mass media fear factories

"When there is full attention there is no fear. ...inattention breeds fear, fear arises when there is an avoidance of fact, a flight; then the very escape itself is fear".

                          J. Krishnamurti

Much of my early life was spent playing hard, so that by the time I reached Maximum Testerone I was surfing big waves, sailing the ocean, working  underground, riding fast motorcycles, drinking to excess and sometimes driving home and having sex. Perhaps the sexy thing was not so risky. I realise all this is de rigueur or it was in the eighties, but I've long been aware of the Scared Little Me that sits inside and tries to avoid being hurt. 

The person that impacted me above.and beyond lecturers and professors at university was a young student, Nanette. Nanette, was an undergraduate studying visual arts and psychology. She studied Psych101 because she wanted to be an Art Therapist, but her superpower was being a Delicate Flower. She was a beautiful human; smiley and cute, chatty and open but when anyone spoke to her she had expressed a look of fear lest they generate harm their  words. One day she half jokingly showed me a metal sieve that she carried about to protect her by "filtering out negative stuff that rains down" as she held it over her pretty head.*  Yes, I would have loved her had I been unmarried and younger, but I loved her in a soul sense because she sparked in me the need for self love and protection. 

One of the principle harms caused to young men of my era, aside from paedophile clergy, proved to be the mew s media. I long ago weined off TV, especially commercial varieties. My take on the model was that they shock or titillate to draw you in to watch advertising. I switched to the National Broadcaster which was free and free of advertising. But increasingly I've found the news to be a Big Downer. 

I found this research finding_about the impacts of news media posted by BBC TV in Britain:-   

"It can increase our risk of developing post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. Now there's emerging evidence that the emotional fallout of news covers he can even affect our physical health – increasing our chances of having a heart attack or developing health problems years later".

So, feeling this in my bones, I've also cut watching the news. But as watching comedians with odd appearances, voices and opinions, drives me spare,  I've really no truck with TV. The final straw has been snapped this week following the passing of Pope Francis. Literally within minutes of his passing they flooded the air waves with experts who invariably began with " I'm not a Christian but..." and proceeded to lay the boot in. So disgusting. 

So hows that going? Well, where there's a void sethimg will fill it and I've found myself consuming more social media. This is obviously not ideal :- "a systematic review of research into the dark side of social media use has identified 46 harmful effects, ranging from physical and mental health problems to negative impacts on job and academic performance, as well as security and privacy issues"

Fortunately, my antennae were on full alert as I've been through assault by media all my life. Two positive things about modern or social media is choice and higher user control but its easy to drown so remain alert Terry. 

Remain alert,  not to fear but of inattentively consuming media. Be like Nanette and carry a metaphoeical sieve to sort it out.

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* It seems Nanette was alluding to a ancient method to filter the continuous stream of information we encounter. This system originates from Socrates, a philosopher from Ancient Greece renowned for his wisdom and his famous test of the three sieves. Socrates' would ask people to stop before they spoke and to consider whether their information was true, good and useful.