Click Bait
So far, I’ve mostly enjoyed living in the information age. One big upside is the ability to find out information on obscure parts I need when repairing things. At the moment, I’m putting a new pull rope on my line trimmer and the mechanism needs a little clip to hold it all together. Turns out it’s called a circlip 9X1, and a local power tool company just down the road has not one but four of them in stock. I even have the part number.
Another benefit to living in this torrent of bytes, that is the modern world, is that I can also get information on how to put things together. That’s how I learned to re-wrap the pull cord, thread new line onto the same line trimmer, repair my clothes drier, change my lawn mower’s blades, and replace my car’s cabin air filter. Wins all the way around. I’d call all of that information I can use, and it’s handy to have it at my fingertips.
The downside, of course, is all the information I can’t use, or should at least be careful of using. I guess the one thing I have to be grateful for is that I grew up thinking I was a journalist. Back in those days it meant you had to be careful of your source. You had to listen for the sound of a grinding axe. Why was someone telling you what they were telling you? Was it the whole truth, only the bit that would benefit them, or was it even the truth at all? Big questions that seldom get asked these days in a world of click bait journalism fed by our addiction to the quick rise.