The lack of Donald Trump has made the US political news much quieter, this should be a good thing right? But the media likes a good story, the more controversial the more clicks or sales it gets, so surely that says more about us the audience! Why is click bait a thing and why do we like to give airtime to things that upset us or disagree with our values.
I was on my linked in profile recently, not usually a place for fake news (that seems to be more a Facebook thing) but I noticed a post from a guy called Brian, not in my followers. Now clearly Brian was an idiot and some of the 300 comments he’d had were pointing this out, even from people I knew. I suspect that’s why it had showed up on my feed. Now sadly Linked in doesn’t know Brain is an idiot, just that he’s getting lots of attention so thinks more people should see what he’s written, this is how algorithms work (I think, but in the interests of transparency I’ve really no idea how they work).
Because this post was getting attention, the platform was sharing it wider. Now I’m sure there are many brilliant posts Linked in have not shown me because they’ve not attracted the same response as this one, yet would have been far more at home on my feed (and welcome).
I’m not talking about not seeing posts of differing views or that challenge our assumptions, these are a good thing which is why we’re encouraged to follow broad topics and people outside those who are carbon copies of us! This was discriminatory and offensive but treading carefully between the lines of being reportable and just provoking people.
Well it worked, people were provoked and as a result this guy (and his less than intelligent post) went viral. I get it, it was irritating and I was tempted to add my two peenies worth in support of some peers who’d pointed out the offensiveness of his post. But then I thought, no. I’m not giving you the satisfaction or wasting my time and energy engaging with your post – especially given this seemingly makes it more popular!
So my reflections are pay attention to what you give attention to. Whilst I believe we should challenge things that are not right, social media puts a whole new slant on this and often we’re fanning the flames and giving oxygen to things that really should just die a death.
It reminds me of the famous Native American proverb about the two wolves arguing in our mind, good and bad. The question is which wolf wins and the answer, the one you feed (see animation below).
Of course the same is true of our internal news feed too! If we are giving energy and focus to our self-doubt and inner critic it will only get louder and become more powerful, we’re boosting it. Be aware of the contents on your inner newsfeed and give energy where positive impact will follow. The things that have gone well rather than your mistakes, the things you’re good at rather than your flaws, the things you like about yourself rather than the things you don’t - you get the idea!
Use your attention and energy to respond to and feed things that are good and worth celebrating, the more we respond to click bait and provocation not only is it depleting our resources (and dimming our view of the human race) but it’s also giving them airtime and a platform that they really don’t deserve.