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Things You Notice When You Quit the News

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Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#31

Post by tasty_freeze »

sean_patel wrote: post #16
codingdave wrote: post #13

I quit watching the news right around 1999. My family once challenged me how I knew about important events, and I told them that people in my life would let me know if anything occurred that I needed to know. They challenged me by quizzing me on major recent events. When they did find one that I had no idea about, they asked, "See? Nobody told you about that!" I replied, "You just did." And they have not argued about…

I don't get why everyone is downvoting this. Care to explain, down-voters? > I told them that people in my life would let me know if anything occurred that I needed to know. This is so true. I told my girlfriend the same thing after she got mad that I quit news and said "Oh, you'll need to know important local news (stabbings, crime in San Francisco, protests for traffic etc). That 1 time where someone 4 blocks from…

Here are a few reasons

* It puts the burden of collecting and summarizing relevant news on others

* You are at the mercy of the grapevine effect, which only gets worse as more and more people take up this solution so your news takes more hops before you receive it

* And, most importantly, your sources are also not getting their news first hand; their sources the very same crappy news outlets that you yourself rejected.

Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#33

Post by renolc »

redsummer wrote: post #20
ssaunier_ wrote: post #6

Must-(re)read: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews - it was 10 years ago.

He mentions: "instead of reading the back and forth of a daily, why not read a weekly review? Instead of a weekly review, why not read a monthly magazine? Instead of a monthly magazine, why not read an annual book?" Can anyone recommend such a weekly or monthly review? One that isn't particularly ideological. It would save so much time.

Google News for iOS has a "week in review" option. Being an aggregation of sources, it doesn't have any particular bias (except maybe to showcase only the largest stories of the week).

Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#36

Post by sandworm101 »

Anyone who thinks they can disconnect from "the news" is kidding themselves. Unless you do the whole hermit thing, you are influences. Not watching CNN won't prevent other CNN-watchers from talking to you. Reading only paperback novels won't stop their authors, who also read newspapers, from influencing you.

Politics is everywhere. Take star trek. We all know the basic stories, and the thematic changes over the years. They map to changes in US politics. Even at home watching DVDs, you are engaged and influenced.

Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#37

Post by TwoBit »

gurneyHaleck wrote: post #26

There was a period of time, starting upon the day of, and then continuing for some years after the 9/11 attacks, where " The News " was something you couldn't help but be engrossed by. Growing up during an era of Johnny Carson, in a house with no cable, and attending high school in the 90's, " The News " was something very different prior to 9/11. 24 hour cable news started providing information on fast moving events…

I think this started before 9/11. OJ's white Bronco was before 9/11.

Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#39

Post by michaelchisari »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #17
pipio21 wrote: post #12

5. You are being manipulated by mainstream news. You can learn Arabic or Russian and go to Ukraine or Syria or Iraq and inform yourself talking to the people there, both sides of the story, or you can let the TV media tell you what is happening. I have done it(I don't know much Arabic and a little Russian but I have traveled there) and it is quite an astonishment that what TV shows you has nothing to do with reality.…

Look at recent events if you need further evidence of this. The term "fake news" has exploded in just under a month in the mainstream media. If my memory serves me, tabloids like The Enquirer have been sitting on news stands for as long as I can remember. So how did this fervor over "fake news" coalesce so quickly and uniformly? Mainstream outlets move in lockstep with each other and these are the final, desperate de…

Because this is the first election where "spirit cooking" and "pizzagate" conspiracies were put on equal footing with foreign policy and economic positions.

Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News

#40

Post by gbog »

I found out that having no news at all is not so good, because you don't want friends and colleagues to believe you're living in a cave. But you only need the two three important headlines in the week, and I get these from Wikipedia home page.

Also, if you are concerned by a topic, say war in Syria, just get your meat from Wikipedia article, it's not perfect but it beats all other info sources by very far.

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