I just heard about the Mumbai attacks tonight on the Daily Show. It took me til the evening of 9-11 to hear about the Towers, other than some blurb on espn.com about games being rescheduled.   None of this affects me as much as what new trucks are up on CraigsList; i’ll find out soon enough commiserate with its impact on me. I knew about the first Phoenix Light Rail accident very very soon, and i usually know pretty quickly what is happening with group rides on MTBR.

I love how technology frees us to craft and filter what we experience.   RSS, tivo, do not call lists, bookmarks – the world is mine, exactly how i want it!   While there is something to be said for common experiences and some degree of homogeneity across a society, it blasts to hell any notion of one monolithic media voice. There may very well be a Fox News conspiracy, but who cares?   There are thousands of outlets empowered to deliver their own conspiracy.

The independence goes beyond the experience or the editorializing; it is independence to prioritize something’s importance to you.   I click my mouse and tell all the Presidential candidates to go to hell, I would rather follow football.   Beckie and her family drift into a very high and mighty attitude towards their wonkishness, thinking that the content they follow somehow is more important.   Just because “significant” content is available non-stop does not mean I need to follow it.   Do i really need an election timer countdown, or need to know the latest plot development when i’ve already made up my decision? Anything news-worthy I will still hear about, and the truth rises out of the swirl, like a feedback rating from 1,000 users eventually leaves the correct impression.   The abundance leads to the distillation.   What’s left is for the individual to form their own opinion, if they want to, or not.