Why Worldview Exchange?
Because passive online content consumption is unhealthy. For readers. For publishers. For society.
It’s a fact. Revealed by research conducted by Facebook itself, and reiterated by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in his recent testimony to the US Senate.
Passively consuming news and other content online can lead to negative mental health outcomes.
Beyond the individual, passively consuming content via social media is also unhealthy for those invested in creating that content. Think news media organisations. Because while they spend money creating value, they’re not getting big enough return on this investment because social media are soaking up all the ad revenue.
Lastly, passive and uncritical consumption of news is unhealthy for society because it leads to a lack of vibrancy and vigour in our public discourse and debate. Undermining the effectiveness of our public institutions. Witness the recent hit to the credibility of democracy in America.
The term “newsfeed” is probably more apt than we ever knew.
Newsfeeds are better considered as a never ending conveyor belt of content, feeding us “thought candy”, achieving their goal of our unmoving, fixed attention and improved ad revenues, but catastrophically failing to provide us with either a nutritionally balanced news diet or any mental exercise.
Let’s get active!
A trend in online news publishing toward providing improved options for readers to get active and engage with content has been predicted by some. And there are a few promising early examples, like the highlight feature here on Medium.
The above excerpt is from a piece on the future of online news publishing by Gabriel Stein, who earned his stripes at Google and Upworthy. The piece finishes with a description of a thought provoking thought experiment:
Gabriel’s prescription for a new type of media or digital publication that might thrive outside the environs of social media by creating additional value for individuals and society is one that mirrors our own thinking at Worldview Exchange.
What it says on the box
We’re working on a tool for empowering audiences to take post-reading actions that go well beyond sharing.
We’re working on the assumption that people, as social but also secretive animals, want to know how others think and feel about a topic or issue without necessarily revealing their own response to the Internet.
That topic could be gun control, same sex marriage, or the outcome of a local sporting fixture.
The tool then, on the reader’s demand, takes the text from a news article or opinion piece and crafts questions to test their thoughts and feelings, beliefs and values.
The tool will enable readers, should they choose, to share with a small group of friends and family or a particular confidant, the question they’ve answered or how their response compares with the communities to which they belong.
Our aim is to replicate online the types of conversations about current affairs that occur around kitchen tables everyday across the globe, and not on social media.
And so we’re calling our tool Worldview Exchange. Because that’s what it will do. Enable an exchange of worldview that’s healthy for us, publishers and society.
See here for more on how the simple act of expressing our views, values and beliefs can lead to happiness.
If you’re at a news media organisation and are interested in learning more about opportunities to partner with us on our journey please be in touch directly. Or subscribe to receive updates on our progress in your inbox.
