Philos

The old saying “Ignorance is Bliss” is clearly relevant when put in the context of the internet. Before the internet was widely used, the main news came from newspapers, TV, etc: a narrow group of sources controlling what news (cat stuck in a tree, many diversions) people got. There were also smaller publications but those weren’t widely seen by the public. Now that the internet is widely available in much of the world, orgs like MoveOn (and many others) can publicize all the horrible things that are going on all around the world (Monsanto/EPA/Dioxin, Komen/Planned Parenthood, Citizens United, etc etc etc) and so many people hear about it! And it’s a huge toll on the emotional self (if you care about what is happening in the world, that is) to hear about and deal with all this news. And it sucks, it really does. I know it would be essentially impossible to try to study if the proliferation of news via the internet has caused any general higher average depression, but I kinda wonder if thats true to some extent. (I am not, however, saying that we know too for our own good.)