Narrow your view: Read The Daily Me




Mary Henkel Judson is editor and copublisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at southjetty@centurytel.net, (361) 749-5131 or P.O. Box 1117, Port Aransas, TX 78373.

Mary Henkel Judson is editor and copublisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at southjetty@centurytel.net, (361) 749-5131 or P.O. Box 1117, Port Aransas, TX 78373.


After reading a piece by a syndicated columnist in one of the daily newspapers a couple of months ago, I was struck by his interpretation of the Internet as it relates to individuals.

He called it “The Daily Me.”

When you go on the Internet, you don’t look up subjects you are not interested in or that you don’t even know exist. No. It’s all about you. Ergo, “The Daily Me.”

If the Internet is one’s only news source, the news he or she will seek out is only that which one chooses to know.

Internet users therefore limit their intake and narrow their views of the world to the vacuum of the universe as they define it by their Internet sources and searches.

Several years ago, the Caller-Times
started putting the comics in the sports section. I was put out with that. I had no need to read the sports section. The only sports I wanted to know about were what we published in the South Jetty
and professional tennis, about which the Caller
ran very little.

But I do have to read my daily dose of comics. That I had to wade through the sports section to get to them was an inconvenience.

However, as I flipped through the pages on my way to the comics, I was exposed to information I would not have sought out. After a period of time, I began to seek it out. I just didn’t know I was interested in that stuff until I was exposed to it. Now, I’m a walking, talking encyclopedia of sports trivia. (Just kidding! However, I was really bummed that
out of three Texas NBA teams, none made it to the
finals. Now at least UT is playing for the national
baseball championship.)

Even the television news exposes you to stories you might not care about on its way to the story in which you are interested – even though it amounts to headlines and not much substance.

E-mail is an excellent means of communication, but it has its limitations.

Transparency in local, state and national government cannot be achieved by e-mail. That can only be achieved by media that is available to all – even those who may not intend to expose themselves to the information, but do so by virtue of turning a page in a newspaper.

A business is not going to attract new customers by e-mailing its existing customers. New customers are attracted by advertising in media available to an audience beyond their existing e-mail list.

Civic clubs don’t attract new members by sending their existing members newsletters and notices. They do that by sending news releases to the media that targets the audience they want to attract.

If you want to limit your world, stay tuned to “The Daily Me,” the Internet.

If you want to know what’s going on in your community, your state, your country or the world, pick up a newspaper. You’ll find out things you never dreamed about, and would never have known to look up on the Internet.

The Internet has its place. But it’s not in place of a newspaper (whether you read it in print or online).

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