A few years ago, I started with the axiom that 50% of Mainstream Media is false and 50% of Alternative Media is true as my growing distrust of the mainstream media continued to wane and my exposure to alternative media was limited. I began my own research on many topics and I tried to go beyond simple skepticism and cynicism. This lead me to explore new and varied YouTube sources, some that made me think, many that I did not agree with and some that were simply out there. At the same time I tried to remain open to them as I followed arguments and viewpoints that were contrary to my own.
I attempted to create a basket of media sources including different political persuasions: liberal, conservative, libertarian and others. I listened to many doom and gloom sites especially regarding economic and/or financial crashes and also I listened to feel good commentaries circulating on Facebook. In each case, it appeared that each site or article had some truths but it felt like something was always missing, that dots needed to be connected.
I tried to relate these findings to my friends and family, it appeared that we were all trapped in our own viewpoints and frequently, only misunderstandings resulted. We all saw what we wanted to see, social media and You Tube suggested sites would simply reinforce our own points of view and we simply had too much information and too little time to explore other points of view.
A few weeks back I heard about Steemit, it is grabbing my attention as I see it as a disruptive technology (possibly similar to Uber and Airbnb) in that it could disrupt the media industry and encourage many to participate, to share and reward what they view valuable. What would happen if contemplative people came together and developed and shared ideas which made all of our lives a little better?