If you are starting to feel overwhelmed and stressed about the news and everything else going on lately, think about this. The web has created an environment where anything that’s not totally “over-the-top” won’t survive.
Here’s a recent example. The headline is “‘Eat it alive’: CNN highlights new data that threatens to ‘crush’ Trump’s presidency!”
When you read it you find out the enormously huge deal is that voters say inflation is their number one concern . . . which it always is in a consumer society. Most people at this point would just consider it kind of “click-baity” and not a big deal. But when people say “eaten alive” they are referring to a person being eaten alive by a shark or cannibals. So the way the headline actually works is to tease the image or idea of a human being – in this case Trump – being physically eaten – which appeals to the primitive parts of the brain. So the article could not be more mundane – all about people worried about inflation. But the headline makes the viewer believe that somebody is going to be literally “eaten” and you can watch.
This is how the internet works – it makes people not just anxious – but in a constant state of fight or flight – which can literally kill you. But it generates clicks and traffic and that’s what brings in the money. Go to any popular news site and look at the headlines and count how many are designed to conjure up wild, violent images using words like “shocked” “gobsmacked” “slammed” “destroys” “buries” “levels”. Then read the actual article which was all about “consumer confidence dipping slightly in February.”
And once you click there’s no actual payoff – no one is getting eaten alive or slammed and clicking just makes it worse. The emotions and feeling of everything being chaotically insane have already kicked in. The effect is that the worked up internet consumer who was hoping to see “Trump eaten alive” like the headline suggested, moves on to another violent, rage-baity link because they’re now primed for a miserable experience involving the worst emotions.
Maybe a good way to go for people who want to be informed is to never passively consume internet content since it makes no difference if it’s a Joe Rogan clip or a New York Times op-ed piece because what it’s designed to do to the human nervous system is activate stress, anger and hopelessness. Instead people should make finding stuff out an active as opposed to passive experience and start with the topic they want to know more about then actively search out credible stuff related to that.
Mark Nichols is the author of Cannabis: The Untold Story of our Greatest Plant.