A Motivation for A Resolution
Vegas // The Twilight Zone // The Newsroom // KISS // The Who // Allen Ginsberg // Superman
Yo…
How was your Christmas break?
Right before Christmas I jet setted to Vegas with my brother-in-law.
I saw Mac King a comedy/magic show, visited KISSWorld (sadly nobody was getting married in the KISS Rock `N Roll Wedding Chapel; though I got all excited when I Was Made for Lovin’ You came on the speakers; thought maybe some Vegas romance was happening but…ah nope.) and played Twilight Zone golf (that too was beside the Sci-Fi Wedding Chapel for anyone who fortunately discovered a romance out of this world…).
And that’s all I hafta say about that since you know…what happens in Vegas…I trust Santa was good to you. (Even though being on the naughty list is way more fun.)
That brings us to 2023 (still has that new year smell…mmm) and the classic tradition of New Year’s resolutions. (Is classic tradition an oxymoron?)
I accept that most New Year’s resolutions barely make it past January.
Granted: it is a noble effort to want to change your life.
(January 1st and the resolutions that people proudly proclaim on social media or in person…or in action via downloading a meditation app or signing up for a gym membership etc. effectively prove that people can change. Turns out many individuals are willing to change…as long we give them the freedom, space and grace. Hope is always better than nope.)
One New Year’s resolution worth keeping is…Click Less.
Click Less.
It sounds revolutionary and that’s because it is.
Click Less.
It sounds simple and yet it’s so difficult to do.
To quote the HBO TV show The Newsroom:
[News Anchor] Will McAvoy: “What does winning look like to you?”
[News Producer] Mackenzie MacHale: “Reclaiming the fourth estate. Reclaiming journalism as an honorable profession. A nightly newscast that informs a debate worthy of a great nation. Civility, respect and a return to what’s important; the death of bitchiness; the death of gossip and voyeurism; speaking truth to stupid. No demographic sweet spot; a place where we can all come together.”
You can do that in 2023 starting today! She’s right!
Click Less.
You can Click Less on gossip, on bitchiness, on blog posts that have no nutritional value.
You can Click Less on rumours and hearsay. You can wait patiently for facts.
You can Click Less on unfounded moral panics.
You can Click Less on unverified sources.
You can Click Less on reinforcing what you already believe and reignite your curiosity.
You can Click Less on manipulative headlines.
You can Click Less.
There’s a mainstream philosophy…a popular premise that you can vote with your dollars. If you don’t want to give to evil corporations, you could quietly boycott them by withholding your dollars but online instead of voting with your dollars you vote with your clicks.
You have that distinct power just as you do with voting with your dollars. You can Click Less.
You can resist the carnival barker call of the headline. You can recognize that the headline is designed to make you click for their benefit; not for yours.
When you walk around New York City as a tourist you’ll spot guys behind a small wobbly card table offering a game of chance via Three-card Monte: all you have to do is find the Queen. How hard can it be right?
And maybe the first time or perhaps the second time; it’s easy and you tap the card in the middle to reveal the Queen. Well done…you make a few dollars and you start to feel good about yourself and the choices you have made in this lifetime.
So you keep playing.
And of course…in due time you end up getting scammed. This isn’t a commentary about the Three-card Monte player. It is a commentary about the slight of hand. Because sometimes when he asked you to find the Queen, the Queen isn’t one of the three cards in the shuffle.
(Free Pro Tip: ask to see all three cards before you start playing Three-card Monte. Memorize all three cards and see if any of the cards change as you play. Don’t let the host only flip over the card you think is the Queen, flip all of em over. Sometimes the Queen isn’t even there…even if you swear you followed her the whole time.)
Slight of hand is clickbait. It doesn’t edify.
You can Click Less is what I’m getting at.
Stop shoveling coal for Satan. That’s a worthy 2023 resolution.
From page 252 of Batya Ungar-Sargon’s Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy:
“When you read something on social media that enrages you, that seems like it’s a perfect encapsulation of the hypocrisy of your political foes, that feeling is most likely a sign that some group — a media organization or a political party — is making money or consolidating power. You can deprive them of those things on your own. You don’t need to wait for the national liberal media to course-correct. You can do a lot of the work yourself.”
She’s right; just like Mackenzie MacHale.
For some reason we’re willing to engage this whole sermon about voting with your dollars; we boycott stores or online corporations because they’re an evil. Yet we don’t prescribe the same philosophy to articles or tweets or dubious reporters?
You can Click Less.
Truth is it’s intellectually lazy to demonize, stigmatize and isolate. Advocating for censorship isn’t leadership. We’ve done all that (and continue to do all that) and it has a piss-poor track record.
Acceptance and trust though…are far more effective than shame.
Work to include rather than exclude.
Everyone has the ability to create damage and yet everyone has the ability to create…
Read widely, read deeply and read often. Argue with books.
Let a documentary anger up your blood.
Share a powerful podcast with a friend who can appreciate the blessing. “Have you listened to My Summer Lair?” (Just a completely random example…)
Nothing in pop culture is scary.
No viewpoint or book or documentary or podcast is scary. (Well, maybe some Stephen King…)
You put yourself in a disadvantage when you surround yourself with a mono-culture. When there’s thoughts without intellectual diversity you gain no benefits.
Do you want to eat the same meal every single day? If you are willing to vary your diet why would you be reluctant to vary your pop culture and political diet?
You Can Click Less.
And like all resolutions you will fail…what you think alcoholics get up on a random Tuesday and stop drinking? Ever again? Slip ups are bound to happen; accept em and move on.
But you hafta start today…start now. Click Less.
Otherwise, according to Beat poet Allen Ginsberg…continue on this mad path and you will Howl:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…
-28-
Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
