Ten Important Life Lessons Rumor Mill Reading Room Taught Us

In a world where every day brings with it more information than can be absorbed, we are being forced to learn how to filter out the garbage. Rumor Mill Reading Room is an independent news and culture website started by Dan Elish in 2013. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in learning more about the world at large should visit this website regularly and read the articles they have curated over their lifetime. They cover topics such as social media, Brexit, politics, global affairs, technology, education, and many other fields of interest.

Ten important life lessons rumor mill reading room taught us are:

1. Don’t Believe Everything You Read.

In a world where the information you receive is brought to you through a thousand different sources, it is hard to separate truth from fiction. Take for example, the recent announcement that Facebook has manipulated the content of millions of users’ News Feeds without their knowledge or consent. The media in general jumped at this opportunity and went nuts with stories about how terrible it was that these people were being manipulated into not posting news items relating to Donald Trump. Everyone started sharing articles on how we should all boycott Facebook as they are removing our free speech and giving us nothing but propaganda. 

2. The media is not always reliable.

In a similar vein to the above point, it is important to distinguish between what is and isn’t being reported by the media. The media in general is unreliable as it is often more concerned with selling a story rather than reporting on the facts. The rise of fake news in recent times has shown just how unreliable even seemingly legitimate news outlets can be, something that Trump made great use of during his campaign for president.

3. Separate Information from Entertainment

If you want to be informed about what is happening in the world around you, then don’t rely on entertainment media outlets such as internet memes, posters or facebook statuses to do it for you. The internet is full of people having a laugh, which is great for breaking up the monotony of daily life and telling jokes with friends. However, when it comes to learning about current affairs, there are better ways to do it.

4. Know what you are saying and why you are saying it

If you are going to voice an opinion on something then make sure you actually know what you are talking about first. This can be hard as many people have never taken the time to educate themselves on many important issues that affect their lives such as immigration policy or the ongoing refugee crisis. So make sure you give all of your information a deep thought before going on any tirade.

5. Being a good person goes far beyond voting

In the Western world, we seem to worship economic success above all else. In reality, the ability to succeed financially is not the only way in which you can improve your life. How we treat others and how we live our lives elsewhere in regards to other people’s rights is just as important as how much money we have in our bank account. Good people do more than vote for right or left parties as they are walking their talk and giving back to society in other ways such as volunteer work for charities and helping others rather than simply making more money for themselves.

6. No one is unbiased.

This is a very important point to note as daily we are presented with all sorts of new pieces of information that, whether intentionally or not, throw our own opinions in a positive or negative light. Don’t ever assume that something you read on the internet is unbiased as this is usually not the case. Also, be careful if someone tells you they are unbiased as this likely means they do not have an original opinion of their own and simply regurgitate ideas that other people have already said. This would be like reading something in a newspaper and simply accepting what it says without questioning its validity yourself!

7. You can’t please everyone.

Behind every opinion is someone who disagrees with it. No one has the time or energy to take everything into consideration before deciding on what they believe is right. We are only human and we are more likely to agree with ideas that we already believe in rather than listen to other points of view and try to find some middle ground. Do not be afraid of upsetting people if this has a positive effect on your life because no matter how much you argue for something, there are always going to be people who disagree with you.

8. Not all people are going to like you.

As hard as we may try, we will always be judged on our views and opinions. You can be the nicest person in the world but if you have a controversial opinion then you are likely to get hate from people who also believe that opinion. This is a very unfortunate but unavoidable truth in life. The best way to deal with this is to ignore it and carry on with your life, something that Rumor Mill Reading Room has done time after time since its inception.

9. Do it out of love and not spite.

Be happy and positive with your life because the world is full of people who are unhappy in their own lives and the Internet is full of them telling you how unhappy they are. Life is meant to be fun so don’t let other people depress you or bring you down to a level that makes it harder for you to see that there are a couple of good things in life. If no one likes what you have to say then don’t say it as we can’t all live with everyone agreeing with us if we want more from life.

10. Never give up on yourself.

The Internet is full of people doing nothing but complaining about their lives, but as long as you are trying you can’t objectively be said to be doing nothing. Try to focus on the positive rather than bringing yourself down into a dark place where your days seem to consist of nothing but moaning about the way things are. A negative mind is not rewarding and it leaves an ugly feeling when day by day we lose all motivation in completing tasks that are required.

Conclusion:

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be a good person and a lot of them stem from the way we use social media. We now live in a world where everything is instant and we can’t wait for things to happen. We have all these people telling us how to act and what to think but no one will ever be able to tell us how to live our lives as this is something that only we can decide ourselves.

We don’t ask people their opinion before deciding on something because there is very little chance that anyone would have the same opinion as us anyway, so why waste time trying? Instead of taking what people say seriously, take it with a pinch of salt and do what you always wanted to do in the first place.