i-eclectica.org

To quite an extent and for some time now I allowed myself to get caught up in what I would call Trivia Blogging - reproducing news bits that have a curiosity and sensationalism value but not much else. Large blog sites like Neatorama, Random Good Stuff, Mental Floss, Crave or Engadget as well as probably millions of small blogs seem to be full of superficial pop culture news about nothing. They cater for consumers who gulp down trivialities and IT/household product news the same way they cycle through fast food or fashion fads. And to me, getting drip-fed from overloaded net pipes with context-poor and regurgitated information bits seems to be as questionable as attending trivia charity parties. I’m not against fun, but …

… apart from catering for individual micro attention spans, this ever-growing flood of meaninglessness does little to address a wide-spread political apathy and a general ignorance in a world facing for example the biggest change in the planet’s natural ecology. Mainstream new bits on the net like in mainstream media are largely reduced to an end in themselves. As such they reflect an alienation, separation and dissection from the complex systems they and we are part of. Unless we change our news consumption habits (for example), we will not learn to understand what our place and situation is in this world and where we are traveling towards. Blissful ignorance hidden behind pop culture knowledge won’t lead to us becoming a more enlightened species and therefore will not address our environmental problems or the social injustices on whose backs our ‘happy’ consumer lives are riding.

So far I have been trying at least to add a little bit more depth to my re-posting of news bits, but often that leads to little more than trivia glorification. As I have said above: I am not against fun; I therefore think it’s great to have some curiosity and novelty bits as well as consumer product news - sprinkled through meaningful sharing of news and reflection. For me, the main emphasis of more responsible blogging needs to be on thoughts, ideas and contemplations that have a consciousness raising purpose. I’d like to see my posts contribute towards a deeper and more informed understanding of the social, economic, cultural and natural ecology systems we are part of … as well as reflecting on what I experience as interesting expressions of human creativity (in arts, music, architecture etc.).

So, to declutter my own brain and add a bit more meaning at least to my own life, I won’t care anymore about videos like “elephant masturbation” (whose title actually betrays a little its content value, maybe on purpose ). I will still spare a few thoughts on topics like “jet powered & other futuristic trains”, and certainly on interesting creative and cultural outputs, but the emphasis from now on will be more on subjects like ‘cotton - its history and social, economic & environmental background’ (which actually will become the next post series).