Is Anyone Out There? Breaking The 24/ 7 News Spell S:2E:34

First off, you'll hear what goes on in the studio before we start recording!!

The news used to have an off switch. Now it lives in our pockets, follows us across every app, and somehow convinces us we’re “behind” if we stop watching. We get into how the 24/7 news cycle started.

From there, we connect the dots to modern cable news, social media, and the algorithm-driven feeds that keep serving more of whatever spikes our attention. We talk about sensationalism, “breaking news” culture, and how a couple of carefully chosen words can tilt a story and shape public opinion. 

Then we go practical. We unpack doomscrolling, chronic stress, anxiety, insomnia, and cognitive overload, plus the not-so-fun truth that if you’re not paying for the platform, you’re the product. We wrap with simple guardrails: time limits, curating trustworthy sources, slowing down before you share, and even a privacy reminder for public Wi-Fi when you travel.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s stuck in the scroll, and leave a review if it helps. What’s one news habit you want to change this week?

email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com

Transcript

Cold Open And Family Banter

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Oh my gosh. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Say that again.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Oh no, we're not going to talk about that. We're not talking. No, because you're recording and I'm not going to have any evidence from for you. Let's roll, Dr. Domain. Look at that, baby. No, no, no, no, no. You're in the know. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

All right. Let's go. Oh my gosh, stop.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

That's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Gypsy, tramps, and thieves would hear from the people of the town. They'd call it stuff.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

I will kill you. Okay, here we go. Welcome everyone to today's show. Boomer and a Gen X are walking to a bar. Coming to you from the Rabbit Run studio, where you, as our listeners, will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart astery, and a mother and a daughter questioning, are we even related? My name is Jane. My co-host is my daughter Bobby. And for the next, I don't know, 25-30 minutes, I don't know, whatever it takes us, we are here to entertain. And Bobby, what is going on today?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

So I gotta tell, I gotta tell our listeners, we were we were just having a back and forth, and uh I completely forgot that my 10-year-old was uh behind me in the room here.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

So oh my gosh. That is how does she ever ever forget that now? That'll score her forever.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

She watches YouTube, I'm sure it's the tamest thing she's heard.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Yeah, probably. After 10 years of therapy, she'll be okay. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

She'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

She'll be fine. Yeah, so um, thinking about who needs therapy, I think I do if I turn this stuff on. And to be honest with you, I don't turn it on. But what are we talking about today?

How 24 7 News Started

SPEAKER_00 1:48

So today we are going to discuss uh something that everybody knows about, and we're gonna talk about 24-7 news.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Oh, that cycle act. Yeah, cycle of recycling.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

You can't get away from it, you can't get away from it, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Because it's on every every type of media you have, it's gonna be there.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

And and let's talk about, let's go back to the beginning. So the very first 24-7 news outlet, uh I'm sure everybody knows, was CNN. So they launched their 24-7 news outlet, but way back in the year of our lord, 1980, uh, which was, I gotta tell you, it was a great year because it's the year that this legend was born. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

It wasn't the year of our Lord. I gotta be honest with you, Bobby. He's uh way back anyway. Yeah, but you were born that year, that's right. So that was I was that was a memorable time period.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

The the first story that CNN actually covered on their 24-7 news channel. Do you know what that was?

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Gosh, back in 1980, did it have something to do with space? No, okay, then I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So it was the attempted assassination of Vernon Jordan.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Vernon Jordan. Why does that name ring a bell? What is what's that one all about, Bobby?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I believe he was a uh some kind of politician, but it was right outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Hmm. And that was their first first newscast that went 24-7 news.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

In that wild. Because, you know, we had the morning news when you got up. Yeah, we had the news at noon, yeah, and then we had the nightly news. Right. And so if if you wanted news, you either waited for one of those to come on or you read the newspaper, you know, things like that. And uh it really, really took a foothold. Uh and I know that you remember this, so it did cover some key stories like the Challenger explosion, you know, OJ Simpson, things like that. But the watershed moment

Baby Jessica And The CNN Boom

SPEAKER_00 4:00

was in 1987, and it was in a place called Midland, Texas. And I see your thinking faces on.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm joining the party late.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

