As far as I can tell, there are two types of news curation. One I find absolutely mandatory in this age of overwhelming content, a hub, if you will, so thank you! The other I believe deserves awareness at least and extreme caution at best. In one Mashable article, Torie Rose DeGhett, a staff writer at Current Intelligence, and blogger at The Political Notebook said regarding her curation duties “…my selection of sources is intended to make an argument, and to support certain things, not to present everything that’s out there or every side.” This is the danger, but also the whole point, of curation.

And personalization? Wow…

One recent example is this intriguing message that popped up on my phone telling me - oh, boy - my news is going to be SELECTED for me!! Wait, what??

Then, on the very influential social media side…Instagram will be implementing algorithmic feeds for you "based on the likelihood you'll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post...”

…based on the “likelihood?” How the heck is some computer code going to know everything that I am interested in? I don’t even know! More so, how the heck would it know what I’m NOT interested in? I surprise myself nearly every day! This to me feels like another example of technology (in the name of time management, customer service, and convenience) taking personal control away from me. I don’t want to be “personalized” and “curated.”

Nobody can curate me! [Fist to sky!]

It’s impossible. I am a living, thinking person who is actually interested in new ideas, in growing, and evolving as the case may be. I WANT to be exposed to things outside my comfort zone. Most importantly, I NEED to be exposed to things outside my comfort zone. And if someone doesn’t WANT to be exposed, they probably NEED to be more than anyone!

It’s been long proven that people generally only listen to, read articles by, and are open to other people they think they already agree with. It’s called confirmation bias. So not being exposed to ideas that you don’t agree with (and that may, God forbid, challenge you to think of, reconsider, even debate) implies to me that we will cease evolving in our ideas and therefore, ourselves.

How can we grow as people and as a society if we don’t get nudged every now and then? Being pushed is the best thing for all of us! And, truly, it’s a lot more interesting. Without some sort of insight into the lives of others, we will just become even less tolerant and more segregated, insulated in our safe little bubbles.

A thought: if the news started personalizing me at, say, 18, I’d most likely be getting a lot of stories about pop stars, reality stars, dating tips and college tuition. Presumably, this is very different than what is important to me when I’m 28. If I’m not incidentally exposed to new topics, events, and ideas to read them, “like” them, etc., indicating to these [**bleeping**] algorithms my interest, then how could it possibly learn that I AM interested, or perhaps might be? Will my personalized news feed thereby keep me essentially frozen as an 18-year-old nitwit, or at least retard my maturity?

That’s a lot. I know.

To me, there does seem to be one major difference between curation and personalization. I think of curation as the careful selection of information on sites that I choose to go to, fully aware of its bias and limited coverage. These sites or blogs or Twitter feeds somehow speak to me, probably because I already agree with its point of view. Personalization, a type of curation, is pre-selected news that knocks on my door having already filtered the light whether I wanted it to or not. The more people depend on curation, the more important it is to DE-personalize our news feeds. If we have both, we have darkness. 

I think the most disturbing thing about all of this is that it is the very people developing personalized news that I would think would be deeply against it: news people. Maybe those professionals were just in the good ol’ days of journalism, before it turned in to a for-profit infotainment war for advertisers. I still need my journalists to fight for freedom of the press, but for my freedom, too, as the recipient of the press. Don’t journalists still feel “the people have a right to know?” Wasn’t that their big thing once? Well, as I see it, this new thing means I may very well never know, even if it’s right there.

Americans nearly and sometimes successfully work themselves to death. It's a rat race. No doubt about it. Working in an office with even just one other person is political, strategic, and competitive. Some may thrive in this environment.  Some may lap it up and thrill at the prospect of working extra hard to rise above and "win"...70 hours a week including weekends and holidays, showing up early, leaving late, eating at the desk, and "holding it" longer than any bladder should.

How many times in our lives have we heard the sage advice from doctors, life coaches, scientists, and pretty much anyone with a keyboard to slow down, take a breath, go for a walk, smell those roses...blah, blah, blah, right? I mean it must be blah, blah, blah because apparently it's not actually what we are supposed to do.

Millennials take a lot of heat. Admittedly, some points of observation I agree with and I find myself also occasionally rolling me eyes along with everyone else. (Get off my lawn!!!) One thing I've heard over and over that really irks me, though, is the idea that they are lazy and don't put in the hard hours at their jobs, which translates to poor workers. The hypocrisy is stunning. It seems they are finally doing exactly what everyone delivering a graduation speech tells them to do: Live Life Better. i.e. don't spend it under a pile of papers in a stuffy office eating Doritos and Diet Coke.

I love that the message of a work/life balance is finally sinking in. People are, en masse, taking a stand and setting boundaries, making meaningful priorities and sticking to them. They may not even know what they're doing (for all of us). Thank you, Millennials. This is what needed to happen - a whole generation jumping at the same time. Otherwise, the fear of falling behind and losing the game would prevent people from actually following the emphatic advice to nurture relationships, volunteer in our communities, and take good care of ourselves -- supposedly the things that REALLY matter.

So, help, what's it going to be? Are all those memes, daily calendar quotes, Oprah interviews and, yes, commencement speeches just lip service, or are we actually allowed to take them to heart without being criticized for it?

Like many people, I suppose, my life has not gone in a nice, neat, upward slanted line. I decided to go back to school as a full-fledged adult who had already lived a full, exciting life. Being the unknown lady in the community college classroom was a hard pill to swallow at first. My little ego was battered as I sat in classes with people often half my age. I was very clearly no longer the ingenue. I was the "non-traditional" student and didn't fool anyone.

Nothing made me more self-conscious than that first day walking in to the classroom and seeing porcelain faces staring at me, a girl lounging in a boy's lap and another couple locked in giggly conversation...

"Are you the teacher?"

Uhh, no.

I always tell people that going back to school after so many years is not for the faint of heart. It took courage - a lot of courage, actually, for me. It was also the best thing I've ever done for myself. Not only did I find my new passion, get the education I need, and rediscover my absolute love of the classroom, but I gained so much respect for the younger generation. I also think they gained a lot of respect for me observing my commitment, work ethic, and the experience I brought to the table. Learning and working with those "kids" kept me energized, in-the-know, and up-to-date. Truly, I wish I could always be in a classroom. Nothing turns me on more than learning, feeling energized, in-the-know, and up-to-date.

It does take courage to change your life. No way around that. All I know is that not only was it worth the brief awkwardness and temporary insecurity, but going back to school despite all that is one of my proudest achievements. Honestly, though, what else is a person to do? Nothing? Keep banging their head against the wall? Hide? When it comes down to creating the life you want, you just do whatever it takes.