Playing with Feelings...

Remember “Lassie, Come Home”?

I didn’t watch much television when I was a little girl. Mom kept us busy with lots of activities, so kicking back to watch a show just wasn’t a thing. Besides, we only had a black and white TV long after many of our friends had moved into the world of color. But then, you don’t know what you’re missing if you’ve never had it.

There was one show that I would seek out in those rare moments of inactivity – Lassie, the program about the adventures of a beautiful, smart collie dog and his accident-prone boy, Timmy. The lack of a color palette had no impact on my ability to get sucked in to a good story line and Lassie had it all. There was a mom in the kitchen perpetually preparing a meal, a dad busily at work on the farm, which left Timmy free to go explore the wide world around him. Inevitably, Timmy would encounter some form of danger and then it was Lassie to the rescue.

As with many shows in the 1960s, one never had to guess when peril was coming. The musical score provided a foreshadowing undercurrent, with an ominous score predicting hazards for Timmy.

Apparently, my mother’s ears also were attuned to the meaning of ominous music coming from the television. Inevitably, just as I was holding my breath, wide-eyed in front of the set as Lassie ran to the farmhouse once more barking his alarm of danger for Timmy, in would swoop my mom to snap off the TV with a brisk, “That’s enough of that, now.”

“Mahhhmmmmm! Whyyyyy?” was my usual wail.  

“That show gets you all upset. It totally riles up your feelings,” was her highly unsatisfactory response. And that was followed by a quick distracting pivot to ask for help in setting the table.

I was remembering this somewhat annoying habit of my mother’s the other day as I feeling those riled up feelings of being upset.

This time it had nothing to do with a TV show like Lassie. It was the result of a series of social media posts by old friends. A majority were re-posts of content from other sources designed to distort, to amplify, obscure, and manipulate how we relate to current events.

At this point in my journey of life, I’m well aware of the way certain words and images can impact what we feel and understand. I’ve built a career out of carefully using the words and images that help my employers and clients promote stronger reputations.  

Sometimes the difference is nuanced – like emphasizing leading edge medical research rather than cutting edge medical research. Most people (patients or customers) prefer being on the leading edge when it’s medicine that can cure, rather than the harsher cutting edge that feels surgical. So those are the words we use when promoting positive breakthroughs. 

That’s the upside of my work.

But it’s the downside that concerns me now.

There are far too many online publishers in the business of promoting extreme and manipulative content designed to anger and upset us. There is an entire industry of content producers whose sole goal is making us angry.

Some of the worst of these publishers produce content that promotes both the far left and the far right, inspiring hatred and vitriol on both ends of the fractured spectrum - with the ultimate goal of gathering IP addresses that can be sold for big profit to partisan organizations. These publishers are not promoting a “one true way of life” for liberals or conservatives. It’s all about personal profit at the expense of our society.

That’s what really riles up my feelings, as Mom used to say - recognizing the tools being used by manipulative sources to inspire hatred, fear, anger, and a shattering of our better selves.