Free thought: evolution of bad news
Hey ya’ll, it’s been a month and two days, but per policy, I don’t apologize for not posting…just simply didn’t have time. 
Let’s look at the evolution of bad news…
- 19th century: most bad news you got took a while. “Hey we lost the war” might come 2 months after it had actually happened. OR “The crops are gone” at which point you know pretty quickly.
- 1942: bad news came more quickly. “2000 people died fighting in Germany last week” took….a week.
- 1995: bad news came really fast. “2 old ladies were shot in North Charleston today, police are currently on the scene.” AND you got way more bad news than you needed.
- 2009: there is more bad news than you can hope to read. Just look on twitter, search “coma” and start scrolling.
My point is, I read a tweet saying: “pray for my relative who just had a stroke.” at which point, I read the next tweet which was: “hey download my free song.” and I clicked. Legitimately I don’t have the emotional capacity to care about all the disappointment and devastation I hear about. I’m quickly becoming jaded. Are you?
View the evolution of bad news from this angle too.
We tend to consume content from people who we "know" now. That is getting more and more the case. What happens when tragedy hits that stream? I've had a number of instances where people that I follow have come near to death or have actually died. The signal goes out. One second, they're tweeting about Tiger Woods, and the next second…nothing.
As more and more people adopt the technologies, we're going to see more and more of this revealed in the lives of those we love. Blogs and microblogs leave this "ghost" of us around.
Not really what you were talking about, but just came to mind. I personally have found that Praying without Ceasing is easier now than it used to be. God knows the prayers before we ask anyway, but he loves to see his obedient people lift up others in time of need. It shows faith in Him and trust in His providence.
I stopped watching the news when the 2nd Iraq war started. I found it way too depressing to watch news about who died today, every day. I miss a lot of news but the big stuff usually gets to me anyway because people around me talk about it. Right now I am happy with the system. When the 1st Iraq War started, I heard about it on the radio in the car 7 minutes after it started. That would have landed in the 1995 category. It is amazing.
I totally agree with you. I refuse to watch the news because it is always so negative. Twitter can be that way too. But, there is also a flip side…good news can be shared really easily now too..more importantly, His news. That's what I try to focus on!
but yea, I'm definitely worn out with all of the bad news.
Hey bro! It's Casey Graham. Saw your comment on Ben's site and wanted to follow up and say hi. I couldn't find an email address so I just decided to hit your blog up! Hey, I would love to pic your brain on some internet stuff!
I know what you mean.
Now the news is becoming community drive. You see it happen, you tweet it, and – potentially – everyone knows.
do they care? That's another question all together.
If someone tweets back – praying for you, do they?
hmmm
I was listening to this thing on the news the other day about a decade in review and they started playing news clips from September 11th. From the beginning to the end of them figuring out what had happened. I started to think about what it would have been like with twitter around then? News would have traveled really fast (ala Michael Jackson)..
I definitely know what you are saying. It is like we have become numb to pain and grief and move on pretty quickly. I guess we are overloaded.
Ha when you think about it,
2001: September 11, catastrophe. Everyone knows that day.
2009: Balloon boy, a balloon flying around. Everyone knows that hour.
View the evolution of bad news from this angle too.
We tend to consume content from people who we “know” now. That is getting more and more the case. What happens when tragedy hits that stream? I’ve had a number of instances where people that I follow have come near to death or have actually died. The signal goes out. One second, they’re tweeting about Tiger Woods, and the next second…nothing.
As more and more people adopt the technologies, we’re going to see more and more of this revealed in the lives of those we love. Blogs and microblogs leave this “ghost” of us around.
Not really what you were talking about, but just came to mind. I personally have found that Praying without Ceasing is easier now than it used to be. God knows the prayers before we ask anyway, but he loves to see his obedient people lift up others in time of need. It shows faith in Him and trust in His providence.