I bought the Canard Enchainé today. It's a weekly satirical French paper which sheds light on some of the things governments and businesses try to hide. It also has 2 aspects which are increasingly unique. It does not accept any form of advertising and it's website (which is relatively new) just allows you to subscribe to the paper version. The rustle of the paper does bring me back to a nostalgic better time. The level of debate and discourse was of a much higher quality when they were filtered through written article. Now thanks to social media, twitter and instagram debate seems to be reduced to hashtags and insults. The lack of filter and the anonymity available on the internet means that people (and politicians) use provocative and violent language in an effort to stand out. In view of the torrent of digital content (99.9% of which is rubbish) available for consumption it becomes impossible for thoughtful argument to break through. I'm not sure what the solution is, we can only hope that the generations that have grown up with digital tools will be better equipped to use them intelligently.
No comments:
Post a Comment