We live in a world where information is pushed to us around the clock.
Talking heads on cable news networks fill air time while a breaking-news ticker scrolls by, often recycling headlines that are hours old.
Advertisers claim their product will make you happier, stronger, richer.
Social media posts share some information we want but also provide much we could not care less about.
We are tired of fake news and fake ads and fake people.
What we crave today are real ideas, real interactions with real people.
We can’t change the world all at once, but we can change our slivers of reality.
When a colleague comes to my desk, I work hard to be an active listener, a term I picked up at a management seminar years ago.
It means I look away from my computer screen, take my hands off the keyboard and turn to look at the person. I don’t pick up my phone to check Twitter or Facebook. The same thing applies to lunch with friends or dinner with family. I tune out the rest of the world and tune in to the people right around me.
When we genuinely engage with people, we are richer for it.
When it comes to news consumption, we have to choose our sources wisely. Before we share a headline on social media, we need to make sure it is a legitimate story.
As a longtime journalist, I will make a shameless plug. Support your local media, especially newspapers. I fear that one day our society will wake up and newspapers will be gone and only then will we realize what we have lost.
Newspapers bind a community, connecting neighbor to neighbor, business owner to customer and government to citizen. Reporters serve as watchdogs for the public, keeping an eye on things while you are busy living your life. But news gathering is expensive and the migration of readers and advertisers to digital products has cut into profits and forced papers across the country to lay off talented, hard-working journalists.
Back to my original message.
Respond to advertising that doesn’t employ gimmicks and false promises.
Patronize companies and businesses that deliver quality products and services and, when possible, are locally owned.
If you own a business, resolve to provide real customer service, not lip service. Customers deserve to be heard and helped, and a happy customer will be a repeat customer.
How else can we feel more connected to something real and genuine?
Get involved with the community. Join a club or a church, volunteer with a nonprofit, attend a festival or a play or a gallery opening.
Day by day, we can change our reality.
I am reminded of some wisdom shared by writer Annie Dillard:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
Betty H. Snider is the managing editor of The Free Lance-Star.
Leave a Reply