A Thought On News - Making Every Problem Your Problem (1 Viewer)

[Joe Bryant]

In hindsight, I should have known talking about the media as I did in the opening post was bound to get political like it did. My mistake.

You mean you didn't?

No.

I meant what I said when I wrote in the opening post, "And I know some folks think the forum would be better with political talk back but we're not going to do that. And please don't make this non political thought political."

I'd hoped we could keep the topic on the original post "The goal of the media is to make every problem, your problem."

We couldn't. And I was part of that problem.

 

[ZADO]

Thanks. I'm not sure I'd agree people in this forum would merit "not much" for how informed they want to be,

I am simply going off the threads that draw eyeballs and interaction here. It is not current events.

I'll give an example: Artifical Intelligence. Kind of a big deal. Less interesting here than the price of an Egg McMuffin.

This seems self-evident to me. @Nathan R. Jessep has a 5 year old thread with random/interesting stories in it. He posts science developments, non-political items that catch his eye. Lot of cool, non-political stuff. No one is in that thread.

There's two guys posting back and forth in the Russia/Ukraine thread.

This is not an indictment of anyone. People are older. Less interested in new things. Less interested in what's happening beyond their circle, whatever that circle encompasses. Human nature. Humans everywhere, not just here.

Thanks. Understood.

I feel like most people here do care about being informed. At least more than "not much". But that's just my perception.

Wanting unbiased news reporting should be a common desire for most people . 1440 is pretty straight down the middle no nonsense reporting , no opinions swaying thoughts , which is great .

 

[Terminalxylem]

Thanks. I'm not sure I'd agree people in this forum would merit "not much" for how informed they want to be,

I am simply going off the threads that draw eyeballs and interaction here. It is not current events.

I'll give an example: Artifical Intelligence. Kind of a big deal. Less interesting here than the price of an Egg McMuffin.

This seems self-evident to me. @Nathan R. Jessep has a 5 year old thread with random/interesting stories in it. He posts science developments, non-political items that catch his eye. Lot of cool, non-political stuff. No one is in that thread.

There's two guys posting back and forth in the Russia/Ukraine thread.

This is not an indictment of anyone. People are older. Less interested in new things. Less interested in what's happening beyond their circle, whatever that circle encompasses. Human nature. Humans everywhere, not just here.

I feel like middle aged and older, wealthier people tend to be more interested in politics. Certainly more of them vote.

Pop culture, not so much.

Which demographic do you believe is most politically involved?

Maybe younger people, college and just out of college.

But I agree with you.

But I don't think FBG demo is wealthier. Do you?

Yes. I think we’re largely college-educated, which correlates with income.

 

[MTskibum]

Thanks. I'm not sure I'd agree people in this forum would merit "not much" for how informed they want to be,

I am simply going off the threads that draw eyeballs and interaction here. It is not current events.

I'll give an example: Artifical Intelligence. Kind of a big deal. Less interesting here than the price of an Egg McMuffin.

This seems self-evident to me. @Nathan R. Jessep has a 5 year old thread with random/interesting stories in it. He posts science developments, non-political items that catch his eye. Lot of cool, non-political stuff. No one is in that thread.

There's two guys posting back and forth in the Russia/Ukraine thread.

This is not an indictment of anyone. People are older. Less interested in new things. Less interested in what's happening beyond their circle, whatever that circle encompasses. Human nature. Humans everywhere, not just here.

I read many of the same topics that are posted in that thread, however I read them on tech/science sites and when i do want to discuss them i post over on tech/science sites and not here.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Thanks. I'm not sure I'd agree people in this forum would merit "not much" for how informed they want to be,

I am simply going off the threads that draw eyeballs and interaction here. It is not current events.

I'll give an example: Artifical Intelligence. Kind of a big deal. Less interesting here than the price of an Egg McMuffin.

This seems self-evident to me. @Nathan R. Jessep has a 5 year old thread with random/interesting stories in it. He posts science developments, non-political items that catch his eye. Lot of cool, non-political stuff. No one is in that thread.

There's two guys posting back and forth in the Russia/Ukraine thread.

This is not an indictment of anyone. People are older. Less interested in new things. Less interested in what's happening beyond their circle, whatever that circle encompasses. Human nature. Humans everywhere, not just here.

I read many of the same topics that are posted in that thread, however I read them on tech/science sites and when i do want to discuss them i post over on tech/science sites and not here.

May I ask why not here? We’re not a tech site but plenty of people here are knowledgeable in those areas.

 

[MTskibum]

Thanks. I'm not sure I'd agree people in this forum would merit "not much" for how informed they want to be,

I am simply going off the threads that draw eyeballs and interaction here. It is not current events.

