The media is flooded with speculation about future violence

Here are some strategies you can use to evaluate it

I’m reposting this one from November of 2022, the first time I wrote about media that is based on prediction. The piece raises a bunch of questions to help you block the impact of speculative media and also see the edges of the mainstream media frame. Once you can see the limits of what counts, you can start to inhabit the space beyond it, which is where liberation and creativity can happen.

But if you don’t feel like answering the questions and want a few strategies to try right now, here’s a few:

–Before you open an app or website, take a second to ask yourself what it is you’re hoping to learn or achieve from your engagement.Bonus: ask yourself what you’re feeling, and if those feelings drove you to engage in the first place. After scanning for five minutes or less, check in to see if there’s a match between what you want and what you’re being given. If there’s no match, get out.

–If you’re reading legacy media like a newspaper, scan the headlines and subheads first. Before opening any articles, ask yourself if what the header and subhead promise is a) someone’s opinion about what might happen; b) an interview with an expert about what might happen; c) a projection using data about what might happen; c) an aggregation of historical information about the past that might help us guess what our future holds. Do you see? All speculation. You don’t need to read any of it.

–Ask yourself if you’re feeling nervous about the crazy ideas that are in your head, or that woke you up in the middle of the night, and you’re looking for confirmation in your media feed that other people are thinking and worrying about these same things. This impulse to scan stems from a human need for comfort. It’s totally understandable! But you might not want to soothe yourself this way, because your animal self isn’t getting any in person resonance from having another person across from you, meeting you there. Even if what you’re reading confirms your thoughts, it may not make you feel any better.

–When you’re engaging your media, ask if there is any information that is sourced from the “margins” or “outside” the mainstream, dominant cultural consensus of “what counts” that might provide an alternative way of looking at the situation being reported or, even better, describe strategies that worked in a particular context to empower people. If it’s not there, ask yourself how the argument you’re consuming would be different, if it included that perspective or history.

This is just a short list, to get you started. Feel free to drop others in the comments, to help us all be more savvy in this fraught time.

Remember: when you harvest that time by taking it back, you can take action, instead.