No, go ahead. Midland Texas.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Are you talking about David Cresh?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

No, Waco, we ain't coming out.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

No, that was in the 90s. That was in the 90s. That was fucking 1987.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

1987. Did this have something to do with the pipeline explosion?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

It did not. Can we have another?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

But it had to do with a pipeline, give us kind of a pipeline spill?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

No.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Okay, wait, no, give us another clue. Give us another clue.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Uh, it had to do with uh a baby.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Oh, was that baby Jessica that fell down the well? Oh my gosh. Do you remember that, Dr. Domain? I do, yes. So uh what a terrible story that was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Horrible story, but uh a great outcome.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Great outcome. Yeah. But so this baby, for the for those of you who are much younger and don't know this, uh, she fell down a well piping, and her little leg, one of her little legs was straight up and the other one was down, and she was in there for I don't even know how many hours. And the problem was trying to rescue her, was if they went in to attempt to pull her out, um, she would slip down and go straight into the well. And I can't remember how many feet deep that thing was, and there was no way that they could have gotten her rescued. So, yeah, that was quite the big story. Wow, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

And that's what kicked off our 24-7 news channel because you know the news story started to spread, people around the nation because it was such such a heart-wrenching moment. This this child was, and it was 22 feet, she was stuck down in that well, and she was down there for 58 hours before they actually rescued her.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Oh my gosh, I couldn't remember. I knew it was a long time.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

And she was only 18 months old. I that's I mean, that brings me to the case.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

If she fell in a well today, she'd have her own reality show.

unknown 6:00

Right?

SPEAKER_02 6:01

And you know what?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like kind of what happened because it it it blew CNN up, it it made it the most new watched news station around the nation. And a lot of times uh the the story even went worldwide because you know it did, it brought people together, everybody was praying for her, hoping for her. We wanted to know minute by minute what was going on. We needed to know who was helping, how it happened, what's happening now. Yeah, and that that's really what what jumped off our 24-7 news channel. Now that was a big story back then, you know, it has subsequently, like I said, you got the the Challenger explosion, you got the OJ Simpson Bronco Chase, you got things like that that have really kept it in the media, and now there are so many news outlets that have 24-7

When TV Signed Off At Night

SPEAKER_00 7:00

channels like that. Before we had those, we had cable TV, we had satellite TV, we had these extra channels such as you know, the number one watched is Fox News Channel. They have their 24-7 news, CNN, you know, was the original, MSNBC, we have News Nation. Now CNCNBC and Fox Business, we have that now. And the big one that I remember, especially growing up, was the Weather Channel. It was 24 hours.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

So before these 24 hour uh news channels were made available, those of us who are super old know that it was it 10 p.m. I'm looking at Dr. Domain and somehow he's gonna go. I don't know, that was before my time. So I'm just gonna say it right now. Um is I think it was I want to say it was 10 p.m., but maybe it was midnight. The test screen would come on our TVs.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

It wasn't 10. What 10 was it? 10 was I remember 10 o'clock was when news started.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Oh, that's right. 10 o'clock news. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Yep. 10 to 10:30. It was a half hour in your time.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

It was only a half hour, yeah. They were gonna tell us the news and get off.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Yeah, and I think I think like dad would watch like the first 20 minutes because the last 10 minutes was sports, and yeah, it was you know.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

So maybe it was 11 or midnight. I don't remember, but once the TV channel was.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

I remember it was midnight.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Was it midnight? Okay, yeah. And the it would come up with this test screen. Everybody knew it was going off the air. And a lot of the channels, and when I say a lot, we had three channels back then. Uh, the channels would basically say, you know, that's our that's our tele television for the day, we're going off the air. And and right, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Right. And and it was the 10 p.m. news was the late news because I know you remember they would start out with, it's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Dr. Domain was looking at me when I was doing the I've never seen that before. Oh, please. I was oh please.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

It's past my bedtime.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

You know what? You are such a butt.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

She was already at the bar by then. Yeah, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

He was in his cradle with his little bottle. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

But you know, we started out with the news channels, which that was enough.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

I I got a I got a question for you, though. Yeah. Because we were just talking about Jessica, baby Jessica that fell in the well. Yeah. Did you know last

Social Media Makes News Truly 24 7

SPEAKER_03 9:36

week she was arrested? She was arrested. Come out with your hands up! For what? She's uh she's probably pissed that she ended up in the well. Start beating up other people. She was arrested on assault, causing bodily injury. How old is she? Family violence. She's 40-year-old mother of two.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

And she was arrested for assault? Assaulting someone else?

