In this high tech dizzying world, brains matter. Particularly dizzying is how people access news. By the time a reader turns the page or clicks to another section or subject matter, there is already something new being posted by a blogger or by just any other Tomas, Kulas or Hilario on social media. The question now is how do we keep abreast with the news? The answer is, there is no way. They change every minute and the “Mariteses” are the biggest contributors.
Yet for us in the traditional media what we are churning out are not necessarily useless. For the news cannot just exist in a vacuum. It has some basis in what was news yesterday, or the other day. Some sensible extrapolation and analyses are needed though. And these require some brains or education even if just the basics.
For instance, if the President is diagnosed of terminal failure of the kidneys, the next news would be on his kidney transplant or how he would be going through dialysis. But if one never heard of dialysis or other alternative ways of cleansing the body, then he will have to wait for the news in the coming days or weeks.
To further drive home the point, what we have from yesterday will never be completely useless. While the fastest obsolescence might be suffered by news providers, it is not so bad in other aspects of life.
Somebody with an old car need not feel so sad about not being able to buy a brand new one, the false need of which is mercilessly pounded every minute by advertisements into people’s brains. He might even consider himself lucky. For is he bought one today, he would be paying so much for something basically more than a hundred years old technology. The same old concept, just appearing new due to marketing mumbo-jumbo when in fact its heart is the same centuries old concept of the internal combustion engine. But new electric vehicles are here already.
How about the low-income folks like most of us who can only hold on to beat up clunkers or junk cars? We should not despair for the words reduce, reuse or recycle are still classic very good words applicable and very valuable today. There are now available conversion kits to make these into reliable electric runners. You just have to have the brains to do the job or to get others to do it for you.
To repeat, what it takes is brains or education. It is what makes a man or woman good for all seasons. High tech or low tech.**