Today
marks the culmination of my first week as a graduate student. I am pursuing a
MA in Sustainable Design from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The past
week has offered me a taste as to what I can expect over the next two years,
and let’s just say that I am anticipating that my mind is going to be stretched.
I have extracted much value from this first week, digging into lots of amazing
content.
Some
hard-hitting questions were posed in my Intro to Sustainable Design Class. For now, I
have chosen to dedicate my focus to the first two of a list that we were given:
What issues consistently get your
attention?
As
Peter Diamandis points out in his seminal TED talk, the media focuses on
negative stories because those are what are best at getting “our” attention.
Diamandis says that because our brains are built to detect danger, we will focus
on these negative stories by default. He says, “…given all of our digital
devices that are bringing all of this negative news to us 7 days a week, 24
hours a day, it’s no wonder that we’re pessimistic, it’s no wonder that people
think that the world is getting worse – but perhaps that’s not the case.”
I
tend to agree with Diamandis. Certain segments of the media propagate sensationalized
stories to attract as much of the global mindshare as possible. Lest we forget that
“the media” is an industry – a huge hybrid one. An image of candy companies using shiny neon packaging
to draw the attention of kids comes to mind. Both the candy company and the “media”
have engineered their offerings to appeal to the primal psychology of their
targeted audiences.
Of
course, there is a spectrum of legitimacy spanning across the vast media
landscape. There are media outlets that choose to appeal to a demographic that wants
to hear and think about the progressive good that is being done in this world. And
with the advent of the internet, I have personally started to notice the
displacement of the sensational media with the “New Media.”
One
of my favorite New Media players is GOOD. Not only does GOOD promote legitimately
positive stories in print, via their awesome magazine – GOOD expands
their efficacy through a unique social media experience at www.good.is - Here, anyone can create a profile,
and post stories about the amazing changes that are going on in their
communities. These stories are posted alongside articles coming from global
thought leaders outlining ideas for change, action-plans, and reports on
progress. This democratic infoshare is the New Media that is being made daily –
by the people, for the people – world-wide.
Which
ones make you angry?
To
me, anger is ineffective. Of course, I get angry – to be completely devoid of occasional
spouts of getting mad would be un-human. I do however make a decided effort to choose
to approach problems and challenges that I am faced with as thinly-veiled
opportunities. This does not mean that I do not feel a sense of urgency in
dealing with these issues, but rather that I rely on my perspective to remain
vigilant in moving forward with affecting change and growth.
Instead
of directing valuable energy into an “anger-tank,” I consciously take control
and route my thoughts, behaviors, and contributions toward laying an
ever-expanding foundation for personal and global growth, brick-by-brick. And I
do have a lot of this stuff that we call “energy” – most everyone does. Of
course, energy manifests itself differently in all of us, and it is precisely
due to this valuable variation that it is my sincere hope that the potential of
people is recognized universally. A universal recognition that allows us all to
continually expand this foundation for good together, brick-by-brick.