SPEAKER_03 10:01

It's like, don't back talk me, kids. I've been in the well. I know what that sucks like. I'll take you all on. I don't know. I don't know what happened there. Anyway, sorry, Bobby, I didn't interrupt you.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

No, it's fine. That's fine. But you know, back before the social media sites and things, you know, we had the news channels. Okay, that was enough. If you wanted to watch it, you could, type of thing. But nowadays, you know, we jump to today. You have Facebook, Twitter, uh, Instagram, TikTok, you have YouTube, you have any channel that you can literally turn on, you have an option to watch 24-7 news. And this isn't just news nationally, this isn't just news, you know, from here in Iowa. This is global news. This is news that's happening around the world 24-7. And you and I both know, you know, we've made it very apparent that the media is not our friend. No, never has been.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Doesn't tell the

Ratings Sensationalism And Trust Erosion

SPEAKER_02 11:00

truth, don't tell the truth, right? Out for ratings.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

That hasn't always been the way that's the ratings.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

I mean, no, it hasn't always been, but it is now. Yeah, it is now.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

I think, yeah, but there's there's some slivers of real news, and that's the challenge we have.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

But the problem is, is a lot of times people will just throw one word in there to to change the path of the news. Sure. And people don't catch it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

And and that that's part of the problem, is is we do have these stories that are out for ratings. That's their job. That's their number one job is to get the ratings that that their channel needs. We have puff pieces here and there that you know, the feel-good pieces, the the these people are doing good pieces, the world unity pieces. They're few and far between because that's not that's not what's getting the ratings. That's not what is getting them at the top of the news channels. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

The good things that people are doing or the good events, right? Maybe the good results. I mean, what happened to the days when we had, you know, the guys in the really nice suits that were very handsome, and the girls with the big titties that were just given the given the news of the weather girl? The weather girl. If you were a man, you were a media meteorologist. If you were a woman, you were a weather girl. And, you know, they gave the news and off you went. Um, so that's how they got their ratings. It had nothing to do with somebody else's opinion. Anyway, sorry, Bobby.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Or tragedy. Or tragedy. You know, it was kind of you had your favorite newscaster and you always tuned into them no matter what. You trusted them.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

You trusted them.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

I think an experiment needs to happen here. So funny.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Oh, because we know where this is going. When I said big titties, your eyes lit up and all the color was back in your face.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

No, no, no, no, no. No. I'm not talking about that.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

No, I'm saying, so we have an international trip coming up. And it would be interesting to listen to the news.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Where was the first thing you said you wanted where you wanted to go? Where was the first thing you said you wanted to go? To the nude beach. Can we go to the nude beach? Oh my gosh. Bobby. That's what I have to deal with. I mean, I don't know why he wants to go to the nude beach. Whether he wants to see big titties or he just wants to swing it back and forth and back and forth. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Poor doctor.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Okay, go, no, go ahead. We got an international trip coming up.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Well, I think now I can't even say it. This is actually serious. And then you just like you really took the show to a different level.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Way, way, way, way. Well, differently.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

I I usually am in a gutter.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

So no, I noticed this. When we were on our last international trip, um, it was in New Zealand, and I watched a bit of news.

