Find a free image online that is a good visual representation of your ideas and use that as a “featured image”.
In your post, copy the quote, briefly and simply summarize what it means to you.
Then write two short/quick paragraphs describing two similar memories: one before exposure to the internet (this includes mobile devices, games, etc.), the other after internet exposure in which the quote helps you see a difference.
This can be very simple, like how you respond when you mother asks you to help set the table for dinner, or what you might do on a rainy Sunday morning. What change/influence do you see (or not see, but you now know it’s there)?

“Speed plus mobs. A scary combination. Together, will they seriously reduce the accuracy of information and our thoughtfulness in using it? Somehow, we need what taking our time used to give us: thinking before we talk and questioning before we believe. I wonder—is there an algorithm perking somewhere in someone’s head right now that can act as a check against this growing hastiness and mobbiness?” (Alan Alda p. 291)

SUMMARIZE

Not to put down kids growing up in 2019 at all, but I think I had a pretty technology free childhood. I would only watch TV with my parents at night or in the morning when the news was on. I always understood from when I was young that news would sensationalize or play up stories to bring in viewers, but I would take basically whatever I saw as the truth. If a celebrity was caught up in a scandal, the news or tabloids would show physical footage or audio recordings of the misdeed. People would be rightly mad, but would be able to form their own judgements based on the proof in front of them. The news cycles were much slower, and there would probably be a big story every month or week. My grandparents would also be okay with getting their news a little more slowly, and would read the daily newspaper.

If someone from the early 1900s experienced news daily, such as through a newspaper or telegram, and someone from the 1990s got to see news hourly on the television, a person in the late 2010s almost has no choice but to experience updating news by the second. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and more have the ability to spread updates instantly to hundreds of thousands of people in the time it takes someone to get out of bed. This rapid communication has countless benefits, such as the countless times there has been emergencies such as shootings, natural disasters or other attacks, and families are able to get into contact with their families quickly, and follow the rapidly updating news coverage to know where is safe or dangerous. However, Alan Alda’s quote reminded me much of the negative side of our instantaneous world. “Fake News” has become whether we like it or not, a very important new term in or modern lexicon. Anyone with a twitter account can attempt to defame a celebrity or person in power. While most fake claims will be found out, there has been more than a few cases where we find out too late that people made up these stories in order to garner fame or something. People can jump on news like angry mobs, and take sides before all of the facts have come out. In our future, we must try to be objective and resonable.