Boston Marathon tragedy: please avoid the news porn

Apr 15, 2013 · 5 minute read · Comments
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Since I am a runner (and happening to be in the last stages of training for my second Pittsburgh Marathon, which is coming in less than three weeks), I woke up this morning knowing that it was Boston Marathon day. Also, by sheer coincidence, a fellow Pittsburgher I have never met but follow on Twitter happened to tweet a photo of his running gear while ready to run in Boston, and happened to mention some sock sleeves that he wears that I had never seen before, and I tweeted him for the first time in my life, and I got a reply from him after he finished, and I went and ordered a pair of these sock sleeves online, since I have a tendency toward calf cramping in long distance races.

So it was particularly eerie and somewhat personal to me when in the afternoon I heard from my office mate at work that the Boston Marathon had been bombed and people were dead and horribly injured.

My first thought was, this is fucking insane.

My second thought was extreme anger that criminals would do such a thing, and sadness for the runners and spectators who were so victimized.

My third thought was, “Uh oh, here we go again: time for news porn”.

⁹⁄₁₁ and news

Because I remember ⁹⁄₁₁.

Here are some excerpts from my journal on September 11, 2001 (at this time in my life I was jotting down journal entries regularly during the waking day):

• 11:12: “Oh G-d!!!!!!!!!!! The World Trade Center has been destroyed.”
• 11:36: “Things will never be the same again in this country.”
• 12:11: “Can’t let terrorists disrupt my life.”
• 18:28: “Wait, are we attacking Afghanistan??????”
• 22:14: “Watched some TV footage for the first time. Disturbing. Especially people jumping out of the buildings.”
• 23:31: “Other people on zephyr [an internal chat system at Carnegie Mellon University] are saying they watched more TV today than all year. Same with me.”

Also, during this whole time, I did immediately try to call my sister who lived and worked in New York City, and of course failed. She reached me eventually and said she was OK.

But I realized something that day. I realized that I could not let relentless news porn rule my life. There was no benefit to my seeing again and again footage about the tragic terrorist attacks and all the speculations, the anger, the crying. I did not quit watching TV that evening, but did realize that I was being manipulated in a way that did not help me or help the world, really.

Much later, I learned that a high school classmate of mine had died on ⁹⁄₁₁. And a college classmate was across the street when it happened.

News

At some point, years later, I did completely quit following news. By this, I mean that I stopped watching news on TV, I stopped reading printed newspapers, and I stopped reading online news sites as well. Seriously. It has improved my life. Periodically I try to spread the message of news avoidance, having seen the damage that following news has done to some family members and friends, without noticeable benefit in return.

In fact, just yesterday on Twitter I retweeted yet another article on news avoidance.

If you haven’t done the experiment of avoiding news, your first thought might be, “Franklin must be an ignoramus who doesn’t care about the world or know what goes on in it”. But actually, I am not completely ignorant of news: I simply have some filters. I do actively follow blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and so I implicitly get a curated summary of whatever news is forwarded around through those channels. I see links and check the headlines, and I can choose to ignore or follow up on the news. And I selectively retweet what I find interesting and useful.

That said, the social media has for the past couple of hours become overwhelmingly dominated by a lot of emotions over the Boston Marathon terrorist attack, so as I write this, I am imposing a complete blackout on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Local

The local and federal authorities are, I presume, doing what they can to aid the victims and seek out the criminals, and following their every move would not help me be useful. If this tragedy had happened in Pittsburgh, then I would be monitoring the situation much more closely, in case I can actually be of direct aid.

Couldn’t avoid TV today

Unfortunately, by coincidence, I could not avoid TV today. This evening, I was in the barber shop getting a haircut, and not only could people not refrain from commenting on the tragedy, but he also had the radio on and turned on his TV as well. I refused to look at the TV screen, but could not help repeatedly hearing about body parts being blown off, eardrums being perforated, panic, the audio clips of explosions and screaming, again and again. I remained silent and maintained my composure until my haircut was done.

A media blackout

I am taking a break from the Web overall for the rest of the evening. Last I checked my social media feeds, they are now all about the Boston Marathon attacks. I cannot help anyone by sitting in front of my computer getting all emotional and confused following all these feeds. I humbly recommend that you consider doing this also.

Conclusion

I have not found news porn to be useful in helping me cope with tragedy or in enabling me be of aid to those who need help. Given that, I am opting out of the news frenzy.