I considered majoring in journalism during the many, many, many times I've considered what career path I want to go down. Unlike the other choices that I've pondered, I was able to get a first-hand experience as to how unfulfilling, over-bloated, twisted, and overall terrible the field of journalism has become. The first straw for me was learning that large majorities of newspapers and news sites are owned by political companies or rich billionaires, that alone pissed me off because despite having a respect for corporate America (as a libertarian it's hard not to understand and have some amount of respect for the successful) I despise the idea of clandestine political strategy. The final straw was learning that there was a huge amount of profiteering off of the act of spewing garbage out into the world for a knee-jerk response, as that was one of the scummiest things a person can do in my eyes. Due to this, I made the decision to stay as far away from this cesspool as I can, however it seems to have followed me into my current career path into the education field.
I have a Facebook. I hate Facebook, but I have one. It's solely for professional reasons, as I need one to network and and make announcements on the student page for work, which leaves me in a situation where I need to be friends with a great deal of the parents who's kids I teach. The issue with this is that some of them spout some of the most vile, ill-thought-out, incorrect, and just plain dumb swill that one can link too. Not only do they consistently post things that could be fact-checked with one Google search, but they're rampant! Posting every 15 minutes for 9-11 hour stints at a time! It's like a part time job to these people, and I find myself rubbing my temples from the migraine these people are giving me and asking myself where they find the time, energy, and means to be so flamboyant in their disregard for actual truth. The answer is simple however, They have their own personal echo-chamber of individuals who pat them on the back whenever they say something agreeable. This is a huge issue for me personally, 1. for my sanity, and 2. Because it shows a Zeitgeist that is so detrimental to progress. I personally choose to get my news from two a total of three sources: Ben Shapiro, Stephen Crowder, and Philip DeFranco. Shapiro is a conservative commentator, Crowder is a right leaning libertarian, and DeFranco is a centrist who leans closer to the left. I do this to get multiple viewpoints and a better understanding of political situations. I'm not even saying people should do this, but I think that people need to get out of their own little bubbles.
So how does this relate to education?
I plan to teach English, so how am I supposed to teach kids if they can't figure out what's real and what's fictitious, and I don't know. I don't have the answers of how to fix this giant issue that the media has made. I hope things get better in the field of journalism, but it likely won't. I'll cross that terrible, rickety bridge when I get to it.
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