I am awed by the digital age we live in and their amazing capabilities. From "smart phones" to computers to Youtube and beyond, there are more ways than ever to hear others' opinions and keep up with current events...Or not. All too often we use these incredible tools not to expand our minds but to preoccupy them. And this need for constant entertainment has affected not only our own worlds, but also the media that presents it to us.
We live in a time where we have a constant need for immediate gratification. You see it everywhere around campus. People sitting at lunch tables playing Peggle on their iphones, kids walking to class with massive headphones plugged into their ipods, and students watching Youtube for hours while their essay's deadline only draws closer. We use all of these tools to satisfy our need for entertainment, lest we fall pray to that doom of dooms: boredom. All of these options for entertainment allow us to be constantly entertained, but typically at the cost of importance and relevance.
The media has succumbed to our need for entertainment. Now that T.V.'s have hundreds upon hundreds of channels, a news station airing a boring, although relevant, story can't hope to compete with this evenings SportsCenter or E! News. As a result, news sources must dip their standards to accommodate our lacking attention spans and boost their ratings. I have no idea who represents me in Congress or what is in the health care reform bill, even though these will have a huge effect on the rest of my life. But I can tell you for a fact that tens of millions of people knew about Michael Jackson's death within a few hours. It even took an attempted terrorist attack to knock the Tiger Woods Scandal from the front of newspapers. And while these stories may be entertaining, they have little relevance or importance to our lives.
The media and its audience communicate on a two way street. The majority demand entertainment instead of relevance and the media provides it. But as the media does this, it shapes our understanding of what is "news worthy" and what we expect from the media. And if we truly want to find the relevant and important than we will have to rely upon ourselves to search for it rather than the media to easily provide it.
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