Link: Everything Is Going Too Fast | Imani Perry

Type: Essay / Newsletter

Source: Unsettled Territory (Atlantic Subscriber Newsletter) ($)

“There are no easy ways to live now. But I do think we have to be deliberate about moments of quiet reflection in which we make decisions about what we will do, however modest, in response to so many social and political challenges. And by that I mean what we will do in a sustained fashion—both in terms of what we commit to knowing about by regularly reading and keeping abreast of those topics, and also in terms of what civic actions we will weave into our daily lives. I’m not one to rail against the internet or the television. But I am an advocate of regularly stepping away to concentrate one’s attention. It still feels inadequate, of course. But it is something.”

This fits into a a constellation of blog posts/articles/newsletters I’m seeing, calling for what I would describe as intentionality and deliberateness in response to the endless onslaught of “news” and marketing and distractions. I might pull together some more structured thoughts and links on this, but for now I’m just sharing the quote to remember, and then gathering a couple of the links that I just came across-

• I have a secret. I hid it for years. / What News Designed for 21st Century Humans Might Look Like by Amanda Ripley

• No News Is Good News by Thomas J. Bevan

• both of the above found via The News Is a Drag) by Tracy Durnell