While this is certainly believable, I think it's merely a symptom of a larger cultural shift towards sensationalism. Rephrased, I think that large swathes of the human population have been conditioned over the last couple of decades to perceive "fact" as "dull."
Some might frame this as a chicken-and-egg issue: did the media outlets feed our instinctive bias towards flashy-shiny-blinky-zoomy, or did our natural bias pull the media outlets in that direction? At the end of the day, however, it seems likely that it was probably both; the addiction demands ever-increasing dosage and so on.
The better question, to me, is this: do we, as individuals, have an ethical or moral responsibility to condition ourselves to be more appreciative of bland fact, for the sake of the species as a whole? Are cold, boring facts like broccoli for our brains?
Some might frame this as a chicken-and-egg issue: did the media outlets feed our instinctive bias towards flashy-shiny-blinky-zoomy, or did our natural bias pull the media outlets in that direction? At the end of the day, however, it seems likely that it was probably both; the addiction demands ever-increasing dosage and so on.
The better question, to me, is this: do we, as individuals, have an ethical or moral responsibility to condition ourselves to be more appreciative of bland fact, for the sake of the species as a whole? Are cold, boring facts like broccoli for our brains?