Can you count the stars in the sky, the grains of sand on a beach. Can you hear a voice in the infinite Sea of Words unleashed by an age of digits and silicon.
It is your right to be heard, and mine. In times gone by we stood on a box at Hyde Park Corner. Do they still stand there I wonder, are they listened to, admired.
Caxton it was or Johannes Gutenberg, who set the taps running. Who began that drip which some hundreds of years later became a raging, stormed tossed ocean of opinion and doggerel, marketing and hype, nonsense and bigotry. And in places, but oh so rare, so hidden and covered by the surrounding detritus, the occasional light. Voice of reason. Beacon in a dark world.
Is the broadsheet still read? Published even? And if it is, does it have anything to say above the endless noise and wailing, the digital storm which surrounds us. Invades our homes, our lives.
Is the Times still read? The New Yorker, the Economist, the Daily Telegraph. Does the Wall Street Journal survive, the curious pink Financial Times.
And if they do, is it still printed I wonder. Is there still that smell of paper and ink, do those presses still roll throughout the night. Do the delivery trucks rush the morning press to the newsstands in the early hours.
They say the internet is a great leveler. That it gives a voice to all. But do you want to listen. And if you do, can you find that voice you want to hear.
WordPress and Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Medium even, that offspring of the commercial genii who brought Twitter spluttering to life.
Choice is important they say but survival perhaps more so. Who will save you from drowning in the Sea of Words.
For the most part survival means to switch off. To power down, to close Google for good and cease to participate in the digital storm threatening to engulf us all.
For there are no effective filters it seems. No magic search which commands “show me what I want to hear”. Bring me a voice of culture and sanity I want to listen to.
The flood gates have been opened, some say for good not ill. Take care lest you drown in a sea of inanity, irrelevance and banality. Do not slip and fall into this swollen river, this angry tide, this fast moving and ever changing flood of words.
Dip your toes in the raging flood if you will, but do not be surprised if your feet never touch firm ground again. If meaning becomes forever lost in a storm of noise and fury.
Weltanschauung 
Another friend just blogged on the need to read, and I noted a couple of links in comments to Thompson. https://brokenforchrist159171453.wordpress.com/2021/08/18/the-need-to-read/
Good advice in your blog, Anthony.
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That’s a good article you linked me too. Every time I think of increasing my readership or promoting it, to be honest, it very much depresses me. I guess that tells me a lot. That I write primarily because I feel very deeply about “stuff” and that I can not and should not write because I want readers.
Thanks so much for the comment!
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The inner world
the soul
has the word finding
by voice
of the human
spawned
we are mad and crazy
the printed in the word
in the freezers of libraries
their message from the past
anchored for the future
through science
the spirituality
of literature
on radio and television
in speech
and the fourth power of journalism
the word; that like a vulture
waiting for it
as an approach
the ultimate truth
to be enjoyed
the nagging
get around that
own fault and mistakes
the flood from outside
both sides have the same manner
evil in itself
in their own world
and the world
to suppress and to blame others
everyone has to work on it
what he got from the “word”
in his mediation
for perusal
want to take
and what not
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Thank you so much for your lovely poem!
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I significantly reduced my consumption of social media a few weeks ago and I feel so much better. Ditto to dropping my incessant checking of the news to make sure I’m “up” on current events. One can stay “up” by watching the news hour. 24-7 access to everything means there’s a lot of dreck out there clogging up space. I feel lighter and freer, now that I consume less.
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Yes, I had done so too but then began to wonder whether I should seek more exposure for my writing. I became almost depressed looking at what many people had written on blogs and other social media. Much of it boiled down to a sales pitch. Much was not very interesting. Much was barely literate. I’m not a snob in any sense other than perhaps the intellectual. So I decided once again to write what I wanted simply for my own pleasure. And if anyone is kind enough to read it, then so be it. It is a form of therapy for me and an important way to formulate my view of life.
Thanks for your comment Em. Most welcome!
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Anthony, although you are more philosophical, this is my practical view. Newspapers are costly and a mess to dispose of. Every day on my Internet home page I read BBC articles on the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Asia, Business, and Science & Technology. They are more objective than most American press and also easier to read.
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Here is an example of BBC news:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58266794
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Good thought. I flick through the BBC headlines now and then. Also the Guardian, but some of their stuff is as intolerable as the right wing press. So much hatred and criticism. but that is the world.
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Internet can be good for individuals who otherwise would feel isolated if forced to swim only with the fish in their local pond.
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Well said, Anthony. My teacher said he did not think social media would be relevant to my then new blog. As head of a unknown spiritual school of millions of worldwide followers plus my own mounting view of social media content I immediately cut off the blog’s social media contacts. I now see that cut off a malign host of spiritual negativity.
Exposure to social media is counter productive to the calling of true Seekers and Mystics as well as the influence of Reality, in my experience.
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I meant to say my teacher was head of a multi million pupil spritual school, not me!
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I agree with those saying that democratisation of technology does not mean we want everyone’s opinion on everything. It is just too much. And then there are trolls, people with too much time on their hands and strong opinions reinforced by anonymity. I have unplugged largely, from news, from social media, even Twitter. Good content needs to be sought out these days, your blog is a joy to read 😉
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