Overseas News And Fewer Opinions

SPEAKER_03 13:52

The way they deliver the news in New Zealand as an example, and there's probably other countries like that, was very factual, lacked emotion, and just kind of delivered the content very much like what we used to experience. And I saw the bulk of my news, or really started watching the news probably in the 80s or something like that, and the news was delivered in a totally different style. It wasn't sensationalized, dramatized, and they weren't out trying to, you know, get the best ratings and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

And they weren't giving their personal opinions. Yeah. They weren't swaying your opinion based on what the uh what the network wanted. And I mean, I remember Walter Cronkite coming on, I that's an old name, folks, and or David Brinkley and Huntley. That was a good one. And they would just yeah, it was a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

But it was a big thing when Walter Cronkite got choked up over the assassination of the president.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

And that was a big thing. Like, wow, is the newscaster actually showing some human elements. But anyway, my point was it'd be interesting to see the news in these other countries unfiltered before they, you know, get to us and see how they're delivered.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

It is different. It is very different.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

And I'd rather have that. I'd rather just give me the news, leave out all the uh sensationalism, and let's get to the news.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

And and Bobby, maybe you're gonna touch on this.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

It's nothing to do with titties or nude beaches or okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Well, my my error, my my error.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

If they do happen to have a news story about that, let's let's scrutinize that one.

Doomscrolling Stress And Cognitive Overload

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Um Bobby, you'll probably talk about this, but you know, the 24-7 news cycle really is kind of a uh relentless negative cycle that uh does impact people's mental and physical health because people get stressed over this. Not only body stress, but anxiety. And some of that leads to very traumatic and harmful events because you see something on TV that makes you go, oh my gosh, that's wrong. That could be now a vigilante that goes out to try to correct that, right? Um because they they sustain some type of psychological arousal of some type, whether it was fight or flight, and that's what they go into. And a lot of times people will say, Oh, we need to barricade our home, or we need to um, you know, make sure that we put a fence up and we get dogs and we get our guns out and we're all ready. Or other people will say, you know, oh my gosh, um, you know, we need to go downtown and fight this thing, or or you know, there's just so many different emotions that it stirs up.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Right. And, you know, you touched on it, they call it doom scrolling. It's called a doom scrolling loop where you kind of get sucked into it and you just keep scrolling to the next article or to the next TikTok or to the next and and you know, once you kind of get stuck on a headline, you kind of want to know more about it because you're like, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? And it does, it it triggers things like chronic stress, as you said, because that's that's the body's fight or flight uh response. It also leads to anxiety, depression, insomnia, physical symptoms like high blood pressure, right? Uh and and continuous consumption of these negative events as we see literally every time we open up any kind of social media app.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

And I think what's really sad about that, Bobby, is it isn't just us, it isn't just me. That because if I look at something that is negative, it the internet will automatically start doom scrolling for me.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Right. It's your algorithm.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yep, that it'll automatically, we don't even have to have our phones on as listening. And it tells us what we want to what we want to see and what we want to hear. And that's why, folks, if you're a conservative, that's why you only get conservative information sent to you. You don't get stuff from the liberal side. And if you're a liberal, all you get is the liberal news, you don't or anything associated with you know that, you don't get the conservative side because the algorithms do not allow it.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

And it it does, it literally rewires our brains to seek more information. So, you know, let's say about we hear about the the flooding. Okay, uh floods have come through and devastated towns that are on the other side of the country. Well, now we want to know what's the death toll, how many, how many houses have been affected, what what is the Red Cross doing? What and it it it literally rewires our brains to continuously search for information. Well, now we're up at two, three o'clock in the morning trying to find more information. Now that's in our algorithm. So the next time that we get on our phones, we hear about floods, earthquakes, tornadoes that we can't do anything about. And it sends out, you know, this distress to our own bodies about the fact that these things are happening. We can't do anything about it, yet we're suffering insomnia from it. We're suffering, you know, the anxiety, the depression, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

And that constant barrage of information really puts us into uh what's called a cognitive overload. And it really is the brain's ability or inability to process that information deeply. And what happens is it leads to shallow thinking, folks. It leads you to believe what you just read, it leads you to decrease your attention spans to check further. You just take it at face value. And what happens then is it can also impair your memory because you remember those detrimental things that may or may not have been true, may have been, you know, uh something that was uh elaborated on that really wasn't that big of a deal. And so your body kind of goes into a health decline. You know, you could have constant stress responses, you know, you probably know of some other ones, Bobby, but even cardiovascular or physical damage because of that chronic cycle.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

