The news cycle

[123cups]

Hiya Numbers, my thought process was not about the amount, nor the quality of education, but rather the pre-university education systems ethos of everyone's a "winner" and all opinions are equally valid. (And to an extent the university level education system, based on my experiences completing post grad studies last year).

Everyone is not a winner and some opinions are just *smile* dumb. That is fact.

I'm quite sure there is a Doctorate level research project in there studying the declining quality of journalism and the rise of me-too-ism. I very much doubt that any University would ever allow it though.

I think you just created the headline for this topic

“Everyone is not a winner and some opinions are just *smile* dumb. Fact.“

I’ll give you a like for that

How does the pre-university education system ethos contribute to clickbait media?

I can see there’s less respect for senior people in their field compared to the generation prior. That might be because they’re told they’re special, etc.

But then I’d argue that attitude is warranted in cases where a job has a rapidly changing skillset, because of the internet, such as journalism. There’s 50yo government workers in offices who can barely send an email. Someone who succeeded at a job in the 90’s might offer valuable advice, but they might also be completely out of touch with what a young up-and-comer today needs to do to succeed.

Therefore, young people in these fields are going to be less interested in listening, and within reason, rightly so.

For your hypothesis to be true, young people in all fields would share the “I’m special” characteristic.

Do young doctors reflect these issues?
School teachers? Factory workers?

If the social issues mostly appear in fields rendered unrecognisable by technology, then it’s a technology issue.

What is the link between the education system’s ethos and clickbait media?

 

[waiting]

1.30 expected announcement on where the GF will be played.

GF in Qld- Gabba at night. Certain.

Finals. Since both SA & WA missed out on the GF I suspect that if Port & WC qualify they will be playing their final(s) at their home ground.

Kosh was already on radio, think this morning saying as such.’ Earn The right to play their final in SA if they qualify’.

WA though I still have concerns as their premier has taken a hard line ( his prerogative ) with 14 days quarantine being still in place.

I guess we will get ‘answers’ today.

 

[123cups]

The other phenomenon I'll throw in here is the rise of the echo chamber, likely a result of our unwillingness to work hard to pick apart our own prejudices and entertain a counterargument. We'd rather dismiss out of hand any ideas that are not aligned to ours, and often we'll do it with rising aggression.

Increasing parts of our society are moving towards binary choices. So The Age is progressive, The Herald Sun is conservative; you're typically a reader of one but not the other. Political beliefs are unbending; does the swinging voter, who takes the time to educate themselves on issues and form an evolving opinion, even exist anymore?

We gravitate towards our own tribes and shun new or different ideas because we've decided we have nothing more to learn and no need to grow further as individuals.

@123kid is right about advertisers tracking online behaviours. A process called re-targeting is designed to ensure we're served with content that fits the profile that our browsing activity reveals. This further adds to our social and political myopia. Google does it well and Facebook is elite in this space.

I'm afraid to say we are victims, somewhat, of our own behaviours.

But I cannot correlate this with the substandard quality of AFL journalism that we are being dished up. As @Tiger Rob says, opinion disguised as fact is a cancer on our society. It's lazy and indulgent. I'd be stunned if footy supporters think the views of Damien Barrett, Kane Cornes, Tom Morris and John Ralph hold any currency.

They are the T20 equivalent of AFL reportage: all wax and no wick.

I'm increasingly heartened by the response to the likes of Russell Jackson's article on Robert Muir and The Mongrel Punt's thoughtful game analysis.

It actually says very clearly to me that well researched and articulated writing is highly valued by footy fans.

I’d like to try and argue against the first half of this.

Human behaviour isn’t trending in the above direction. We’re not becoming more binary, we’re not becoming more likely to shun new ideas, and we’re not gravitating more to our own tribes.

People haven’t changed. For example: the entire human history.

‘The rise of the echo chamber’ is essentially ‘the rise of the internet‘, which is a new change in the environment around us bringing out the same behaviours we’ve shown for many thousands of years.

I love your point that humans are victims of our own behaviour. We always have been, and what I think you’re describing is a result of our own behaviour being able to be nudged more intelligently than ever.

It’s capacity to capitalise on hacks to human behaviour.

Of course, companies have always tried to capitalise on hacks to human behaviour. It’s just that tech companies are doing it better than ever. And people wonder why China and the U.S. are reluctant to share data with each other’s tech giants.

Behaviour isn’t nudged for our own benefit, so to apply all this to something practical, I find it helpful to be mindful in safeguarding attention.

 

[Number8]

‘The rise of the echo chamber’ is essentially ‘the rise of the internet‘, which is a new change in the environment around us bringing out the same behaviours we’ve shown for many thousands of years.

Is it just this or is it amplifying certain behaviours? I'm not sure but it feels like the latter. For example, a lot of bad online behaviour probably wouldn't occur in one-to-one real life human situations.

To take this point further and circle it back to the overall topic, I remain very suspicious of online analytics reporting, and most certainly would never use it in my line of work without an injection of interpretation and common sense. AFL Media might tell you they get good clicks on their "wacky" Fathers' Day joke videos but what is the actual benefit of that? Who's watching and how engaged with the game are they? Do they hold memberships or buy merchandise? What of their overall consumption of the game? In short, does the data give you a suitable read on the person at the keyboard?

In my experience, you *smile* off the rusted-on customer at your peril... and I fear that is where our footy media is headed.