Monday, March 5, 2012

Day Nine: Hate Reading

Not as in "I hate reading" but as in hating things and reading them anyway (or really, because of the hate). I've found cutting out news has stopped me from doing a lot of hate reading.

It's a weird but real phenomenon. I would look for articles that I knew would provoke a reaction in me, whether because of the writer (poor logic always gets me going, for instance), the opinion stated, or even the comments by the usual suspects. Sometimes I would read the comments to see others tear the writer apart; sometimes I'd read them for the same reason that I read the article--to hate them.

I'm not sure what drove me to do this. However, I am sure that the content producers know that people have this tendency (some more than others). I look at a place like Slate, the types of headlines and stories they put together, and I'm amazed I didn't realize the blatant manipulativeness of it sooner. I knew that their headlines were supposed to be provocative, but I never thought deeply enough about it to see the extent of the manipulation.

When the profit motive becomes a driver for news sites, this is the result. It's more noticeable in the headline news segment of the business, or even the local news business ("What common item in your house can kill you in under twelve seconds? Tune in at 10 to find out!"), but it also exists in those news sources that present themselves as more serious. It all gets back to the idea of simulation--the selection of stories does not represent reality, but rather an elaborate front, one shaped by ideology, greed, and cognitive biases.


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