And it does affect your life, and it can cause even eating disorders and digestive issues, you know. There's a whole myriad. Our body, the way that our body is wired is it's a uh they call it fight or flight, but it's actually fight, flight, or freeze. And that's how we're wired on any kind of situation that we come to. And when we're constant, I mean, constantly barraged. I I I actually I want the listeners to to take a second when they can. I don't want them to do this when they're driving or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Or when they're listening to us.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Well, they can do it when they're listening to us as long as it doesn't, you know, stop us. But um, you know, open open your Facebook or your Twitter if you still use that, or your Instagram or your TikTok. And I want you to just scroll three times. And in those three times, you're going to find something that's going to trigger that response within your body. And you have to understand that nowadays more and more kids have access to these social media platforms. Now, you know, both you and I don't agree with that, that there should be limits on the social media platforms and things like that when it comes to kids. But even if we don't have the social media platforms, we have the 247 news channels. These kids are being barraged. With these news stories, whether it be war in the Middle East, whether it be floods, whether it be fires, whether it be um, you know, killings that that need to be stopped. And they are constantly thinking, how how does this affect me? Is this going to happen here? I'm worried about the people over there because it it really feeds into our empathetic role as human beings. We want to be empathetic towards them and we want to feel like there's something that we can do, but we weren't made for this. Humans as a whole, we're not made for this.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

And unfortunately, we're reacting, we're not really thinking it through to find out is this true? How true is it? Is it just an element of truth? Because sensationalism is over substance right now. And, you know, especially if you've got someone who is a politician or a movie star, somebody from Hollywood, all of a sudden it's a big deal now. You know, Taylor Swift doesn't like the color pink uh fingernail polish. I don't know what, I don't know whether she does or not. I don't even follow her, but allegedly. Yeah, allegedly, we don't know. Um, and now every, you know, now it was sensationalized because oh my gosh, it's somebody that is, you know, very, very popular. And, you know, to fill that 24-hour cycle, there may be minor events that are amplified into breaking news, breaking news, emergencies, and you find out that it was really quite trivial.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

And when it comes to breaking news, you know, you and I saw it firsthand. These news people will come into a situation that is minutes old, and they will interview people not knowing the facts, not knowing what's going on, and they will put that out there as facts. So now we have this giant cloud of misinformation that's being presented to people as facts because so-and-so said this, or we got an interview with this person, and it comes out days later that that person wasn't even involved in the situation. Well, that's too late. Right. That's too late. Our bodies have already reacted to it, and they've already made a decision.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

You know, something happens, and the newscaster goes and talks to the neighbor, and the neighbor says, Well, yeah, that guy was a real jerk because you know, he never waved, never waved, never said hi to us, whatever. And now the news has picked that up as being someone who is antisocial, someone who's a hermit, someone who stays in their home, doesn't have any contact with people, and they really just sensationalize that. And, you know, what happens to us with this information is we become addicted to it.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Because it is available 24-7 and it is so rapid, and we get psychologically such high engagement in that content, whether it's right or wrong, we form an opinion, and most times we're outraged by the facts because that's what sensationalism is. You don't see anybody, you know, taking action to go, oh my gosh, everybody's doing a march to you know feed the babies, and everybody runs downtown and feeds babies. No, you don't ever see that. Um, but there is also, and and I don't mean to take this away from you because I know you're talking about it, is that fear of missing out, FOMO, right? So people, there's such widespread false disbelief uh that you know, if you don't tune into that news feed,

