We were never angels in the era of print journalism, and newspapers were never free of crime stories, scandals, or sensationalism.
But the essential difference was that such stories lived on the margins, not at the center.
The crime section was merely a passing page that some readers skimmed before returning to politics, culture, economics, or opinion columns written by people whose intellect and experience we respected.
Readers had a choice.
Today, however, the equation has completely changed.
Digital platforms no longer merely display news; they manage human attention itself, reshaping people’s tastes, awareness, and daily emotional states.
Algorithms do not reward value — they reward excitement.
The more shocking, trivial, or emotionally provocative a story is, the faster it spreads.
As a result, isolated incidents have turned into permanent mass spectacles. Trivial people have become “celebrities.” Gossip has become media content. Readers are constantly surrounded by stories that add nothing to their minds while draining their nerves and inner peace.
We wake up to a crime and go to sleep to a scandal, while in between we consume endless clips about celebrities screaming at each other, influencers fighting, and meaningless details of lives that hold no real value.
And with repetition comes something more dangerous than bad entertainment:
the erosion of collective sensibility.
A person who feeds daily on triviality gradually loses the ability to focus on major issues.
A mind addicted to constant stimulation becomes incapable of deep reflection.
In fact, the endless flood of negative news creates a permanent feeling of anxiety, depression, and loss of meaning, even if people do not consciously realize it.
We now live in an attention economy where human nerves and emotions are traded by the minute and the second.
The problem is that even some respectable media institutions — under competitive pressure — have begun sinking into the same swamp, abandoning their enlightening role in favor of chasing “trends.”
But is the solution to escape from the world?
Of course not.
The solution is for journalism to reclaim its real role:
to rescue the reader’s awareness, not profit from its collapse.
News platforms must realize that their responsibility is not only to report what happens, but also to determine the relative importance of what happens.
Not everything that captures attention deserves the spotlight.
And it is not the role of the media to turn society into a permanent audience spying on trivialities.
At the same time, readers themselves carry a moral and cultural responsibility.
The mind is like the body: what you consume daily shapes who you become over time.
A person who begins every day with noise, triviality, and aggression cannot expect inner peace or intellectual depth.
We must relearn the art of selection.
To choose what we read, whom we follow, and what deserves our time and emotional energy.
To return to serious articles, deep ideas, books, and meaningful dialogue instead of the constant nervous consumption of shallow content.
Because true freedom today is no longer only freedom of expression…
It is freedom of attention.
And whoever fails to protect their attention gradually loses their awareness.
