In Pursuit of Boring News
Most of us are naturally drawn to sensational headlines that promise "shocking," "unbelievable," or "explosive" details. The problem is, the story we end up reading post-click almost never matches the level of intensity promised in the headline. If the reporting is done somewhat honestly, we get a nuanced explanation of a situation that can be interpreted differently depending on one's own views and beliefs. There are no rock-solid conclusions, and even the purported "facts" can be up for debate.
We see these sensational headlines a lot nowadays for multiple reasons. One of the primary reasons is our being so oversaturated with news and information that each source has to present itself as either the first, the biggest, or the most unique in order to attract our clicks. In a sea of clickbait titles, most people are less likely to click on a headline reading, "Senate Bill Proposed that Will Create Lots of Subtle Changes That We Couldn't Possibly Fit in this Headline" than a headline reading, "Senate Proposes Gutting Healthcare." The second headline is probably oversimplified and missing crucial details, but at least it'll attract visitors.
We're attracted to sensationalized, over-simplified news because we want answers. It's human nature. It's hard for us to hold nuanced opinions in our heads. It's challenging to juggle all the facts without favoring the ones we like and dismissing the ones we don't. It's a strain on our patience to sit in uncertainty and accept the truth that we just don't know everything and probably never will. Many see not knowing as a sign of stupidity or apathy, so they rush to conclusions and then seek evidence to reaffirm their position so they can avoid the discomfort of cognitive dissonance. This couldn't be farther from the truth.
Being OK with not knowing is a sign of critical thought and skillful emotional regulation. When we keep our emotions in check, we often find that problems and their respective solutions are way more complicated than our gut tells us. That politician you're tweeting about probably isn't perfect, nor are they pure evil. The truth is probably somewhere in-between. Being able to hold off on knee-jerk reactions and all-or-nothing thinking is a skill that all people need to develop just in terms of living a low-drama life with healthy relationships. The truth is that most people are capable of being quite reasonable if they aren't so emotionally tied to their beliefs. When this happens, real, constructive conversations take place. Difficult problems get solved, and major conflicts can be avoided.
There's one major problem with taking an unemotional, rational approach to life: it's boring. Many of us would likely miss the excitement of feeling indignant and having explosive arguments with people on Facebook and Twitter. We may not know what to do without the guilty pleasure that is righteous anger toward the "other side". Fortunately, there's a lot of fun, interesting, exciting stuff to do out in the world, we just need to learn and accept that most news doesn't fall into that category. We can still have beliefs and be passionate about important causes like human rights, we just don't serve ourselves or others by being so emotionally tied to our beliefs that we become incapable of having a conversation about complex issues that need to be talked about.