Algorithms Echo Chambers And Sharing

SPEAKER_02 25:44

now you're not informed. And so people have that fear of missing out. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the things that I just said here day before yesterday to someone who said, Hey, did you see on the news? And she started in, and I said, I'm just gonna stop you right there. I do not listen to the news, none of it. Um, if I want to know some information, I will look up the uh the things that I trust, and then I don't even trust them. I have to look up more information to see what's really going on. And so we really don't pay that. I know Dr. Domain and I, neither one of us really pay that much attention to it because you know what? We've you know, we know who we're following, and we don't need to follow all this other crap because that's the world, and it's really not gonna end up, you know, being anything that goes with us when we die anyway. So why get excited about it?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Right. And you know, I'm gonna touch on something that Dr. Dr. Domain brought up, um worldwide news. So uh our country, you know, the first one to break the news story, the first one to get the interview, the first one to have information is the winner. And and that's how it is here. But I watch Al Jazeera TV, I watch the Al Jazeera news. And the reason that I do that is because they are very cut and dry. They they tell the story, they wait until they have the facts. And if they don't have the facts, they will tell the viewers we don't have all the information. This is all we know. And they they don't said they don't sensationalize it. And when when it comes to American news, it's very different how they report on it. It's not, you know, here in America, we can tell who has their hands in whose pockets, especially when it comes to news media, outlets, things like that. A lot of them are far left or far right or, you know, kind of however they want to be, but you can definitely follow the money with those. And overseas, they don't have that kind of commitment to the money. They they they're not being paid off, they're not uh left-wing or a conservative news story. They they tell what they know and they they stop. That's where they stop. And so I a lot of us have turned to overseas news sources because it it does bring down that pressure of I have to follow it, I have to find out more, I have to know what Tom Dick and Harry down the street said about this guy. I have to know uh you know what what the first reporter on scene has interviewed these people. I need to know what they need to, you know, what they've said, because they're not invested in that. They're invested in the story.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

And you know how that doom scrolling rewires our brain? What happens then is we feel like we're a part of that.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Somehow we are a piece of that, and now we've got something invested in it. And it's like, you don't have anything invested, you don't know these people, you don't even know the facts of the situation, but somehow they take ownership, and what happens is it rewires your brain because now that's what you're gonna be looking for. You are looking for all of that that doomsday stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

What do you what do you think people do when they feel invested in something like that? Like they they're on TikTok and they see a story and they're invested in it now. What do you think the very first thing that they're gonna do is I think they're gonna take a side. No, they're gonna share it.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Well, that's true. Whether it's right or wrong or indifferent, and they don't know, right? They're just gonna hit they're gonna hit share. Yeah. And now you know, but they did take an opinion, they did take a side, or they wouldn't have shared it. Because I see stuff and I kind of go, uh, you know, and then there's stuff that I kind of do share.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Most of my stuff is like stupid stuff, like but you know, that that's the first thing they do is they hit that share button, and now their hundreds of friends see that because it wasn't on their friends' algorithms because they don't watch that. Right now they see it, now it's on their algorithms.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

But when your friends send you that information, doesn't it make you think that's what that's what my friends prefer, or that's their opinion now? Well, they listened to it. I mean they're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Or it impacted them.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

It impacted them, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Like the we had some uh minor wildfire in your home, and I don't know, that might have been something that uh did you share it? Maybe you did, I don't know. What about the wildfire that we had here in White County?

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, because it's local.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

It's something that's impacting us, and we may want to do that. And it was just a few miles. Yeah, yeah, it's what's relevant.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

But it was just factual. Here's a fire, it's five miles from our house.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

Well, I was saying it really didn't um didn't influence what I thought was you know, like um my opinion. It wasn't necessarily opinionated.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

No, I didn't immediately go, oh my gosh, I know who started this fire and how negligent were these people. And it was probably a camper who started a fire and walked away from it, or it was somebody who was out barbecuing and they were negligent, or some bunch of kids. I didn't we didn't know. And we didn't care. We just knew it was a fire, it was by our house, and we were, you know, five.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

But in that respect, we shared it because we thought others neighbors interested or family and friends.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

But you know, you also have to think, even if it is just a cut and dry news source, if you share it like on your public feed, you don't share it to somebody, you just share it publicly so when people are scrolling, they see it. Well, now that algorithm of that social media has said, oh, this person stopped for three seconds to look at the title of this, we're going to put more of that into their algorithm.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Regardless if you actually read that article or not, you see those three seconds. And now you are sucked into the doom scrolling because that's now what is on your algorithm. Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

And God help you if you read a full article on on you know, you know, oh yeah, you're screwed. You're screwed. You're pretty well screwed because now that's now it's like, oh, they stayed on there for you know 1.2 minutes and read part of this. Oh, they're they're very interested.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

And and when it comes to social media, we are the product. You know, you look at companies, if they're not selling a product, you need to realize that we are the product, yeah. And so by having those algorithms, by sharing those stories, misinformation or not, that is their selling point. We're the product and they're selling us.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

So I just want to share this and then we'll probably wrap up, Bobby. It was a lot of good information. I'm glad that you brought it up today. But we're as as Dr. Domain said, Dr. Domain just got a drink. What?

