In the not-so-distant past, the news was an event. A dinner-time ritual where we gathered ‘round the TV like pilgrims at the altar of Walter Cronkite, soaking in the latest headlines from a calm, collected newscaster who looked like he could actually pronounce “foreign policy” without sweating. But now? We live in a world where news outlets like Telegraph247 bombard us with an unrelenting tide of notifications, as if there’s some sort of global emergency happening every 30 seconds, even when the biggest crisis is that a celebrity dog just might have sprained a paw.
Let’s talk about this deluge of headlines for a minute. It’s as if every news outlet got together in a smoky backroom (where they’re probably all wearing matching “Urgency Is Everything” T-shirts) and decided: “You know what the public really needs right now? An endless stream of life-altering, must-click headlines like BREAKING: Was This the Best Time Ever to Buy Socks? or URGENT: Scientists Discovered New Types of Clouds—You Won’t Believe #3.” These are the serious issues that demand immediate attention, apparently.
Telegraph247—a self-proclaimed “go-to” source for every minor inconvenience turned into a crisis—has mastered the art of false urgency. You won’t get the casual “Breaking News” banner here. No, they’ve cranked it up to “ALERT: END OF DAYS POSSIBLY AFFECTING YOUR LOCAL COFFEE SHOP!” It’s clickbait on steroids, wrapped in a veil of importance. Articles like Breaking: Was This The Worst Sandwich You’ve Ever Had? or Exclusive: Woman Drinks Coffee; Is Everything Fine or Is It Actually a Crisis? promise you the urgency of a house fire while delivering the substance of a toddler’s first crayon drawing.
And yet, Telegraph247 isn’t alone in this insane race to the bottom. The entire media landscape now operates on a near-constant loop of “breaking news,” so much so that breaking news has lost its meaning. Used to be, the term breaking implied something of significance: a national tragedy, a game-changing political development, or—at worst—a scandalous celebrity breakup. Now, breaking means we might be facing an emergency because someone in your town ordered fries with no salt or because, horror of horrors, an influencer posted about their new haircut. Don’t panic, it’s just the world falling apart in real time.
The Fatigue Is Real
At this point, if you’re even remotely aware of what’s happening in the world, you’ve probably been hit with that all-too-familiar feeling: news fatigue. It’s that moment when you wake up and your phone immediately assaults you with a barrage of notifications about things you didn’t ask for and frankly don’t care about. The dreaded urgent alert pops up like an insistent relative you can’t block—like, “BREAKING: Another Celebrity Binge-Watches Reality TV Show” or “ALERT: Man Drops Ice Cream Cone, Local Authorities Investigating.” You roll your eyes, delete the notifications, and wonder if we, as a society, have forgotten what it means to simply…exist without 16 different distractions every minute.
You’d think these outlets, obsessed with driving traffic through insipid headlines, would get tired of their own tricks. But no, Telegraph247 and others have cleverly figured out that the more irrelevant the content, the more likely someone is to click. You might not need to know that “Your Favorite Coffee Shop Has Updated Its Menu (Could This Mean the End of Civilization?)” but hey, the headline is so urgent you can’t help but click, and therein lies the trap.
News isn’t about informing anymore—it’s about tricking you into caring. So, you need to know the 9 types of chocolate that might actually ruin your life. You must know which sports star “could” possibly retire, even if that star hasn’t said a word about it. That nagging urge to click is now a conditioned response to an industry that’s figured out how to monetize your exhaustion.
A Never-Ending Cycle of “Urgency”
Here’s the kicker—Telegraph247 thrives because it taps into that primal need we all have to feel like we’re in the know. The constant state of “breaking” leaves us feeling like there’s always something just beyond our grasp, something urgent that we can’t afford to miss. But in truth, we’re just being played. These outlets are masters at pretending to offer urgency, but what they really offer is mind-numbing fluff dressed up as world-altering news.
And for all this “urgency” they claim to offer, the reality is that this endless cycle is only making us more detached. After all, how can you take any of it seriously when every alert feels like it’s about to be followed by the next one, and the next one, and the one after that? The truth is, our brains can’t process it all. It’s like drinking from a fire hose of triviality. The irony is that, in their quest to make every alert seem critical, these outlets have managed to make us numb to the very concept of urgency.
So here’s the advice: next time Telegraph247 hits you with the breaking news that “Local Man Accidentally Sets Off Fire Alarm, The World May Never Be the Same,” don’t click. Close your phone. Take a deep breath. Remember that the world is still turning, even without knowing every single detail of every moment. And maybe—just maybe—we can find a little peace in the silence.
But, hey, who am I kidding? I’m pretty sure there’s a “URGENT: Meteor Shower May Cause Minor Discomfort” coming right now. Go ahead, check your notifications. It’s all a part of the never-ending ride.
4o mini