It feels like, as a child, I often heard scary campfire stories late at night—tales from times when 97% of the country didn’t have internet, when not every room had its own television, and when instead of an intelligent phone in every pocket, each household had just one phone, and it only worked when plugged into the wall.
It also feels like today, more and more people live in fear, convinced that everything was better in the past. But how is this connected?
In my opinion, the media and communication landscape has drastically changed over the past 30 years. Access to information is easier than ever, and the choice of providers is much more diverse.
Thirty years ago, people had only a handful of TV channels. Today, we have an overwhelming number of options, and this expansion goes far beyond television. It’s now easier than ever to access different newspapers—long gone are the days when people relied only on their one subscription, reading only what landed in their mailbox in the morning. And then came the internet…
This shift has many positives:
- It creates jobs,
- It makes the world smaller and more accessible,
- And, in theory, it gives everyone the chance to become a global citizen.
But what else does this bring?
For starters, an overwhelming flood of information—so much that it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to read everything completely. Who has the time, or the desire, to read multiple newspapers every day and compare them? Who actually switches between radio stations just to get different perspectives on the news?
On top of that, every piece of content we consume—whether we watch it or read it—has value to the author or publisher. And that leads to the next logical development: competition! The more a newspaper is read, the more a radio station is listened to, the more a website is visited—the more expensive their ads can be sold.
So what happens when even traditionally serious media start shifting towards sensationalist journalism, using clickbait headlines and exaggerated content to attract a new audience? And what happens when new generations are thrown into this world without the necessary critical thinking skills to navigate it?
Eighty years ago, highly intelligent individuals managed to use mass media to convince large groups of people to follow their ideology. And if similarly intelligent individuals use modern mass media today to spread their own agendas, it risks leading to new divisions in society—whether through nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.
News and information should be neutral and as complete as possible. That’s why they are called news, and not entertainment. And when something isn’t neutral, it should be clearly labeled as such.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I have followed all the recent tragic news stories, and each one has affected me—whether it’s:
- Cities in Luxembourg seemingly becoming more dangerous,
- Unprecedented plane crashes,
- Or the mass execution of innocent people, and so on…
But in my opinion, such tragedies have always existed. The only difference is that in the past, people didn’t wake up knowing about them immediately, sometimes even before their feet touched the floor in the morning.
The fear that is fueled by the media, I refuse to accept.
- Not for myself.
- Not for my family.
- Not for my children.
- And not for anyone else.
A comic I saw recently hit me hard. A child is sitting with their mother, watching the news about a plane crash on television. The child asks:
“Why do they always mention the nationality of the passengers?”
And the mother responds:
“So we know whether we should care or not.”
