Practicality

Curating

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Over the last few years I’ve begun to curate my social media and content feeds so that I bypass the bulk of the negative, triggering posts and materials.  That’s not to say that I’ve created an echo chamber that caters only to my worldview, but I’ve intentionally started weeding out messaging designed to provoke a response.  So what’s the difference?

Most objective observers of culture would agree that media has (d)evolved.  There was once only a handful of same-story outlets for ‘facts’, ideas and beliefs.  The Internet has created a fabric of sites, feeds, and streams that anyone can contribute to.  This is good (sort of).  Having power over the outlets for information and ideas concentrated in the hands of a few was never a great thing.  There was zero innovation and zero diversity of thought.  But what we have now may not be better. 

Social media and news sites are a cacophony of blaring voices.  Media and journalism appear to have abandoned any sense of balance and objectivity.  It’s all about narrative, and the bias is not the least bit hidden.  Click-bait headlines are designed specifically to elicit an emotional response (and drive ad revenue).  Provocation, not information, is the new goal.  And I’m not sure we even have a diversity of thinking.  What we call ‘news’ is the same reflexive ‘follow-the scoop’ or ‘amplify the narrative’ sort of thing we got from the NBC nightly news or 60 Minutes.  

If the new way of things isn’t really different, why is the Internet realm different?  Because we now have millions of shrill voices from the extremes of culture, anyone with anything moderate or reasonable to say gets cancelled by one side or the other.  There are still no balanced viewpoints and even less civil conversation.  Everything is a moral imperative, and if you disagree (from either side), you are ‘the problem’.

So far, this all sounds pretty bad, right?  It doesn’t have to be.  I’ve muted the blaring voices (even amongst my friends).  On social media, it’s simply a click.  In person, it’s as simple as pointing out that there are two sides to every issue, and in most cases, they are both partly to blame for the problem and neither has a corner on the truth.  I haven’t watched TV news in 20 years.  I don’t have to participate in the news/hype cycle.  

Online, as in life, balanced perspective is key.  I had to learn to see things for what they are, not what everyone is all upset about and claiming they are.  If I got wound up about every issue that someone says is an existential threat to humanity or society, I’d be exhausted.  And a lot of people are exhausted.  I like to be informed.  But about real facts.  Not hyperbole and not emotional screaming.  Narratives are like bodily functions.  Everybody has them, and they’re typically not shared well.

As the world moves on (and it will), I hope we all learn that holding our virtual hands over our ears and screaming isn’t how we make the world a better place.  Following those who would constantly stimulate our adrenal glands won’t make your life (or anyone else’s) better.  Regurgitating talk radio (am I dating myself?) or podcast feeds about ‘what’s wrong with the world’ won’t endear you to anyone who isn’t wed to the same narratives.  We need to see the world through better eyes and listen with more compassion.  

Practical Preparedness – Part 2

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So I want to be prepared – Now What?

Photo courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The most critical thing is what I like to call the “Preparedness Mindset”. This doesn’t mean paranoia, or keeping a shipping pallet of toilet paper or non-perishable supplies in your garage. It means that you consider what you’re going to do in the event of an emergency, and that you have a plan. As I like to say about nearly everything in life: Make the plan, work the plan.

If it feels like this isn’t normal, or that no one else is doing it, consider this : The US federal government has actually been supporting the notion of preparedness for many years, but in the face of convenience culture, it’s pretty widely ignored. But we have real-world examples of disasters in our recent past. Consider these scenarios:

The regional blackout in the northeastern US in 2003

Hurricane Katrina in 2005

The Camp fire in Norther California in 2018

And of course the Covid 19 pandemic that locked the world down in 2020.

These are not hypotheticals. And they are not completely isolated. Do you live on a coast? You’ve got the threat hurricanes and floods. Live in the Midwest? You’ve got snowstorms and tornados. Live in the West? Droughts and wildfires (and if you’re in California you can throw in earthquakes too).

Read what our esteemed federal government says about preparedness. There’s some great material here and you could easily spend 30 minutes (or more) immersed in this.

Ready.gov and the Department of Homeland Security.

So now what do you do? The first step in being prepared (aside from establishing the need to be prepared) is to assess who you are making preparations for and what hazards are you likely to face.

Who – This is your family, your tribe, your clan. For many of us, these are the people that are going to look at me in time of need and trouble and expect answers. Are you a parent or head of household with children? Are you single, but look after an elderly parent or special needs friend? Is it just you? What you need and how much of it is heavily dependent on assessing the ‘who’ in your life. Don’t forget pets. And irreplaceable photos and documents. In this day and age of technology priceless memories can be digitized and stored in the cloud or on media that you can easily take with you, but you have to think of this beforehand.

What – What disaster are you expecting to face? Storms? Earthquake? Riots? Are you expecting to shelter-in-place or ‘get out of Dodge’ when something bad happens? This will decide if you’re going to stock emergency supplies at home or at the office, or if you’re going to have a ready cache of supplies and gear that you ‘re going to load up and haul somewhere else. Perhaps you don’t know with certainty and need to be prepared on some level for either scenario.

Resources – What do you have to bring to bear to an effort at becoming prepared? If you’re thinking about this and making a plan you’re already most of the way there. Your best resource is the gray matter between your ears and your hands and feet. You don’t need thousands of dollars or to move to a forest miles from civilization. Even the popular notion of being prepared to ‘Bug Out’ isn’t really what most people should be thinking about first. We already equip ourselves for every day life, so all we really need to do is make a plan, add a few things and some supplies to get us by.