the link for ya: