The Telegraph Changed How You Spend Your Time
And made you a slave to irrelevant media
Technology was supposed to usher in an age of infinite connectivity and ever-deepening relationships. Sold on that promise, we’ve spent the past century accelerating toward instantaneous communication without any hesitation or discussion of its effects. The increasing volume of media and tools has absolutely increased opportunities for connectivity. There is no debate. But has the sea of noise really made us better people?
You’ve had this experience: You’re watching one of the 24-hour news channels. A story breaks, and the anchor brings in a crop-duster pilot to discuss the lost Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Suddenly you realize you’re part of a joke, but no one’s laughing. This isn’t news. This is frantically filling a quota.
TV’s concept of “filling airtime” has painfully spilled over into every moment of our media-saturated lives. It has become who we are. We feel this compulsion to share and opine, to fill the space of our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat feeds — just because those platforms exist.
We’re so busy filling our quotas, we never stopped to ask if we should.
