In my view, world is far better place now than what it was 100 years back contrary to what news channels portray us to believe. Here’s why.
Views sold as News
If Fox, BBC, CNN and million other news channels are reporting news then there should not be any disparity in the facts, right? However, that is not what we see. Our sense of reality will vastly depend on which channels we follow. For instance, if you follow Fox then you may believe in a world dipped and drenched in fake news.
If you are a CNN follower then you are always in breaking news mode and I have failed to understand how everything can be fake or breaking.
We are bombarded with more information than we need
Things were worse before. There was war, plague, mass murders, executions and chaos. People just did not know about them as and when they happened. Most news would have reached the world as a ‘post mortem’ and not on a live buzzing feed. This meant, borders kept people shielded (and oblivious) from most things that were going on in the world.
You would not have seen the stupidity of someone trying to take a selfie on mountain edge and then falling to ground because that would have never been captured live nor would it have qualified as news. Accidents happened before too, much worse, people were stranded without much help – and that never made it to news unless it was major accident.
Now, flight cancellation due to storm qualifies as ‘breaking news’.
Our sense of melancholy is fake
We have access to cleaner water, 24 hour pharmacies, great modes of transportation that are not only defying the distance on the planet but soon we may be defying the distance between planets.
We have access to exorbitant amounts of food choices at a much cheaper cost (considering $$ value after inflation). There are countless varieties of wine and liqor around the corner. We have Netflix & YouTube if we get bored.
I mean, we are already living in a heaven.
However, that is not what we are encouraged to see. We are encouraged to see the worst and because this sense of doom makes us insecure, we become more defensive and do not open our arms to help those in need because we are too busy hoarding up for dooms day that we are fed day in and day out.
However, if everyone counted their blessings and shared whatever little excess they can to others, I think we can alleviate lot of ‘real’ pain in real lives.
Can you think of other things in the world that make it a better place than it was 10 or 100 years ago?
Picture source: Pixabay.com