The death rate for children has dropped dramatically • Hacker News Board

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#11

Post by seibelj » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:10 AM UTC

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #6

savant_penguin wrote: post #4

"Yet there's cause for alarm" I find these claims actually dangerous We risk disrupting what has consistently been a downard trend by acting on some arbitrary definition of "cause of alarm". Teenage pregnancy after the 1960's is one example of that

Claiming everything is cause for alarm is defecting against the ability to communicate about important things because it means alarms no longer work. Journalists have been crying wolf 24/7/365 on every available bit of bandwidth for decades now and it's time to start treating them appropriately.

The NYT is constantly using the words "scary", "terrifying", "afraid", "catastrophe". The sun is still shining and my kids are still playing outside. You can ignore the news for years and live care-free without psychological consequences.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#12

Post by FeepingCreature » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:10 AM UTC

labster wrote: post #10

tjr225 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, NPR has been driving me nuts with this crap. There seem to be 0 news sources available that can’t help but slip some alarmist flavor text in. I can’t listen to it anymore.

That’s just normal news flavor text, like “breaking news” or “storm watch”. There’s no semantic meaning, the words just boost engagement metrics. Which would you click first? “Clock sales dip, wristwatches gain” or “Breaking News: storm watches PUMMEL bedside clock sales, is it cause for alarm?”

By now, the first.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#13

Post by somenameforme » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:22 AM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #11

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claiming everything is cause for alarm is defecting against the ability to communicate about important things because it means alarms no longer work. Journalists have been crying wolf 24/7/365 on every available bit of bandwidth for decades now and it's time to start treating them appropriately.

The NYT is constantly using the words "scary", "terrifying", "afraid", "catastrophe". The sun is still shining and my kids are still playing outside. You can ignore the news for years and live care-free without psychological consequences.

Don't forget "historic". It seems every day there are approximately 713 new historic events happening, that are totally and completely unlike any other event, evar!

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#14

Post by somenameforme » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:34 AM UTC

labster wrote: post #10

tjr225 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, NPR has been driving me nuts with this crap. There seem to be 0 news sources available that can’t help but slip some alarmist flavor text in. I can’t listen to it anymore.

That’s just normal news flavor text, like “breaking news” or “storm watch”. There’s no semantic meaning, the words just boost engagement metrics. Which would you click first? “Clock sales dip, wristwatches gain” or “Breaking News: storm watches PUMMEL bedside clock sales, is it cause for alarm?”

Which would you click? There's this weird phenomena in society where we always attribute different actions than those we'd take to the rest of society, and I think it drives a lot of this stupidity.

There was certainly a time that yellow journalism drove interest, but that's because it was more the exception than the rule, which enabled it to exploit naivete more effectively. Now that everything is a historic alarming unprecedented catastrophic dangerous event (or in the equal but opposite direction an amazing groundbreaking miracle cure for cancer), I mostly just yawn and look for the next link. And I've no reason to believe that my tolerance for hyperbole (to describe what's happening kindly) is substantially less than the rest of society.

As some sort of quantitative evidence for my argument, I'd also point to the trust in media polling [1]. There is only 1 "media" outlet that more than 50% of Americans rate as at least "somewhat trustworthy" - The Weather Channel. That absolutely all trust has collapsed leads me to believe most people know all of this stuff is, at best, yellow journalism.

[1] - https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/20...

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#15

Post by rocqua » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:45 AM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #11

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claiming everything is cause for alarm is defecting against the ability to communicate about important things because it means alarms no longer work. Journalists have been crying wolf 24/7/365 on every available bit of bandwidth for decades now and it's time to start treating them appropriately.

The NYT is constantly using the words "scary", "terrifying", "afraid", "catastrophe". The sun is still shining and my kids are still playing outside. You can ignore the news for years and live care-free without psychological consequences.

I do believe that generally the world is not okay. We are currently suffering the consequences of many slowly unfolding tragedies that were well warned about by experts. So I imagine there are quite a few tragedies building up now, warned about, but not yet acted uppon.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#16

Post by seibelj » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

rocqua wrote: post #15

seibelj wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT is constantly using the words "scary", "terrifying", "afraid", "catastrophe". The sun is still shining and my kids are still playing outside. You can ignore the news for years and live care-free without psychological consequences.

I do believe that generally the world is not okay. We are currently suffering the consequences of many slowly unfolding tragedies that were well warned about by experts. So I imagine there are quite a few tragedies building up now, warned about, but not yet acted uppon.

Honestly - don’t care. The internet makes me able to see endless tragedies big and small 24/7. I help my family, friends, and community and pay it forwards. I sleep like a baby.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#17

Post by xvector » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 6:17 AM UTC

rocqua wrote: post #15

seibelj wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT is constantly using the words "scary", "terrifying", "afraid", "catastrophe". The sun is still shining and my kids are still playing outside. You can ignore the news for years and live care-free without psychological consequences.

I do believe that generally the world is not okay. We are currently suffering the consequences of many slowly unfolding tragedies that were well warned about by experts. So I imagine there are quite a few tragedies building up now, warned about, but not yet acted uppon.

Meh. These "tragedies" are often irrelevant and often the only time you will ever encounter them will be in some news article written by a hand-wringing doomer.

Willfully ignoring the news is amazing for mental health. The benefit of cutting the constant stream of doomerism out of one's life cannot be overstated - it's a benefit that far exceeds whatever minimal value to society you could provide by tuning into the news.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#18

Post by mushbino » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 6:19 AM UTC

labster wrote: post #10

tjr225 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, NPR has been driving me nuts with this crap. There seem to be 0 news sources available that can’t help but slip some alarmist flavor text in. I can’t listen to it anymore.

That’s just normal news flavor text, like “breaking news” or “storm watch”. There’s no semantic meaning, the words just boost engagement metrics. Which would you click first? “Clock sales dip, wristwatches gain” or “Breaking News: storm watches PUMMEL bedside clock sales, is it cause for alarm?”

That's not normal news, that's BECOME normal news. It's become more difficult to find informative, educational news without an agenda or tabloid spin.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#19

Post by madiator » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 6:31 AM UTC

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #6

savant_penguin wrote: post #4

"Yet there's cause for alarm" I find these claims actually dangerous We risk disrupting what has consistently been a downard trend by acting on some arbitrary definition of "cause of alarm". Teenage pregnancy after the 1960's is one example of that

Claiming everything is cause for alarm is defecting against the ability to communicate about important things because it means alarms no longer work. Journalists have been crying wolf 24/7/365 on every available bit of bandwidth for decades now and it's time to start treating them appropriately.

This is not a problem with journalists alone. This is human nature. Establish the same set of incentives and structures and this outcome will be very likely.

Re: The death rate for children has dropped dramatically

#20

Post by labster » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 6:34 AM UTC

somenameforme wrote: post #14

labster wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just normal news flavor text, like “breaking news” or “storm watch”. There’s no semantic meaning, the words just boost engagement metrics. Which would you click first? “Clock sales dip, wristwatches gain” or “Breaking News: storm watches PUMMEL bedside clock sales, is it cause for alarm?”

Which would you click? There's this weird phenomena in society where we always attribute different actions than those we'd take to the rest of society, and I think it drives a lot of this stupidity. There was certainly a time that yellow journalism drove interest, but that's because it was more the exception than the rule, which enabled it to exploit naivete more effectively. Now that everything is a historic alarmin…

I always click the headlines with the best puns. And as a meteorologist, I’m encouraged by the trust in the Weather Channel. When I was a kid everyone would say how bad forecasts were, but we’ve really gotten better at the 5-10 day forecasts in the last couple decades. I’m glad to see the public has noticed!