SPEAKER_03 32:46

I have a cough. I was trying to

Privacy On Public Wi Fi

SPEAKER_03 32:48

fix it.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

Oh, it's a hot, hot. Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

No, it's double stacked. Anyway, um it's a Scottish whiskey and cream.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

So anyway, we're going on an international trip and we're gonna be cruising part of that time. And I told him, I said, listen, if we use their Wi-Fi, you know, you're gonna have to VPN before we do, because otherwise, uh, what happens is they will immediately, the ship will immediately see what you looked at, and you will have coupons, you will have information, you will have everything either laying as a flyer on your bed the next morning, or you will have it on your TV set, and they are relentless. So just remember that when you go to a hotel, when you go on a cruise, when you go to places where you're using somebody else's Wi-Fi, guess what you're gonna get? You're gonna get everything, they're gonna see everything that you're looking at, and they're gonna go, oh, she's interested in that.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Ain't no free lunch.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Ain't no free lunch.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

We're gonna jam all his ads down your throat.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

What did you just say?

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Yeah, you get we're gonna get free Wi-Fi, but then we're gonna jam all those ads. All this crap.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Would you think I said I wasn't sure? Oh my goodness. I kind of didn't hear it.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Oh, I don't know.

Simple Rules To Break The Cycle

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Some things that you can that you can really do, you know, three big things just for our listeners to to kind of disassociate from this. And I I'm a world-class disassociator, even if you're talking to me in person. So all of the kitchen be like, uh-huh, and not hear a word.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

You don't even say uh-huh. You go glassy-eyed and you turn around, you walk away, and I'm like, Bobby, I was talking to you. Oh, you were? Yeah, okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

But listen, you know, we need to set time limits. Set time limits for your news. If you need to go back to the 80s and 90s where it's morning, noon, and an evening newscast, set those time limits because they're relentless. They're going to be 24-7. It's going to be everywhere you look. You need to set those parameters for yourself. You need to curate your own content. So you need to choose those reliable news sources. You need to do your research, and you need to stop following the freaking herd because guess what? They're going over the cliff with or without you. That's exactly right. And let's get our asses out of there.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Stop being influenced by newscasters that either mislead the information because of their own opinion, because of the network's opinion, or you may go, well, that was truthful. It did happen. Yeah, but they threw in two words there that just made you be look at this differently. And you have to be cognizant of all of that. Is that's how they get you, and that's how they make you, that's how they make us hate on each other. I had somebody say to me, You ask Bobby questions like she's not even your daughter, like you don't even know what's gone on in her life or her kids' lives. Okay, folks, I know what's going on in my daughter's life. Okay, but I was very private. She's very private, and I do ask the questions just to bring it out. Do I know the answers most of the time? Yes, I do. Sometimes she surprises me, just listen to our previous podcasts. But that, but just so you know, I know my daughter, but I do that to to help her to open up and tell our listeners what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, I think that that is all of the insanity of uh 24-7 news that we have for today. But

Closing Thanks And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 36:18

hey, listen, we appreciate you joining us here at the Rabbit Run Studio. So be sure to follow us because we look forward to spending time with you each week. Please like us on your favorite listening uh station, whether it be iHeartRadio, Spotify, or Amazon Music, whatever you listen to us on, make sure you like us so that you can uh know when we have a new episode. If you have positive feedback, hey, we have an email address. It's boomerandgenx or at gmail.com. Drop us a line, drop us a question, drop us anything except for hate mail because I'm sure that that'll be on 24 7 news too. Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_02 36:57

That'll send me into a fight or flight mode.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Yeah. Until next week, I'm Bobby Joy.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

And I'm Jane Burt. And you're stuck with us. Peace out.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Later.