The meta-narrative of this thread: people have outsourced their thinking to massive media companies who have a rational self-interest to capture their audience'

The meta-narrative of this thread: people have outsourced their thinking to massive media companies who have a rational self-interest to capture their audience's attention in order to increase revenue. People assume that these media companies are portrayers of truth. While these companies are not (usually) telling lies, they are presenting a point-of-view that suits their interests. The narratives being consumed by the public are designed to keep them in fear and outrage. By being in a state of fear and outrage, the mob produces more stories for the media to sell back to it to induce more fear and outrage. The other day, I took a taxi. The driver was talking about how he stopped logging into Facebook, consuming the news, etc. and was instead focusing on spending more quality time with his wife and daughters. He was the happiest person I spoke to yesterday. We already had what we needed to be happy. Entertainment tools like Facebook are good insofar as we are made better people. Perhaps it's time for us to reflect on how satisfied we are with the people we've become, and accept the personal responsibility of bettering ourselves before we try to save the world. "Turn on, tune in, and drop out."