Now isn’t that bad

By Joseph Price • June 16, 2016

Originally published in the Batesville Daily Guard

We’re in an amazing age, that’s for sure.

Within the last 25 years, we’ve gone from communicating by letters, radio and landlines to instantaneous texts and conversations anywhere (except the valleys and the deserts) via mobile phones.

This has given us a great amount of freedom (not considering service contracts and batteries), which allows us to be able to communicate almost anywhere at any time. No longer do we have to walk to payphones or bang on strangers’ doors when our cars break down in the middle of nowhere nor do we have to wait for the evening news or morning paper to know what happened in the world. Almost everything we need to communicate and receive information is at our fingertips and we’re able to carry it around in a nice, pocket-sized wonder box aka a smartphone.

But, not everyone sees it that way.

There remains a strong current of technophobia and anti-technology sentiment in the world.

We all know at least one person. A person who believes in the “good old days” and how things were better when people entertained themselves by playing with rocks. These people condemn technology and swear to (eventually) live a life free of it. They declare that mankind has gone downhill and become dependent on technology and the next generation is missing what the world really has to offer.

And sure, there are some things to be missed.

For example, when I was younger, and also as an adult, I really liked heavy metal music. Unfortunately, the Ozarks were not the optimal place logistically to be a fan of that genre. Aside from Walmart, which sold almost only Top 40 and pop classics, there wasn’t much of anywhere to get music.

Not to mention you’d never hear any of it on the radio. Even today, it seems that most radio stations are stuck playing the same track list they were playing in 1996.

So this meant learning about new music through magazines and making special trips at least an hour away to just buy music.

It sounds frustrating, for sure. But some of my fondest memories are of those trips, mostly to Hastings in Jonesboro. They were great because we got to spend a day with our friends, socializing with other fans of the same style of music at the store. The music store culture was great.

We also had to take chances with what we bought. We didn’t have YouTube to give us a sample of the music that was on it. Sometimes sampler cassettes would be released locally at Rebel Records, but at less than 20 songs, you were pretty limited.

So most often, you’d have to rely on either reviews or the quality of the previous album to make a decision. A lot of times, you’d just go by the album’s cover art. Sometimes you’d spend $15 on a bomb you’d play once and never listen to again or you sometimes got something that you’re still listening to today.

They were great times and I wouldn’t exchange them for anything.

But, times change and the music culture has changed.

Yes, I am kind of sad that my son will miss out on a lot of the things I enjoyed in my teenage years.

On the bright side, if he wants to hear a new band, he no longer has to spend $5 on a magazine to read a music review or take the risk of losing $15 on a bad CD. Now he can get online and go to any number of sites and listen to a few samples. He doesn’t even have to leave the house to buy the CD. He can order it, receiving it in just a couple of days, or download it, being able to carry it around on his wonder box.

Sure, he may not have the hangout that was the music store, but he’ll have the ability to communicate with millions of people, across the globe. There are countless forums, social media groups and websites that’ll put him in connection with people who share the same interest right away.

It’s that communication ability that has been one of the real boons of this age. Before the advent of the internet, the rest of the world was a far away place for most people. We knew about it, but most of us didn’t interact with it or the people there unless we were willing to make the effort to write a letter every week or pay for long-distance phone calls.

The kids coming up now, many of them are growing up with a world perspective. It’s nothing to them to have local friends that they hang out with at school during the day and then come home and communicate with friends on the other side of the world. 

Kids today have a different sense of place than many of us did. We grew up waiting to see the world, the kids today are growing up seeing themselves as citizens of it. Sure, they’re still American and other nationalities, but a new borderless layer has been added to that. They can now link up with people in other countries who have similar beliefs, interests and experiences — bonds that can be tighter than simply being born in a geographical spot.

Of course, there’s many people who believe that’s a bad thing. Go online and you’ll have no trouble finding people who live in fear of a world government, promoting any number of conspiracy theories about people behind the curtain trying to destroy all borders and convert the world to a police state. 

