I’ve got a theory that might help explain some of the chaos in our country right now.
People are wired differently. That’s not really something that’s in dispute. It used to be that people could have different opinions and it was acceptable to agree to disagree.
I’m not going to take credit for this theory that I’ll describe; there are some books out there on the subject, but I think it’s important to pass the word along right now. I’m going to use a couple of terms that, on the surface, might sound derogatory. That’s not my intent; I think you’ll see what I mean if you give me a chance to explain it. It has nothing to do with IQ or level of intelligence.
Have you ever heard something that infuriated you? Your vision went red, your fists clenched, and you were ready to scream or take a shot at someone. This immediate, visceral reaction is what’s called “fast thinking.” It’s the knee-jerk reflex that almost seems to bypass your brain. It’s an amygdala hijack that overwhelms your thought processes. The emotions and feelings you encounter during the situation affect your decision making, and you react instinctively. On a much smaller scale it could be something as simple as making an impulse buy. Many times store displays and floor plans make it easier for the vendor to take advantage of a shopper’s inclination to be influenced to make unplanned purchases. It capitalizes on your brain’s wiring to stoke the urge to buy something you had no intention of purchasing.
Maybe the next day, after you’re at home, you take a look at whatever you bought, and thought “why in the world did I pick that up?” It’s why it’s a good idea to “sleep on” a big decision before going through with it. The emotions that clouded your vision earlier have significantly faded, and you make your decisions based more in rationality or logic. It’s the Mr. Spock version of approaching a decision point. The emotions were there and may have dominated the early thoughts, but you’ve had time to work through them. You can clearly remember how you felt when you were first presented with the choice, but you look at the situation differently if you focus on facts rather than the way things made you feel. Because the process takes longer to work through, this is called “slow thinking.”
Think “the tortoise and the hare.” The hare (your emotional thinking) is what takes off like a shot right out of the gate. Only when it’s run its course and laid down for a nap can the tortoise (rational thinking) catch up. The hare doesn’t know where it’s going, it relies on speed more than judgment. The tortoise had time to plot the route and formulate a plan as it was going, even though the hare was running circles around it, being a big distraction in the process.
Now, in light of that, let me ask you this. Think about how you keep up with current events. Are the stories presented in ways that appeal to the fast thinking or to the slow thinking portions of your mind’s processing center?
The way I see it, TV news coverage is designed to inflame your emotions. You’re shown images that anger you, sadden you, and because news coverage persists around the clock and the networks have to fill air time, they add commentary that may or may not be based in fact. The news dwells on a shocking topic until the emotional pull begins to fade or something more shocking breaks. It becomes an endless cycle of running from one head-shaking story to the next, all the while failing to report on the lead story from a few days ago, where new developments have revealed that the initial reporting was incomplete or erroneous. That information, or corrections/retractions, rarely see the light of day, because by then you’ve already been shuffled on to the next thing and you’re led to think of the story as “old news.”
Since feel-good news doesn’t provide that same shock value, many times it’s simply not covered. It’s not often you come away from TV news coverage with a warm fuzzy about what you’ve seen. You’re more likely to walk away from the TV feeling high levels of anxiety or emotionally wrung out.
So how do you keep up with current events without dealing with this phenomenon? Consider instead looking at a news source’s website. If you like a certain network, that’s fine, stick with that network’s website. I’d recommend not using just one source, though. Journalists are no longer known for being thorough or presenting all sides of an event. I’m not talking about streaming the feed from that website, I’m saying read the stories instead of watching them. Reading them, rather than being pelted with images and commentary at the speed of someone else’s choosing, allows you to go at your own pace, and lets you digest the facts (if presented) at your own speed.
Today’s visual news coverage is intended to evoke an emotional response from you and divide you from your fellow Americans. News coverage is supposed to present facts and some context, but today’s coverage is light on fact, heavy on repetition, and includes more opinion and speculation than information.
It’s important to keep tabs on world events, certainly, but if you’d like my unsolicited advice, don’t spend more than about half an hour a day getting caught up with what’s going on in the world. You’ve got to get back to doing whatever it is that God put you here to do, and it’s best to do that without getting worked up into a tizzy by someone that’s trying to do exactly that.
Lord, I’m human, and fully susceptible to the pitfalls of how my mind is wired. Help me to recognize the ways my brain’s wiring is used against me and not fall for it, staying focused on finding and fulfilling Your purpose for me here in this life. Amen