Pick a Side. Pick a Side. Pick a Side. Now. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/opinion/israel-palestine-social-media.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Depicts my feelings, everytime I watch the news, my media feeds even my friends
I cannot honestly say who is wronged more
Social media, as opposed to the aspects of âthe mediaâ, is a world of its own. Unfortunately, it is an area where it seems all can speak without edit or actual knowledge, and emotions drive the narrative.
I donât ascribe to any (not even FB) apart from SF, which I have found to be quite good at self moderating. The problem for me regarding other areas of social media was the anonymity. No one can never be totally sure who they are speaking with and what may be their true agenda. All just too phoney for my liking.
Not to mention how incredibly rude and nasty some folk can be when they feel safely hidden behind a mask of anonymity.
Anyone unhappy with the free for all of social media can just close off any feeds and delete their participatory accounts. This will shut out the cacophony.
Not the same as news reports of the media, which I personally feel is important to follow. Sadly, current news is worrying at best and traumatising in quantity. But I would prefer to know than ostrich myself.
I have ignored most of the feeds, but âtraditionalâ media outlets are also reporting falsehoods and take sides. Reading and watching arab news vs. Beeb gives an even more confusing picture. And torn between jewish friends and my rebel youth of supporting Palestine.
I am so sorry Bettina. It is an emotional dilemma. May be best to avoid confrontational chats for the time being and just sympathise with all.
Reading news feeds requires sorting wheat from chaff but is fairly doable in as much as anyone can through the fog of war. There is also a constantly changing picture of developments and perspective. So what was âtrueâ yesterday may be not so much today. And keeping a wide angle library of sources you can fairly well trust. Also, maintaining some degree of emotional detachment helps, although a close personal connection with people directly affected may make that all but impossible.
Frankly, I probably spend far too many hours reading news feeds.
I couldnât see the original item you linked to, @Bettina, because NYT, but my conclusion is the same as yours.
Iâd go further. Great wrongs have been done by both sides, and the worst thing I could do - which those with malevolent intent insist we do - is pick one side against another.
I sympathise with that but I came to the conclusion, some years ago, that not âostriching myselfâ was not doing me any good.
There are many things going on in the world - the Gaza issue is probably the most potent and destructive [in every way] currently happening - about which I can do nothing but be sympathetic and/or wring my hands in despair.
Knowing the âtruthâ of these matters, I know for certain, is beyond. me. I know this becaue I was responsible for 9 months for assembling packages of photographs, sent to the news agencies of the US and Europe of actions by the mujahaddin against the Russians in 1988/89, taken by Afghans trained by the US State Dept as photographers. There were video and print depts doing the same.
We occasionally saw how our material was used. You can imagine the difference in treatment - the Russians being âthe bad guysâ at the time - between the US and the European newspapers.
My thoughts ran thus "What good does it do anyone, including me, to absorb this ânewsâ? Can I do anything about it but worry, be anxious? "
I have often used the notional example of âBus falls into a ravine in Bolivia. 23 killedâ. This is not ânewsâ. It is a report of a tragic event and apart from adding another few drops to the constant drip-drip of anxiety which is inevitable when constantly subjected to such reporting, it has no business in my consciousness.
By chance, not long ago I did see a headline on BBCi news pages of exactly that. A bus had fallen into a ravine in S.America ⌠Another example recently was the loss of life when yet another overloaded ferry capsized in Bangladesh.
I see the headlines. I donât read the reports. They are nothing to do with me.
We are all familiar, I assume, with the stories in local and regional newspapers here. The standard lead I see when La Manche Libre sends me its snippet for the day is a report of an R.T.A. the previous day. We have had two recently of âyouth ends up in car on its roof.â
The nearest any of these has got to me was when the nurse treating my operation wound arrived late because she had been giving first aid to someone knocked down on a pedestrian crossing in Vire. Sure enough it was the lead story in the paper next morning.
Yesterday I turned the news off. Cowardly, but I just canât cope.
Yes I am sure you are right. I will try to follow less.
I donât think it cowardly @JaneJones at all.
Not cowardly at all, Jane. Sensible precaution to avoid being filled up with sadness, despair, a feeling of futility ⌠You are not required âto copeâ.
I admit to a fleeting glimpse of one story, very remote from me - the judicial proceedings, civil and criminal, against D. Trump. As once the most powerful man on the planet, but, as far as my pinko liberal view can judge, a force for considerable evil in the US and worlwide - I applaud any report which sees his doing down.
My solution was to just pull the plug on almost all. BBCi on line gives one the chance to simply ignore any story. The headline give the gist. One moves on.
Iâm still reading, but have been feeling a lot like I did when the twin towers were hit, that thereâs a tragedy happening about which Iâm helpless to do anything.
Can anyone tell me what a ânewsfeedâ is please?
Is it something you sign up to which then arrives as a link in your email inbox, or is it what I do on here, read posts?
My thoughts exactly. So many write of âI worry about that, this, you or themâ when in reality there is sod all the worrier can do about it.
News feeds - I am signed up to several. New York times and CNN for news from the states. They send email notifications if anything I sign up to happens. I.e. at the moment I get a lot of feed on Trumps trials and tribulations. But I can ignore opening them if I had enough bad news for the day.
Same with The Guardian, france info and deutsche welle. Just alerts that sonething is going on - but ultimately my choice to read.
I no longer take my phone into the bedroom and restrict myself to news over morning coffee and an hour in the evening.
Seems like only good news at the moment 
Agree - it is impossible to cope. No one outside the motley lot of world leaders we have to put up with, can cope.
It is quite heart wrenching watching those children crying for their mothers and the stoicism of the ambulance drivers dealing with it day in and day out. Worse still, no one who might be able, wishes to stop it.
I can relate to that, but I am too angry to turn away.
It was easier before I retired, too busy to dwell on whatâs going on.
Good clip. Luckily I donât have to cope with social media, I have never embraced it. The regular media is harrowing enough.
Thank you, I guessed it was something like that, which is why I donât have any. Here and the radio, with the occasional tv contribution is as much as I need. 
Indeed!