Is it a mean world after all?

In an attempt to skip the whole "OMG hey guys I'm Brianna, I like shoes and clothes and journalism and my friends and this is my first post LOL hope you like reading it!!!!!!!" thing I'm going to just jump right in there and get started. This is an extended version of a mini blog I had to create for a university assignment.

The ways in which technology has changed the way we live, work, play and communicate are pretty amazing. I recently started using twitter, and apart from informing everyone what I had for lunch, (and other important details like this) I subscribed to several news websites’ twitter feeds. I now get tweets from BBC Breaking News and WA Today on my feed.

Apart from marveling at how tech-savvy and intelligent I felt about receiving the news like this, it struck me that every minute of the day, horrible things are happening. Don't get me wrong, I'm smart enough to know that these things DO happen, but it's never been as in my face as this. As a journalism student, I'm one day going to be making my living by reporting these types of things -- and I'm starting to see why it's such a stressful career.

- A man in Norway kills 69 people in an hour, picking them off like animals.

- Riots in the streets of London.

- A man decapitates his son and leaves the head for the boy’s mother to find.

- Hundreds of people dying due to war, famine and natural disasters.

- Innocent people who will never make it home to see their families again.

Poverty; tragedy; sadness; fear; disease and violence. All delivered to my mobile phone, any time of the day or night, wherever I am. It makes me want to stick my head in the sand and ignore it all.

There’s a theory (known as the 'mean world theory' or 'mean world syndrome') that says that overexposure to distressing news stories can make us think the world is a mean and dangerous place. This theory is usually applied when referring to someone getting a unnaturally skewed view of the world, but it can work in other ways too. Ignorance really can be bliss, and we as humans are, for the most part, pretty content to get wrapped up in all the exciting details of our own lives, without giving much thought to what may be going on elsewhere.

Is it really good to be exposed to so much misery on a daily basis, especially when we usually can’t do anything about it?

I feel it’s all a matter of perspective. Perhaps these awful stories are here so we can appreciate the goodness in our own lives and realise how lucky we are.

After all, good news travels fast, too.