"Don't get me wrong, Big Media fed me in some ways, but I was still hungry. I might be more knowledgeable about injustices across the world, but I didn't know how to de-escalate indecisions between my neighbors. I wasn't sure how to plant a community garden to feed the people around me, even if I could discuss new FDA rules."
"What are people paying for if not news subscriptions? In a Vogue Business article titled, "Are community event leaders the new influencers?" Amy Francombe writes about research that observed younger users spending more money on hobbies in the last year. "Of those surveyed, 92% said they spent money on hobbies in the last month, while 37.5% spend $250 or more monthly on hobbies or personal development," the research said."
A person canceled major media subscriptions and redirected savings toward clubs, theme parks, in-person events, and mutual aid communities to prioritize lived storytelling and local action. Headlines and news knowledge did not provide practical skills for neighborhood problems like de-escalation or community gardening. A June 2025 Pew Research Center finding indicates 83% of Americans did not pay for news in the past year, with 32% uninterested and 8% finding it not worth paying for. Research cited by Vogue Business shows 92% spent on hobbies in the last month and 37.5% spend $250+ monthly on hobbies or development.
Read at Nieman Lab
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]