I'll give an example: Artifical Intelligence. Kind of a big deal. Less interesting here than the price of an Egg McMuffin.

This seems self-evident to me. @Nathan R. Jessep has a 5 year old thread with random/interesting stories in it. He posts science developments, non-political items that catch his eye. Lot of cool, non-political stuff. No one is in that thread.

There's two guys posting back and forth in the Russia/Ukraine thread.

This is not an indictment of anyone. People are older. Less interested in new things. Less interested in what's happening beyond their circle, whatever that circle encompasses. Human nature. Humans everywhere, not just here.

I read many of the same topics that are posted in that thread, however I read them on tech/science sites and when i do want to discuss them i post over on tech/science sites and not here.

May I ask why not here? We’re not a tech site but plenty of people here are knowledgeable in those areas.

Usually each of the posts in Nate's science thread is an article with an entire topic of 100+ replies devoted to on various tech sites, It is a different level of discussion.

Depending on the article you usually have people who work in the field posting in the comments.


Edit:
Similar with boating, you have worked in boating and there are numerous people here skilled in various aspects of boat ownership and mechanic ability, over at thehulltruth where i post for boating stuff there are many people there who work in the industry or can just build a boat from the ground up. It is a different level of discussion around boats. Detailed discussion on how to design, choose a material, and then build transoms and stringers, etc

 

[djmich]

A thought from the "Make the forum better" thread https://forums.footballguys.com/threads/how-can-the-forum-be-better-your-thoughts.812250/

And I know some folks think the forum would be better with political talk back but we're not going to do that. And please don't make this non political thought political.

Naval Ravikant is a famous guy I like. One of his lines is "The goal of the media is to make every problem, your problem."

I think that's 100% true. The news feels important because it's often about important stuff and has a long history. But it's really a TV show. And like any TV show, they need interest.

The way the news spins that is making problems personal. A local bank was robbed in Oklahoma City? If you live in Brooklyn, that probably doesn't affect you that much. But if you're not affected, you're not interested. So the people delivering the news have to figure out how to make you care. And they do that by making it your problem.

Was listening to a podcast recently that sorta hit on this. Basically the answer is you’re not busy enough. Immerse yourself in something productive.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Was listening to a podcast recently that sorta hit on this. Basically the answer is you’re not busy enough. Immerse yourself in something productive.

Truth in this.

 

[Gatorade]

Just to clarify, I am not anti-news and certainly don’t think everyone would be better off if they didn’t pay attention to the news.
I’m just saying that eliminating news consumption from my daily routine has been a net positive for my psyche. YMMV.

And like most things, it's a spectrum. I think the trick is finding the answer to what you asked earlier about how much consumption is enough to stay informed and be a good citizen.

It's been my experience there that the "sweet spot" maybe less consumption than one might think. At some point, there are diminishing returns for the consumption on the scale of how much is actually needed. And of course, "need" is subjective too.

I do follow your line of thinking, getting upset about news can be bad for the psyche and in today's environment there's a lot of things people can get upset about and we're also getting news or maybe I should say "news" from many different sources. On the other hand the vast majority of people are grossly misinformed, partly due to the sources of news, and probably partly due to the amount. So a few soundbites from a bad intentioned or misinformed source will be their primary source for information.

My wife was like this. She would get so upset that she finally had to completely stop watching the news. I fed her little snippets of info now so she stays somewhat informed, but she is much more relaxed now not watching the news.

 

[The Duff Man]

News is a business and so the business side will always influence content.

Not sure what the alternative is: state funded media? NO THANKS (ahem…the Canadian CBC)

 

[Gally]

In hindsight, I should have known talking about the media as I did in the opening post was bound to get political like it did. My mistake.

I am a bit confused on the "no politics" rule. For example, your statement here. I haven't thought that anything in this thread has gotten "political" in a negative way. I see you post that political topics aren't allowed or to keep things away from politics.

I don't think "politics" is the problem or what you are trying to avoid here. I think people getting personal in responses revolving around political views is the problem. Based on that i don't think any topic is inherently bad to discuss but there are some that are so emotionally charged they will turn "bad". So I wonder if there is a different term that should be used instead of "no politics allowed".

This thread has seemed to get hung up on this a bit. I don't think the discussion has been in the forbidden area even though the general "politics" is involved.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I haven't thought that anything in this thread has gotten "political" in a negative way.

Thanks. I appreciate what you're saying but I think others would disagree.

And yes, it's not the actual politics. It's how people respond.

We'll be fine. We've done a good job of keeping things non political since we made the change a while back.