I have been pondering something over the last year that I am struggling to embrace completely. I’m not sure that I am capable. We have developed an addiction to divisive headlines. We can’t wait to wake up in the morning to find out what new sensational faux pas the politician or talking head who we do not like has made.
“Who insulted who? Who tweeted what? What thing has been done that we can be outraged about? I can’t wait to get upset and bicker about it on the Internet!”
I realized a while ago that in our current reality, media is a business and sultry sells. It’s much more lucrative to talk about bad hair, distasteful comments, or insulting remarks than the mundane things that make our world go ‘round. Every click, every share, every link contributes to the coffers of the media machine by adding money through advertisement. It’s business plain and simple.
In my eyes however we are paying for it mentally and psychologically. We have developed an addiction very much akin to “insert vice here”. We can’t look away. We are searching for the endocrine dump of emotion that we get when someone agrees or disagrees with us and we can share outrage. Even more so we are hoping for someone to disagree so that we can become outraged further and have our friends and like minded individuals from across the world jump in to combat across the lines of debate with people with alternate opinions. That feeling of outrage and “fighting a common enemy” is the addictive substance. It takes our limbic system hostage and overrides every other emotion in our psyche. It stimulates our dopamine receptors and becomes a saboteur of our internal chemistry. It feels good to be mad. The problem is, our body reacts chemically and psychologically and just as any other addiction results in an aftershock of depression, anxiety, and frustration. Much in the same way that cigarette companies profit from selling a product that they know harms you for the grand sum of the bottom dollar, media outlets thrive on the same.
I can’t help but notice the addiction is widespread. Being aware of it is step one. Step away, there is a much bigger life out there for us to share with one another despite our political or social leanings. The vast majority of us want one simple thing in life: to be happy. My friends make me happy. My family makes me happy. Having a beer with a buddy or discussing the inner workings of an internal combustion engine makes me happy. I enjoy a good book or movie and talking about how I feel like it has a ‘deeper than the surface’ meaning for me. All of us have a similar wish list as listed above. Take the focus off of the headlines and remember that underneath all of that, we are a thriving, artistic, creative, and loving species that generally are kind to one another. Of course we can find a contrast to that if we look but it isn’t the standard. Don’t let a headline dictate your happiness. Definitely don’t let it decide for you that you can’t get along with someone who is different than you are. We will always disagree to some extent or another. I can, however, promise you this: we have more in common than we have things that divide us. Why focus on the small details and miss the bigger picture?
We have one life, why waste it being angry? Take this one life, and fill it with the beautiful. If there’s one thing I feel sure about in the morning, it is this: I’m not going to find beauty in the headlines.