Missing the News Cycle

I have just returned from a three-day Zen retreat. Though I didn’t go anywhere, my Zoom Zen retreat included a retreat from my daily writing and from the news cycle. I have not looked at or heard the news since Friday afternoon. It’s now Tuesday morning. I feel slightly proud of my news fast and am quite ambivalent about checking in again this morning. I’m eager to look and I’m enjoying the current smallness of my world—safe and cozy in my warm room as the cold autumn rain falls in the morning darkness.

Before the retreat, I had slid into the habit of not just reading the Globe, the Times and a few other news sources in the morning, but also checking in periodically through to day to see what was happening. I enjoyed the little thrill of briefly clicking on the rising headlines on the Times web site. What’s the latest outrage and disaster? Tracking Trump’s steady deterioration in the polls was like seeing my football team slowly wearing down their opponent in a game it looked like we were going to win.

But I also noticed an addictive quality about it all. ‘Just a peak,’ I’d tell myself, but then I’d scroll on for longer than intended and only break away with the ringing of the phone for my next meeting. I had decided once or twice not to look anymore that particular day, only to find myself clicking on again, ‘Just to check in.’ Not a good sign.

While I believe it is important for all of us to stay informed in this time of gross misinformation and with the upcoming high-stakes election, I am also aware of the pernicious impact of this constant checking on the quality of my life. If you’re working on a political campaign and have to respond to the latest moves of your opponent, then staying glued to the latest actions, rumors and insults is essential. If you’re an ordinary citizen, the moment-to-moment developments may actually be more distracting and disturbing than informative and necessary. (Of course, the appeal of being distracted and disturbed should not be underestimated.)

Beneath the current political battle however, another more subtle and dangerous struggle is raging—the digital competition for your eyeballs on the screen. Huge amounts of money are being made on getting people to click onto particular sites. Our digital attention is a commodity that is being bought and sold in huge quantities. The more we click and the longer we watch, the richer and more powerful some people are getting – regardless of who wins or loses the election.

The digital world is wondrous. Our recent Zoom-Zen retreat included participants from around the world. We easily and clearly joined together to practice the Zen meditation that first arose in medieval China. And staying up-to-date with the developments in this time of turmoil is important. But the digital world is one of the culprits in the current crisis in our democracy—the very one it is purporting to help us with. The amount of disinformation that has funneled us all into our competing tribes also maintains the animosity that is tearing at the fabric of our society. Animosity and outrage are bad for us (personally and socially) but wonderful for getting people to spend more time in front of their screens.

Having not received word otherwise from the outside world, I’m assuming there have been no seismic shifts in the national and international landscape. Republicans are pushing through their nominee to swing the court and Democrats are still sputtering with the unfairness of it all. (My blood temperature rises a few degrees just thinking of this.) Trump is still tweeting outrageous lies and half-truths to rally his diminishing forces and to undermine the coming election in any way he can.

I will go to our morning Zoom meditation, then click open my digital newspaper while I eat breakfast later. Regardless of what I read, I plan to continue actively writing letters, talking and giving money to support Joe Biden and Democratic candidates for the Senate. We should all do whatever we can to remove our current aspiring autocrat and the Republicans that have empowered him. Our democracy has always been imperfect and fragile. It now needs our full participation to ensure its continuation.