One of the greatest benefits of the web is also one of its greatest dangers: allowing us to consume only content that interests us.
The problem with that is it risks making us dangerously narrow.
I had a stark personal example of this this weekend when I called my parents in Kingston, Jamaica to say hello. When my father answered he asked if I was finally calling to check on them in light of what was going on…
“What’s going on?”, I asked.
“There’s a state of emergency in Kingston.”
I had no idea.
I had no idea because, almost exclusively, I consume media focused on topics of my choice: marketing and communications, parenting, running. I listen to radio from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) – but only for a few minutes commuting to and from work. So I missed the stories about a state of emergency in the city where my parents live.
More than ever, in this connected world, a key part of being a good communicator is having a broad understanding of the public environment. Adding some mass media to your daily consumption is a good start.
Do you add a sprinkle of mainstream to your daily media diet? If so, let us know by leaving a comment.
May 27th, 2010 at 5:41 am
Dear Robin,
couldn’t help myself spontaneously commenting on this one – when I read it, the reaction that popped up in my mind was “what, you missed that one? It’s all I’ve been reading (and tweeting) about, together with those Foxconn employees jumping to death”. Next thought was: “If you were following me on Twitter, you had known” (I admit, that was a selfish one). Next thought then was: “Would like to recommend to you that you follow @TheNewsBlotter (maybe in a column ‘news’ on your Tweetdeck). I just recently added that one to mine (although I already had a few other news sources there) and find that it gives really good, quick and up-to-date information. I rely on it more than on the others now.
There you go – just spontaneously sharing my stream of thought, hoping it can be welcome and @TheNewsBlotter can be helpful
Have a good day today – I see it’s really nice weather where you are, whereas here we are drowning in cold rain and fog …
Greetings from the German rain forest, as I call it (oh well, the places we agree to live in, just for love …)
June 6th, 2010 at 5:21 am
It’s so true! We can get caught in our own bubble!
I scan the headlines online at cbc, huffingtonpost and economist a bit of local, a bit of US and a bit of international.
June 7th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Agreed! I read most of my stuff from Twitter now, but even then, I’ll only click through to the ones that interest me. China banned Facebook and Google Earth etc, I only found out when I realized 4 months later that my best friend wasn’t on Facebook anymore.
July 6th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Agreed. Still ignorance of local news is almost a choice. It’s so depressing to watch whats going on outside my door. I prefer to look inwards, explorer news and information relating to expansion of my mind. Did that sound just a little narcissistic !
Always take time to think about the family in other places though. Cyclones and flood’s, ‘lol’ There is a reason I moved away.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Well its a question of different folks for different folks. We seek the news we feel is useful.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
technology in general is taking away most of my free time-