31–40 of 53 posts
Stoicism: Focus on the things you can control. Also, try to limit your exposure to the news, be deliberate about how much information/spam/whatever you are bombarded with on a daily basis.
Increased exposure to Despair-meme can also lead to apathy and paranoia. And this is just one of the well-known memetic hazards that the explorer of reality-tunnels should fear. Filter-bubbles and their habits to notice only useful things in your everyday life will also significantly reduce your chances of getting out of the pattern.
I try to not read that much news and instead try to read books. The quality of the news is decreasing to Facebook/reddit levels and designed to increase engagement by preying on your emotions. It’s much like marketing. The book Factfulness by Hans Rosling has some good thoughts on this - mostly the world is getting better, but the news has to sell ads, which means telling dramatic stories. If something is truly impor…
News doesn’t try to be objective anymore. Nowadays almost all tv hosts show their bias outright, even though they might invite people from the other side.
It’s sometimes like watching a daytime talk show. I just started ignoring anything news related lately on YouTube and reddit, and I can feel my negativity decreasing.
If you really need to "know", I suggest putting a reminder on your calendar to check Wikipedia current events [0] page once a week. And make a rule to not check it at any other time.
I try to not read that much news and instead try to read books. The quality of the news is decreasing to Facebook/reddit levels and designed to increase engagement by preying on your emotions. It’s much like marketing. The book Factfulness by Hans Rosling has some good thoughts on this - mostly the world is getting better, but the news has to sell ads, which means telling dramatic stories. If something is truly impor…
> The quality of the news is decreasing to Facebook/reddit levels News doesn’t try to be objective anymore. Nowadays almost all tv hosts show their bias outright, even though they might invite people from the other side. It’s sometimes like watching a daytime talk show. I just started ignoring anything news related lately on YouTube and reddit, and I can feel my negativity decreasing.
I remember a 10th or 11th grade English class (US public school) where they brought in a guest journalist. She basically told the class that readers would rather read about the story of a family who went through a tornado rather than stats about how fewer people are dying from tornados... so I suppose things haven’t really changed.
Don't think that because all you read is bad that the world is bad.
Not that I don't read any news, I just don't follow it, and try to avoid that type of news. I follow sites/blogs about things that interest me (arts, tech, science) and regarding political/philosophical stuff I read books. Sometimes I might be curious about some event (current or historical), in which case I'll go to look for the information I want to know from several different sources or if it's far back enough to have some books about it, get a book or two. For current news this is usually more than a few days after the event so info is also more accurate.
To paraphrase Nietzsche, work on your garden away from the storm of life. The world is merciless to phenomenal entities and it won't bend to your self-indignation.