There’s a kernel of truth to that sort of talk; that’s why it thrives. But, maybe they should think about our future with technology instead of outright ditching it. I’m sure many people will disagree, though, and they’ll voice their opinion via a post on Facebook.

How about a side of clickbait?

By Joseph Price • May 19, 2016

Originally published in the Batesville Daily Guard

So would someone tell me when posts by a bunch of nobodies on the Twitter or Facebook accounts of well-known individuals became newsworthy?

I’m not talking about the posts by the actual public figure, but the posts made in response to them. Somehow, those posts are being passed off as “news.”

It’s a trend that I’ve noticed lately. It really jumped out last week when a former colleague of mine, who now works in Oregon, shared an article called “Bernie Sanders Fanatics At

tack Anne Rice and George Takei.”

Unable to resist something that would annoy me at that moment, I pressed my screen and was directed to an “article” on a site called Modern Liberal which basically said “people who like Bernie Sanders said mean things to the Vampire Lady and Sulu” and proceeded to have a long list of copy and paste Facebook posts and Tweets of people saying they were unhappy with those people’s support of Hillary. Aside from some inarticulate and self-righteous posting, none of it seemed too offensive.

Most recently, I saw another friend post something similar from the Huffington Post about how Old Navy smacked down racists on its Twitter feed. It’s great that Old Navy did that, but a bunch of racist nobodies posting on social media is nothing new. That sort of thing goes back to the beginnings of the Internet boom and it wasn’t news back then.

All that I got out of those two “stories” is that I was looking at really lazy journalism, if you could call it journalism at all.

I mean, seriously, I could go on any famous person’s or business’ Facebook or Twitter account and cherry pick comments and make a quick “story” out of it as well. Anyone could do it actually. It’s not even journalism, it’s just copy and pasting.

Now, I’m not the sort of person who longs for the good-old-days that never existed. If you look at them with a critical eye, the “good old days” weren’t really that good. But something like this that passes for journalism now makes me long for the days that news was informative and clickbait didn’t exist.

“What is clickbait?” those not in on the lingo of the Internet might ask.

Well, clickbait is content that’s main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page. It’s pretty much become the dominant form of “news” delievery on social media and is largely full of irrelevant topics that are usually recycled and lack any worthwhile substance.

I mean, why should I really care if John Smith left a mean Facebook post for Chuck Norris because he supported Mike Huckabee? Is Jane Smith telling Bernie Sanders that Hillary has better hair newsworthy? Will people even bother to remember those people after they closed the page? Are we particularly informed by any of this?

One particular Facebook post I remember that made national news, at least on the Internet, was a post that originated on the KARK page in 2015. It was right on the heels of the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. A man was upset about the decision and accused the NBC affiliate of having rainbow colors on its peacock logo. It was pointed out to the man that the colors had always been that way. Funny, but not really earth-shaking. But within a couple of days, the man’s post was plastered across the Internet, with once-reputable sites like Raw Story and Buzzfeed taking not and doing stories of their own. It got a lot of clicks and Mr. Don Stair apparently got a lot of feedback for it, closing his account, according to Raw Story.

That’s just one example. Now it seems that anyone can get 0.15 seconds of fame if they respond angry or mean enough to someone or something on Facebook or Twitter.

To me, it’s like splashing “Red Butte High Student calls Kirk Douglas Old” across the front page. Sure, some may find it offensive, but who cares what some anonymous kid says? Is anyone going to care or even remember five minutes later?

But apparently they do, because when someone shares one of these “stories” online, they get responses on their own feed in return. It’s like a piranha finding a meal and then other piranhas show up to eat that piranha and even more piranhas show up to eat those piranhas and so on.

Am I supposed to change my mind about a particular politician because some of their supporters make inarticulate, stupid or outright crazy posts on Facebook? Is that really supposed to make me rethink the issues?

If the answer is supposed to be “yes” then I guess I’m missing something. But then, maybe it’s just the mess that’s the Internet where that sort of thing may be considered news. I just don’t see it.

Thus is the world of clickbait.

I don’t like it, but I guess I’m stuck with it. And sometimes, I’m going to bite.