FILTERING AWAY THE BLUES -- by Jane Kelley

A lot of the time. my heart hurts. I expect that whenever I read the news. Unfortunately, it's been happening as I read a novel. Only it isn’t exactly a novel. It’s primarily a collection of witty comments about our current culture’s tendency to indulge in witty comments. A comment on the comment on the comment. I'm sure it’s funny. I'm not laughing. I'm sure it hits its targets—the ones I'd aim at too. I'm not cheering.

This particular novel is one of millions. I could put it down and pick another. I can (and do) write my own. Still, I fight the feeling that I too should be more timely/fashionable/current. Live where I am. Live when I do.

Then I remember each day on Earth has a golden hour. Two, in fact––at sunrise and at sunset. When the sun’s light passes through more of the earth’s atmosphere, more of the shorter blue waves get deflected. What remain are the longer wavelengths of red and yellow and gold. 

The phrase golden hour also applies to that time just after a medical emergency when treatment is likely to have the best results.

Dear readers and dear friends, this is a time of crisis. We have many problems. Sadly, the tools humans once used to find common ground and foster hope are themselves under attack.

We need stories more than ever. The algorithmic anti-humanists seek to shrink those stories to summaries and staccato bursts of likes and dislikes. They claim people no longer have the will or the capability to sustain interest in anything that requires longer thought. Even as they do their best to shatter our concentration or, even worse, capture it for their own purposes. 

As Ezra Klein recently wrote in the New York Times, "Algorithmic media companies exploit the difference between our attentional instincts and aspirations. In so doing, they make it harder for us to become who we might wish to be." 

They make it harder for us. But they cannot control us. 

We can still step outside. Away from the blue screen. And into the golden light.

Jane Kelley is the author of many middle-grade novels. So far, she has declined AI's cheerful offer to summarize them.