Breaking News : Plane number A320 flying from Sydney to New York has landed safely and the passengers were completely safe during the journey.
Have you ever went through the news like this?
The only news that one gets to hear about flights is their cruel crashes in the unknown land and hijacks by terrorists. Here’s the interesting thing, around 2016 40 million planes took off from the land and among these 40 million just 10 of them ended in plane crashes. Just by giving attention to those 10 plane crashes out of 40 million one will tend to feel unsafe by the flight journey.
By the way, it’s not your problem to feel unsafe after listening to the bad news, it’s not always the problem with where your attention goes. But it’s not the problem with where your attention goes, its the problem with the news media which always shocks us with these kinds of news. with the news media which always shocks us with these kinds of news.
Any human who has ever lived can be influenced with these three emotional states:
- Love
- Hate
- Fear
The News industry stands on these firm bases. They know how to create love, hate and fear with their news so that the viewers won’t get bored.
- Here are 3 things to know before listening to the news media.
- Our tendency to notice the bad is more than the good
When you place a glass of milk and a chilled coco-cola in front of a kid, more than 95% of the kids pick coco-cola. Even though the kid knew that milk is good for health.
That’s the problem, we tend to turn or triggered to the negative news more than peaceful and harmonious ones. This is the sole reason that made you surprised while you heard the breaking news at the beginning.
“Things are getting worse” is the statement about the world that we hear more than any other day, and it is absolutely true that there are many bad things in this world, but when looking at the facts just like the number of flights which caught up with accidents, the things turn completely opposite to your influenced assumptions.
Before letting the news pass through your ear and reach the brain remember that countless good things are happening behind that single black point on the white paper.
2. The journalists are competitors
Fear is what made our ancestors survive in the early years, today this fear is what feeding these journalists with food and good clothes to wear. The attention span of a normal human being has decreased sharply by 12 seconds. This is enough to conclude to what extent must a journalist get in order to gain your attention over his competitors.
Your attention is so precious that even several social media sites are converting us from humans to attention addicts, everyone wants to be heard, but none of us are ready to listen. A normal man like you who has nothing to gain from social media is trying so hard to gain followers on Instagram and Twitter, then think about all the journalists whose livelihood is to report you with the news. They are always ready to shock you even with a piece of small news that has nothing to do with you and your life.
3. The gap instinct
The news you go through every day is either a piece of completely good news or extremely heartbreaking bad news.
Let’s do a small test: Close your eyes for a minute and imagine an African kid. do it now before scrolling down.
Now, most of you went through a small black skinny kid, with his ribs exposed. or you might have imagined the famous photograph where a kid being chased by a vulture. I am quite sure because even I imagine these things when I hear an African kid.
We think the same because we are being exposed to the same things all the time, but when we look at facts the today global poverty is reduced to half from the last 2 to 3 decades. Most of the poor people have upgraded from extreme poverty to the so-called middle class. About 75% of the people in the world are living in the middle class. Now, this is the gap instinct, we are made to neglect these huge mass of people by the news and exposed to those who are literally less in number.
conclusion: According to a Nielsen report, United States adults are watching five hours and four minutes of television per day on average (35.5 h/week, slightly more than 77 days per year).
If you are one of these adults from anywhere in the world, it means you are selling away your precious attention to these news reporters. Remember you are always triggered with love, hate, and fear with every news you go through. The more you seek good for your mental health the more good you receive. Just think about Goodness that is happening out of your site.
The Curious Hunter.. 