It seems like a new phenomenon, because it is only in the last 20 years or so that the concept of the 24hr news day combined with easy access to media via the internet became a thing. Remember when you went out to grab the news paper in the morning and sat down with a cup of coffee to get the weather before heading out the door for your 8 to 5? Me either. But, that was my parents’ routine when I was growing up. News at 6 and 10. Then stay up for “the late show.” The world was both much smaller and much larger. Smaller, because you only really interacted with your local area. The local news was local. The paper reported on local stuff. Sure there was a section for “national news,” but it was smaller than the coupon section. Larger, because there were whole areas of the nation that you never heard anything about. You knew they existed, and maybe that they had a reputation for being rough/bad/hard/touristy/glamorous/etc, but that was it. Now, we have a daily body count for every city in the world. How many people were killed by x in city y on day z? Just ask google. Or, wat about 30 seconds and someone will post it on your favorite forum, along with 15 links. Stats actually show that we are safer now than any time in history. But, you can’t let your kids go to the park by themselves, for fear of a pack of Karens swarming them and having CPS take them away. The world isn’t getting more fucked up. We are just more aware of the fuckery.
www.nbcchicago.com
www.tastesofchicago.com
