News to Me
I’ve found that I no longer have the patience to watch the news.
It’s not immediate enough. I don’t care about the miraculous rescue of some man’s poodle. I want to hear about the impending war and I want to hear about it right now. Don’t push me off to Sally or Rod for a sidebar. I don’t respect their opinions. Their knowledge of canines is surely lacking. A kitty at home does not count.
The internet has me spoiled. Not only can I pick and choose what news I want to hear, I can pick specific angles or writers. Related information is at my fingertips. If I want hear what others are saying, I simply pick a new site (like
here, here, or here), unafraid that the news I desire has already been covered and the station has moved on to other material.
Often I filter out the noise right from the start.
I’m particularly bad when it comes to the weather. Why should I wait twenty minutes into a broadcast to hear that it is snowing outside? I can find what I need in seconds along with radar maps and satellite feeds if I want them and only if I want them. Put the pointer down, Bob. I just want to know if I should wear a coat.
More and more, I find myself searching for news with a mouse in my hand, not the remote. Fact finding missions leave me staring at the search screens of CNN or MSNBC. Waiting for clock to strike 11:00 pm or for Larry King to leave his desk is a thing of the past.
My son will never know that there was a time where you had to sit through the fluff to get to the information you want. He may think of the television as an extension of the internet, rather than the other way around. Heh — I thought it changed my world.
