The World Or Me?
Modern Media or Personal Peace?
I’ve seen many posts on Substack Notes recently about casting the news aside, deleting all the apps, and living a more peaceful existence.
As a man who spends most of his time exploring geopolitics and reading world news, while also experiencing the sharp decline in the quality of information on social media, I found myself conflicted. I’m also rather minimalist and I possess a raging dislike of my own mobile phone. Based on these initial takeaways, it would seem on the surface that I’d be in agreement; to cast aside the news, live internally, and prioritize my own peace. In my opinion, you can live a peaceful existence in conjunction with the news, not by completely casting it aside.
In exploring world events, I’m trying to better understand the world we live in. It reveals horror every day. War crimes were committed against those who can’t defend themselves, people living without access to food or water, and people dying in underdeveloped countries from preventable diseases, preventable if only they had access to technology.
If I ignore this, am I casting aside all these people? Am I casting aside justice?
But if I choose to consume it, am I casting myself aside?
Purposeful Information Consumption
Every time someone hurts you, there are many, many more people who will help you. The world isn’t full of bad people. But upon watching the same news stories fly across our TV screens at 6 am, 10 am, 12 pm, 2 pm, 6 pm, and 10 pm, I can see why it’s easy to believe the world is a bad place, occasionally blessed with some goodness. I find it’s the opposite, and the world is filled with good, but we have to be purposeful in what information we allow into our brains.
Everyone and everything is vying for attention. Your attention.
If consuming a certain set of information benefits you positively, then that could be purposeful information consumption for you. This can be positive or negative in nature. Of course, there are trade-offs in everything. I consume a lot of geopolitical news for
, and much of it is of a negative element. To me, in a pursuit I’ll likely never achieve but albeit continue to pursue anyway, I seek to understand the world and the people in it through this negative news. In some peculiar way, this fuels my purpose. I find that breaking down these news stories brings greater understanding. Sure, it might be driven by personal fear of the unknown, uncertainty, or a fear of the lack of control we all possess in much of life, Still, I find it gets me out of bed every morning. It’s information I find myself wanting to consume every day, and in my view, that’s purposeful.
The Spin Wheel
Everybody loves a spin wheel, right? Makes me think of TV game shows where I sit screaming the answer at the screen while if I actually went on one of the shows, I’d crash and burn.
I have my own personal spin wheel that I call my “Subconscious Thoughts” wheel. My initial intention was to spin this wheel right before I went to sleep, and this thought would remain in my head, being subconsciously addressed while I sleep. Eventually, I’d solve all world problems while I slept, becoming the most productive human to have ever lived. They’d build statues, maybe I’d get a Nobel Peace Prize, or a street named after me somewhere. I’d take the street name if there were no spare peace prizes kicking about!
In reality, I found it too heavy to take on the spin wheel just before I slept. I like to ease myself into a relaxed state before I sleep. However, I still use the wheel every single day. One such question on the spin wheel that emerges every few months, is “Do you wake up feeling excited to get out of bed and start the day?” And, luckily, I do. I love waking up, writing about geopolitics, researching history, and considering scenarios for the future, most of which are filled with negativity if you consume mainstream media. There exists one overarching narrative that runs through the news. It was COVID, then inflation, then Ukraine, then energy bills, then the cost of living, and now the Middle East. I’m sure there were many other main narratives running through the news that I’ve forgotten, but these narratives have occurred over a period of a few years. Has no good happened during this time? Of course not!
Take Humans of New York on Instagram. It’s a wonderful page that explores people’s stories. It’s inherently human, and raw, and it’s beautiful. Or a comments section on a YouTube video.
The negativity of modern news can paint a picture of a world filled with bad. That’s especially true now in the UK. We’re seeing people divided and segregated. But amongst these stories of a small collection of hate-filled people, we have the people who rebuilt a wall in Southport after the riots. This is a grieving town after a heinous attack saw three girls killed, and many people chose love over hate. Or leaders of a mosque in Liverpool who handed out food and discussed with protestors. It’s human, and it’s how most people live their lives. There are many reasons to wake up every day, but our own personal framing of the world is vital.
The news paints the world as a bad place, with the occasional rainbow. In reality, we’re surrounded by rainbows. It’s only the occasional storm that clouds our view. You can have that quote if you want to put it on your wall next to your “Live, Laugh, Love” sign.
Concluding Remarks
The news has the potential to force us to sit in a corner, rocking back and forth, never to emerge into the world once again. But the world is a good place. Even if we consume negative news, our framing of it is important. There are people better off than us, and people worse off than us. For those not as fortunate, at least part of us should be committed to giving thought and love to these people, and offer aid in our own individual ways. Each of us will possess within us a way to consume negative information and then take action for the aid of others. We can engage in this while also setting boundaries with the information we consume. And so, I come back to the question, do I choose the world, or do I choose me? In a stroke of luck, it seems I can choose both.
Great article thanks. With algorithms driving what we see on our feeds, it's easy to get stuck in a trap of negative news. The algo will literally think you like that stuff in the world and just keep sending you that. That's going to do a number on your mental psyche. But as you said it's all about the framing.
Absolutely great article Dylan. Like Oma said, very meaningful.