The Paradox of Choice; Media and elsewhere....

There is a thing called the ‘paradox of choice’ that says the more options a person has to choose from, the more difficult it will be to decide which they prefer. This goes for food in the grocery stores, household items, anything you could imagine. It extends to services, such as choosing a carpenter, or even where you will work.
Having less choices allows the mind to settle easier. In the past, there were few items to choose from in the store. You chose whatever brand your parents used, or whatever was available. The competition over the centuries became fierce, to the point we are at today when there are a thousand choices of coffee alone to decide from- and all are from the same strain of bean, more or less. Small differences in roasting and growing location created more variety, and more companies, and today as it stands things are FURTHER complicated by choosing brands that care about the environment, or take care of their employees.

Researching all these items is near impossible, and most people have not the time OR the desire to look at all the products to make an informed decision, they tend to defend theirs as the ‘best’ one, end of story.
We always have the best tasting variety of tea, or the best dentist, the best chiropractor….and we have all heard from our friends and family in our lives. It’s natural we want to think we chose wisely, because after all, we aren’t fools! Right?
With food, it often comes down to taste. The choices you make to drink one soda will not affect others who choose otherwise. This may seem obvious, so we create the idea ‘to each his own’, and life goes on.
What about media? Religion? Politics?

It does not take much imagination to apply the paradox of choice to the ‘information’ we consume. OUR news channel is the best, the fairest and the most balanced. OUR party affiliation is the right one, because we say it is. OUR religion is superior because we know the others are lesser quality. But in the same way, we do so to defend ourselves against being wrong, or having to take the time to search through the vast amount of contradicting information. As humans, we seek the patterns which most easily suit our needs, and if we find it not working we move onto the next best thing. Why should we bother to look at the alternatives, when we are happy where we are?
Because we must.
It is important that we find the time to listen to all sides, for if we don’t we will have no idea where we may be mistaken. So long as those mistakes harm nobody else, we are free to live in any delusion we choose. However when others suffer because of our ignorance, we are harming the entire culture.
With media, everything has culminated in the 2017 word of the year: Fake News. Anything that does not compute with what we want to believe must be false, for we know we are right. Right? Seeing there are so many sides and angles to choose from, we choose not to embrace those differences and analyze them, but to become defensive. This has become so absurd, that people are now doubting everything they hear for fear of it being ‘wrong’. Perhaps this is a good thing in some ways, but it is damaging to the society we live in when we choose ignorance over. We owe it to ourselves to stop basing what we believe merely on what news organization says it, or what we wish to be true, but instead on rational analysis of the situation and likelihood of something being true. Anyone can deny the truth, but it takes a strong person to defend what they know is right, even in the face of it conflicting with what they wish were true.
I do not think this matters much anyway, as from what I have seen in recent years, many people choose ignorance over reason. I don’t think this will change as it is a reflection of the society we have created, which in turn is a reflection of ourselves. Tightly woven fabric, which is becoming more and more taut, until eventually the sheer weight of the tapestry itself will tear it down the middle; and when that happens, it will go fast.
I do not think ignorance is a conscious choice, but rather a defense mechanism against having too many options. We know in our hearts there are other ideas just as valid, and other choices that are more reasonable, but we dig deeper under the pile of blankets, until we eventually run out of air.
At that point, we either suffocate, or surface and gasp.
Those moments when we surface….. THOSE are the moments of cognitive dissonance.
The ones we must listen closely to.

Choices.