Before the internet...

[Butterbean]

I grew up without the internet, only the nightly news, CNN, and newspapers. I sent my first email when I was a sophomore in college.

I was just thinking how weary I am of all of this tragedy, all of this destruction and war etc. that we seem to be barraged with daily, hourly, especially if you frequently check news websites and/or follow political/news blogs. To the people here who were adults (who paid attention to what was going on around them) back when there was no internet, back when you got your news only from the three major networks, before CNN (that changed the landscape, too), did you feel weary like this? Is it because we're saturated with information or is it just because it's normal to feel like this with the huge steaming pile of shit that it seems this world is coming to?

Just curious.

[tech3149]

1. In a sense, yes

Even though the information sources you refer to were the most commonly available, there were others available to those interested enough.
My own sources were books, magazines, and newspapers that weren't commonly available to a poor kid in an old mining community.
I will admit the intensity was moderated by the need to step back and live a life but the dread and worry were always there.

[Butterbean]

2. So what you're saying is

that the feelings are the same, just the mode of dissemination of information is different, and that even though I perceive it to be more saturated, that's exactly what it is: perception. I'm just trying to sorta clarify for myself here.

[Nay]

4. I would have to disagree with Tech, but I'm prob older than (s)he is. As a child and a college

student in the 50's - 70's, I was not immersed in news from all outlets like we are today. Certainly most of us followed the news, and read accounts of various happenings, but only after the incidents were over and the truth (generally) was known. And we weren't beaten to death hourly by update after update and interviews with dozens of people who really didn't see much.

CNN in the 80's changed this somewhat by introducing a 24-hour news cycle.

Computers and readily-available citizen video changed it even more, so now the news is less a source of information and illumination than a source of constant emotional distress. People who say that the citizens of the US all suffer from PTSD aren't far off the mark, IMHO.

[tech3149]

7. It's hard for me to say

For me, I perceive the world pretty much the same way as I did back in the 60's. I wasn't so inundated with information back then but spent more time thinking about and analyzing the commonly available information.
Regardless of the mode but realizing non-conformist views were shut out, is pretty much the same today as it was then.
The big problem to me is that the imbalance today is worse than ever.
In some sense, I think it may be a result of the atomization of society through the isolation provided by mass media.
Perception is a major problem but that is generated by the sources of our information.
When I was a kid, we had two local newspapers and I could get others from around the world without paying for them(except for my parent's taxes) at the library.
Today unless you have have good internet or live in a major metropolitan area, your only source of information is less than useless. Most local libraries have been stripped of almost everything and shut down their hours.

Sorry if I got a bit off the rails, but to condense it, we are bombarded with so much information that may not just be incorrect but deceptive and have so much less time and energy to digest it that it is real easy to want to turn it off or feel like there's no hope.
Just to put my comments into perspective, I just hit 60 a few months ago. My political involvement started back in 2003. i spent the last few years assuring my parents were comfortable in their own home and didn't have to worry about anything.
I wish every son or daughter could have the same opportunity.

[hunter]

3. I sent my first internet email in 1979.

Before that my mom was in radio, she hired a few "cub" news reporters who later became quite prominent. Later I worked in a place with an A.P. news feed -- teletype on yellow rolls of paper spilling onto the floor, startle reflex when you hear the bell.

It's always been like this my adult life.

My memories as a kid are that Walter Cronkite and the Los Angeles Times would tell us what was up. I watched the moon landing on CBS. My grandfather was one of the many engineers who contributed to the moon landing.

I've never paid much attention to CNN. The few years we had cable or satellite I was more interested in the BBC or Deutsche Welle. I don't watch television anymore, don't have satellite or cable, don't watch broadcast television. It's too much advertising and propaganda for me.

[Butterbean]

5. Email existed in '79? Wow. I was 6, so that explains why I had no clue. ;)

Also, my parents are about as tech savvy as turnips, so that's also a huge part of it. Yeah, the whole 24 hour news cycle of CNN really changed things for me. My dad CONSTANTLY had CNN on in our house when I was growing up. I couldn't escape it even if I tried. Dad held onto that remote like it was one of his bodily organs, and of course had the volume up way too loud. The barrage was constant. Today it's MSNBC that's on constantly (when there's no golf on).

[Posteritatis]

8. Our email standard dates to the early eighties; the concept goes back to about '62.

The first ARPANet email, which is probably closest to email-as-we-know-it, was sometime in 1971.

It's one of the neat things about the net - its roots go way further back than most people take for granted.

[Precisely]

6. Life in general is much more overstimulated

disjointed, distracted. So you much choose what you focus on.

[Whisp]

9. I like it better now.

Back then you had very limited opinions of those on tv news or in the newspaper fed to you.

Now you can be your own researcher and find out things the news people would not want you to know or didn't have the resources or desire to find out.

But it does get wearisome, all that bad news splatted at you continuously. If it's not bad news, then it's constant ads.

Got to just walk away from it sometimes.