When Barry Schwartz compares new media filters to specialty boutiques, I suddenly find myself with a strong opinion and a stomach ache. We all live in the same world, with similar if not identical time constraints. I should clarify that by "we" I mean the people in this class, and most of the people we all know, and then all the people they know. Now, if you're a Barry Schwartz and you have to read 10 professional journals every month and write books, then I'll grant you that time is at a premium. Most of us aren't Barry Schwartz. Actually, most people are just lazy and want things done for them. They can have that because someone stands to make a buck off them.
The freedom of choice, and the abundance of available choices we have, are good things. Running and hiding because decisions make us dizzy is just proof that we live in an age of excess - not because we have too many choices, but because we're too spoiled to know how to take advantage of them. Look at Schwartz's example about colas. Given 30 types of soda pop in a store the average consumer will blindly choose Coke. I agree with the point he makes about branding, but what's the purpose of even having 30 sodas if we're too afraid to go out and try the other 29 to make an informed decision? If you want the freedom of choice, you have to do a little bit of legwork. Time may be the real price of this particular "freedom".
Seriously, what's the point of complacently sitting back with a Coke knowing that you could have had a Royal Crown? Have you tried Royal Crown? Have you mixed it with rum to see if it makes a decent drink? Have you cleaned dirty pennies in it and compared the results to those of Pepsi and President's Choice? For a cola, you know you don't have to go to those extremes. But for a depth of understanding on a topic that affects the world around you, start
I also have to factor in here that most people are completely satisfied with a skim through their news source of choice, and there's nothing wrong with that, either. Not everyone cares as much as a journalism or communications student about how news reaches them. But the mere fact that we perhaps have too much choice does not excuse laziness. Even if you swear by the same newspapers every single day, it's not like you really care about more than two or three issues
covered in it. Putting your trust in one or two publications to report accurately and comprehensively suggests that maybe you don't really care all that much, after all.
You can choose Coke as your soft drink of choice because cola is cola. Maybe you've tried Pepsi and PC and Royal Crown and Metro Brand, and yeah, Coke is better. But it's a hell of a lot easier to taste test soda than to sift through page after page of web content trying to decide what is valid. The difference is that you don't owe your brand of choice anything. It owes you the quality you expect from it. That's what you count on. That's the nature of a quality customer experience. It's why you pay money. When it comes to information, you may choose to live or die by The New York Times, but if you want to do that intelligently you have no excuse not to in the age of new media.
I can read one person's blog and be drawn towards someone else's, and so on. I can see watch an independent insider's perspective on a given news story, and post my comment back, and find other people saying the polar opposite. I can find something that shifts my own viewpoint. Given all this, I believe I owe it not only to myself but to the people putting that content out there to go ahead and take part. Especially if at any given point in time I can only reasonably expect myself to really have a passionate interest in two or three big news stories, and even then only for as long as they stay alive. Meanwhile I can still read my Times.
There's a broad line between ignorance and fanaticism that I'd like to think of as healthy, informed interest. We don't all have to care about everything, constantly, but we should take advantage of this new media we all agree is so wonderful without being in terrible awe of it the moment we try to use it. If you are Barry Schwartz, and you are reading ten academic journals monthly, and you're lecturing at Google, you have the credibility to choose your news sources and to trust their filters. If you're Darcy MacDonald (a.k.a. Joe Blow) and you don't know your ass from your armpit you should be doing something about it. Trust yourself and inform yourself. Sifting through the crap just takes practice.
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