Why we don't really care about catastrophes in the world news and what we should do about it
Wave of ethnic killings in South Sudan town 'could evolve into genocide,' UN warns - CBC News
"Terrible..." (Waits a few seconds to show an "appropriate" level of concern) ..."OMG Kendall Jenner quit Instagram?!"
We live in the age of information. We have access to most of what is going on anywhere on the globe 24/7. In our day and age with our resources we should hear stories like this on a Thursday, call up our elected officials or non-profit organizations on Friday and organize an intervention on Monday to prevent any more unnecessary human suffering... right?
Alain de Botton wrote a ground-breaking book called News: A User's Manual in which he explains what the news could be and should be. I recommend it. Here is a link to a talk he gave at google which sums up his book.
One of the most poignant arguments he makes is that when it comes to world news we are parachuted in for spectacularly horrendous events for a moment and then pulled right back out. This creates a single story of a place and people that while true, misses the larger picture. This phenomenon is powerfully described by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; look her up. I remember how ignorant and disrespectful I felt when I met an exchange student from Germany and immediately asked her about Hitler. What we know of other areas of the world is usually tied directly to a few horrific events. We are completely ignorant to day-to-day reality. What's it like to get a haircut in Mongolia? What does a school day look like in Nigeria? There isn't likely going to be a headline that reads "17 million people go to bed peacefully tonight in Burkina Faso".
This is a problem. Our education of other countries must include more than just the spectacular. One reason is that it's hard for us to care about lives lost when we didn't even know those lives existed in the first place. Psychologically we haven't lost anything and it just doesn't register. This is one of the reasons why travelling is so important as well. How much more interested in Aleppo would you be right now if you had been there 5 years ago seeing the sites and interacting with the locals?
Here's what I would like to see happen because the news industry that exists to make a profit will not invest in stories of such banality. They want stories that bleed. I think it starts with the education system producing a collection of interconnected, global stories of regular life. I would like school aged children to start writing about their regular day-to-day lives. Just a brief snapshot of their reality. I'd like kids to do this all across the world. A sort of, enhanced pen-pal system where we can have access to regular, ordinary, international stories. Social studies teachers from around the globe might see this and use it to enhance their lessons and engage their students. And then, God forbid, when another earthquake hits Haiti or civil war breaks out in the middle east, we will react with a little more humanity and compassion than we do now.
If you know a teacher, particularly a social studies teacher or even if you know a youngster who wants to try out some journalist skills, share this post with them. If there is interest we could build a site that is filled with stories from all over the planet on a variety of topics.
Alain de Botton wrote a ground-breaking book called News: A User's Manual in which he explains what the news could be and should be. I recommend it. Here is a link to a talk he gave at google which sums up his book.
One of the most poignant arguments he makes is that when it comes to world news we are parachuted in for spectacularly horrendous events for a moment and then pulled right back out. This creates a single story of a place and people that while true, misses the larger picture. This phenomenon is powerfully described by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; look her up. I remember how ignorant and disrespectful I felt when I met an exchange student from Germany and immediately asked her about Hitler. What we know of other areas of the world is usually tied directly to a few horrific events. We are completely ignorant to day-to-day reality. What's it like to get a haircut in Mongolia? What does a school day look like in Nigeria? There isn't likely going to be a headline that reads "17 million people go to bed peacefully tonight in Burkina Faso".
This is a problem. Our education of other countries must include more than just the spectacular. One reason is that it's hard for us to care about lives lost when we didn't even know those lives existed in the first place. Psychologically we haven't lost anything and it just doesn't register. This is one of the reasons why travelling is so important as well. How much more interested in Aleppo would you be right now if you had been there 5 years ago seeing the sites and interacting with the locals?
Here's what I would like to see happen because the news industry that exists to make a profit will not invest in stories of such banality. They want stories that bleed. I think it starts with the education system producing a collection of interconnected, global stories of regular life. I would like school aged children to start writing about their regular day-to-day lives. Just a brief snapshot of their reality. I'd like kids to do this all across the world. A sort of, enhanced pen-pal system where we can have access to regular, ordinary, international stories. Social studies teachers from around the globe might see this and use it to enhance their lessons and engage their students. And then, God forbid, when another earthquake hits Haiti or civil war breaks out in the middle east, we will react with a little more humanity and compassion than we do now.
If you know a teacher, particularly a social studies teacher or even if you know a youngster who wants to try out some journalist skills, share this post with them. If there is interest we could build a site that is filled with stories from all over the planet on a variety of topics.
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