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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#231

Post by morpheos137 »

kccoder wrote: post #148
morpheos137 wrote: post #88

If you're outraged by anything that does not directly impact your life you're doing life wrong. We all have limited time and energy. I have never been able to understand people who get emotional over things they read online that have no impact on their day to day life.

> I have never been able to understand people who get emotional over things they read online that have no impact on their day to day life. Maybe they have more empathy for the plight of others? Also, it is often the case that the events of today which don't directly affect you, if not stopped, will affect you before you know it, at which point it is too late to do anything about.

[dead]

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#233

Post by DasCorCor »

parliament32 wrote: post #129
DasCorCor wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What am I doing today? Taking care of my son. Trying to have another child. What do I need to plan for tomorrow? How am I going to vaccinate my child next year? How do I get my wife medical care if she has another unviable pregnancy? How small of a life you must lead that you can just not engage.

All fair points. I'm having trouble understanding how this relates to the outrage-centered media, however. Current top stories on the CNN frontpage are: > Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship is blocked nationwide > Trump’s Gaza plan is the most outlandish in region’s peacemaking history > China is building a giant laser to generate the energy of the stars, satellite images appear to show Is your child not a…

So your argument to not engaging is that my argument isn’t sufficiently updated to the onslaught of news today? RFK passed committee yesterday. Trump planning to use our military for a middle east genocide isn’t something that I should worry about?!? Where were you on 9/11?

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#234

Post by niceice »

ge96 wrote: post #123
joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

I quit reddit too recently, I still look at it for info but I'm not logged in/scrolling through it I find myself reaching for something when I have YouTube/chilling at my desk at the end of the day, can't code anymore/make something just on till I sleep. Sometimes have the desire to play a video game (I have a gaming rig too funny how that works) I've been trying to read HN or IEEE, TechCrunch stuff like that as my "…

I checked reddit recently for the first time in a while, and I was shocked by how radicalized its become. An echo chamber of hateful people and perhaps GPTs that are agitating the big subreddits. The contrast is stark with all the "no place for hate" in the rules and endless banning of microaggressions.

I saw dozens of death threats. Even an explicit death threat thread with over 40,000 upvotes before reddit stepped in and shut the whole subreddit down.

It reminded me of Ghostbusters 2 with all the aggressively angry people and the ooze pouring out of the sewers, all building upon itself.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#235

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

ge96 wrote: post #123
joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

I quit reddit too recently, I still look at it for info but I'm not logged in/scrolling through it I find myself reaching for something when I have YouTube/chilling at my desk at the end of the day, can't code anymore/make something just on till I sleep. Sometimes have the desire to play a video game (I have a gaming rig too funny how that works) I've been trying to read HN or IEEE, TechCrunch stuff like that as my "…

[flagged]

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#236

Post by awfulneutral »

ck2 wrote: post #196

> Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk alone; you don’t want to “go out of your way to make trouble.” Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, f…

Yes, this is really tricky, because nowadays we have people shouting from the rooftops continuously, and half of them are shouting the exact opposite thing as the other half. WWII was openly racist, so from a modern perspective it would be easy to recognize and condemn some of the early behavior, but these days it's more about dog whistling and thought crimes. Probably the signs we would all recognize are not going to happen. But we have already moved a dramatic amount in terms of normalized behavior, from 20 years ago.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#237

Post by CamperBob2 »

dekhn wrote: post #222
CamperBob2 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To someone who is more right-wing, the bias of e.g. NYT is just as blatant as Fox News is to you, and Fox may come off as "fair". This is because the propaganda is specifically intended to land with their own audience. It's tuned to your sensibilities. This isn't really a matter of subjective opinion, though. Objective surveys have consistently shown that Fox News viewers are worse-informed than people who don't pay…

By the way, I read Fox News as a comparison for NYT. Reading the comments on Fox News articles is a very weird experience. You'll get this mixture of comments from "I support Trump but this particular idea is terrible" to "We must do everything Trump says to bring about the next revolution" to what appears to be blatant propaganda/manipulation from foreign agents and literal outright racism and sexism. What you don't…

Honestly, I think most Trump supporters are never heard from online. They're just people who go about their daily lives without putting a lot of thought into politics. They checked the box on their ballot corresponding to a name they'd heard a lot lately.

I suspect they will have good reasons to pay more attention next time, if there is a next time.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#238

Post by tolerance »

taylodl wrote: post #55
yostrovs wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

The Internet Archive records suggest that they didn’t “get into politics” in the way implied by the GP, as opposed to covering subjects that have political implications, until 2021, as implied by the presence of a dedicated “politics” category.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211007051559/https://www.scien...

Then there’s “Diversity”, another section that has only been on the record as active since 2021:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220623091738/https://www.scien...

Here’s “Inequality”:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210926013845/https://www.scien...

We’re only one letter away from completing our “Forbidden Non-State 3-Letter Agency” bingo card.

Here’s a topic directory from 2014:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140531173853/http://www.scient...

Where would you file this story in 2014?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-civil-rights...

Today it’s under “Behavior”, which for a time was referred to as “Behavior and Society”, a section that appears to often be used as a place to put more overt political pieces, along with the Opinion section:

https://archive.is/QpKLI

Scientific American also had a report (what looks like a page that collects articles under a same theme of special interest) on The Black Lives Matter Movement.

Can you point to any article published by them in the last 70 years as absurd as this?

https://archive.is/H8hJw

Or this?

https://archive.is/fa88J

I don’t think that the implicit distinction between “getting into politics” (implying the outlet is adopting a noticeable ideological stance) and “addressing political issues” (that can arguably be described as scientific topics with political implications, as opposed to vice versa) warrants the color of your responses.

Maybe you’re just floating in the same tide as them.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#239

Post by lbarron6868 »

nineplay wrote: post #106
joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

Alternatively carefully curate your social media accounts. My reddit home page is all books and formula 1. I'm quick to hit 'show me less like this' when anything drifts in from the front page. My Facebook feed is all friends and family who don't discuss politics and ads for nerd shirts. I've purchased a few. It is also easy and effective to hit show me less of this. I agree about LinkedIn and don't go there unless I…

This is how I've dealt with Instagram. My IG account is literally nothing but cats. it's actually very refreshing to look at for five or ten minutes. But it takes work. IG wants to keep feeding me their BS reels. Sometimes I don't think it's worth it, they really make you put up a fight.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#240

Post by lordfrito »

lawn wrote: post #216
yowayb wrote: post #9

Those of us in the west tend to forget that much of what we see is a form of propaganda, whether by governments or businesses, or even a large number of people. When you keep this in mind, everything you see becomes an opinion and your mind can comfortably (or at least not emotionally/hurriedly) form your own opinion over time.

The danger with this way of thinking is that it's easy to start weighing all information equally, while that's very far from the reality.

If everything I read online [that I don't pay for] is a form of propaganda, then the only choice I have is to either: 1) weight all information equally 2) bias information based on [personal beliefs XYZ]

I'm trying hard to do #1, mainly because #2 is confirmation bias (and reinforces it).

What other options are there?

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