There was a time* when I used to try to read newspaper articles, occassionally in their entirety, but usually just a skim-through to get the gist. But nowadays, what with the ever increasing tsunami of information flooding over us I’ve had to adopt a new news-harvesting strategy in order to feel well-informed, namely reading only RSS headlines. I figure if I read enough headlines I can get a pretty good picture of the way the world is going. Call it pattern recognition if you will. What good does reading the actual article do? That’s just details, my friends, and details are for olde-worlde types who still like to read entire books, as if we have the time for that, when the fish stocks are dying (50 years left, apparently) and George Bush is perceived as greater threat that Kim Jong-Il (yep)? Yes, I’m an RSS bandit and proud of it. William Gibson would surely approve.
I mean, in this day and age you surely have to agree that expertise in some narrow domain really isn’t going to get you that far? Surely it’s better to know just the tiniest amount about a gajillion different things, from which you can infer, unconsciously, the bigger picture about where we are all heading (to hell, in a rocket-powered bobsled, since you ask…) and also perhaps be better prepared for the impending post-apocalyptic scenario in which we will find ourselves (yes, I know that we shouldn’t be defeatist, and must believe that it is not too late to act on climate change, and should be optimistic, and so on…but the pretty much constant drip-drip-drip of massively depressing RSS headlines – see above – gives me cause to doubt. Sorry.)
RSS is just SO perfect for factoid-spouting bullshit artists such as myself – I can come across as incredibly well-informed about current affairs at parties as long as I don’t talk to anyone for more than two minute and, you know, keep the conversation moving.
* Not really. Ask my wife.
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