More Thoughts.....

Much of our trouble, it seems to me,  goes to the silo-ization of our news and information, the echo effect of social media algorithms, the narrowing of our intake. Few of us get balanced news of any kind anymore without effort – it's too easy to hear only what we want to hear, to get news presented in a way that supports our opinions, our view point. It is happening so fast that it is in fact twisting our politics, our psyche, our ethos.  I see the source of this silo-effect going back to the decision to allow partisan and biased news on media several decades ago – and the subsequent lack of  balanced viewpoints being part of our conversations and experience. 

Now we have social media that pretends to be a source of news -- but it is more an echo chamber of ill-formed opinions. Really, social media acts as a magnifier; it's  a gossip-monger. We just see yelling and chest-thumping and my-way-or-the-highway... but no listening to reason, no attempt to understand other points of view or trying to reach a consensus or compromise, little investigation, unless you do it yourself. Until those skills in our news sources come back into favor, until we treat social media to the same high standards as true journalism, we are going to stay in this quagmire, this deep doo-doo of innuendo, of manipulation of the facts by the least scrupulous. 

Or do I have this wrong?