Honesty yes. The news can affect peoples perception of other places to detriment. For example, often my friends or family who live in a other countries ask me about how bad crime is where I live, or how people are struggling with the economy etc. I mean, of course thats all they see, from my perspective everything looks pretty balanced out, yes I'll hear about something bad from time to time, but it's really not as bad as the sensationalism and extremist statistics they get from the news. So yes, the less news the better, if its that important you'll hear about it.
Things You Notice When You Quit the News
121–130 of 502 posts
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#122A lengthy example of "ignorance is bliss"
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#123I 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…
The downside of this approach is that if we all did it then the world would be a much worse place. Paying attention to current events and bearing witness to some of the darkest aspects of human history is important at a societal level and if you don't think it is important to you personally then consider yourself lucky to live a life where the real world doesn't creep in often. Understanding topics such as why refuge…
I'd argue that mainstream news sources promote a false understanding of these topics. If you truly want to understand then you are going to need to do your own research. For example, The Sun is one of the most popular newspapers in the U.K.:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+sun+sensationalist+hea...
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would agree, but some news affect your life deeply. Personally, I'm reading news daily to answer the question "should I complete that Canada residency application today, or can I wait a few weeks?"
You don't just sign up to be a resident in another country. You have to be invited. I know its fun to say "Screw this! I'm moving to Canada", but it doesn't work like that.
But.. but what happened to "refugees welcome"?
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#125I haven't had a TV in the house for nearly 8 years now, and don't miss it at all. The biggest problem to me, seems to be the 24 hour news cycle for things like wars, elections and the like. I was visiting friends during a couple of major air accidents in the past couple of years (The MH370 and MH17 incidents in particular), and was astounded at the propensity for news stations on ALL channels to fill every minute of…
In general, I agree with everything you said. However,
> No thanks. I would rather control my own news firehose, and be selective about the information that I want to learn more about.
My worry is: Isn't this what caused the fake news / misinformation silos? By being selective about our information sources, aren't we distancing ourselves from how a majority of the world lives and thinks? And as product developers (as majority HNers are), isn't it in our benefit to understand as much of the world as possible?
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#126This is highly subjective maybe US news but I find news here on Canada trustworthy.
US news is what the Enquirer was in the 80s. PBS news hour and BBC America are good.
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#127Anyone 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…
It sounds like you're taking it as an absolutist argument ("Why try to avoid refined sugar? It's everywhere, so you're always going to ingest some anyway.") > Not watching CNN won't prevent other CNN-watchers from talking to you. I think a conversation with a CNN-watcher is more interesting when you yourself have read slower sources than if you have both spent your time watching live broadcasts or reading live articl…
> [..] There’s a big difference between watching a half hour of CNN’s refugee crisis coverage (not that they cover it anymore) versus spending that time reading a 5,000-word article on the same topic.
In my opinion, in some cases like this, the lengthy thousands word articles are often much worse.
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
This commercial used to air in Canada in the late 90s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TijcoS8qHIE
And grown adults bombarded the organization qith phone valls asking where to buy a house hippo.
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The Economist is a good weekly review; the stories are very short but the information density is high.
The problem I have with the economist is they mix opinion into almost everything they report. It's a very British aristocratic opinion. I can almost hear the exaggerated accent sometimes when reading it, like it's a Monty Python skit. I find it annoyingly predictable and somewhat patronizing to the reader.
Re: Things You Notice When You Quit the News
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The Economist is a good weekly review; the stories are very short but the information density is high.
The Economist is a good review, but it's laughable that so many people think it answers for "not particularly ideological". Capitalism is an ideology - albeit one basically invisible to Hacker News members - and the Economist has that one in spades.