Giving up reading news will make us happier • Hacker News Board

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#161

Post by hueving » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

RIMR wrote: post #153

>Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you have read in the last 12 months, name one that – because you consumed it – allowed you to make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, your career or your business. Okay... Consuming political news has empowered me to communicate with my elected representatives about policies that matter to me. Consuming local news has kept me informed of importa…

>Consuming political news has empowered me to communicate with my elected representatives about policies that matter to me.

Give an example. Otherwise it's a post-hoc hand-waving justification. Also include how you meaningfully communicated with your representative about the issue (e.g. writing a complaint email about the popular news of the day doesn't count).

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#162

Post by hueving » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #108

Density wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is a liberal echo chamber identical to all other social media where all dissenting viewpoints get suppressed. The truth is HN is Reddit, but with a better interface and a smarter crowd.

Others would classify it as "conservative" or "libertarian" rather than "liberal". Which really means it's not a very effective "echo chamber". You will read opinions different than your own on HN. If that's upsetting to you, HN may not be your cup of tea.

I don't think anyone would classify the HN crowd as "conservative" in the US political spectrum sense. Libertarian I can see, but I don't think I've ever seen socially conservative posts/comments voted up.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#163

Post by mattbert » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

Ignorance is bliss for the individual, but has steep consequences for society.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#164

Post by 0x445442 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:04 PM UTC

Rotdhizon wrote: post #142

I see many people here who have said it, and I will say it; I haven't watched any mainstream news(Fox, CNN, ABC, etc) in years. All it is, is negativity and deception. For the most part, I don't care about what is going on. I get my fill of major events from browsing reddit and HN, and even then I just read the comments, rarely the article. I've never used FB as a source of information, that sounds about as bad of a…

Yes... In general I think we're all too concerned about things WAY beyond our spheres of influence.

My wife, though she's gotten better, tends to get too emotionally invested in situations abroad. I try to explain to her that I'm not dispassionate but that I realize we live in an imperfect world where bad things are happening all the time and just because people on TV or wherever are bringing it to her attention doesn't mean it's any worse than a similar situation happening some place else that she's not hearing about.

The problem is when folks hear about all these negative events they tend to want government to tinker until we reach a utopia where nothing bad happens anymore.

The tough question though; how do we create/maintain an optimally informed electorate?

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#165

Post by chris_va » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:19 PM UTC

Anecdotally, my experience lines up with this article. I was getting depressed with the constant negativity, so cut out daily news, social media, etc. I have to admit, it's pretty wonderful. And somewhat ironic, given that I used to be the TL of Google News 10 years ago.

I still read The Economist weekly, come to HN occasionally, and hear about important/local/political events from friends. I don't, however, have to hear the constant doom bombardment that the media has evolved to produce.

Stepping back really highlights how toxic the news can be. We live in a society with the lowest crime rate, highest levels of healthcare, lowest unemployment rate, and lowest levels of poverty in all of history. Access to the internet and globalization has made people (real people, not the loudest selected subset you see in media) genuinely care about each other everywhere in the world I have traveled. Yet you would never think that just looking at typical media.

It isn't a perfect society, and horrible situations still exist that deserve attention, but that will always be true. We still have enormous strides we can make, and that struggle is an important aspect of our society, especially in defending against erosions of personal freedoms.

Honestly, though, we are doing really well compared with 100 years ago.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#166

Post by qaq » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:21 PM UTC

notfromhere wrote: post #156

qaq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major US news outlets deteriorated to the point of being close to USSR level of bias and propaganda.

No they're not. If you actually believe this, no one can help you.

I see little difference CNN has clear political angle so does FOX which is basically directed by owners interests. That's a very short through to the USSR old times. If I ever turn on either one I feel that I am back to USSR. (I lived in US 1995-2004) and came back to US in 2015 the difference is very stark I would imaging when it was happening gradually it would be less noticeable vs going from 2000 +/- version to today. In USSR you had a small group of people (Politburo) controlling among other things all the media. If you take the number of people in US exerting major influence on media through ownership it's pretty much smaller number than even members of Politburo.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#167

Post by Diederich » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

chris_va wrote: post #165

Anecdotally, my experience lines up with this article. I was getting depressed with the constant negativity, so cut out daily news, social media, etc. I have to admit, it's pretty wonderful. And somewhat ironic, given that I used to be the TL of Google News 10 years ago. I still read The Economist weekly, come to HN occasionally, and hear about important/local/political events from friends. I don't, however, have to…

> We live in a society with the lowest crime rate, highest levels of healthcare, lowest unemployment rate, and lowest levels of poverty in all of history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_Now

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#168

Post by _rpd » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

hemantv wrote: post #133

My biggest question is how do you keep up if you cut news. I would definitely like to quit checking HN also but FOmo of new technologies keep me coming.

http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ does a good job.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#169

Post by ForRealsies » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 5:58 PM UTC

AlwaysRock wrote: post #83

donw wrote: post #48

It's not just news. I cut out mainstream media several years ago, and noted a definite improvement in my psychological well-being. As of the end of last year, I stopped engaging in mainstream social media. So much better. I still keep a Facebook account for Messenger and Events, but don't post, read timelines, or participate. Not only do I have more time to read books and learn new things -- made pita bread from scra…

I'm in a similar boat. I felt very over whelmed and addicted to social media and news in general in college. I've got rid of all my social media other than twitter and linkedin which I use for work. Facebook I only use for messenger. I check reddit once or twice a day but rarely do I scroll past the first page. My overall mental health is much better. I feel a little bit of sadness when I see friends who HAVE to chec…

Protip: change your phone's display to 'Monochrome'. Colorful images trick our fruit-loving monkey brains. Make your phone visually boring.

Re: Giving up reading news will make us happier

#170

Post by RIMR » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 6:10 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #161

RIMR wrote: post #153

>Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you have read in the last 12 months, name one that – because you consumed it – allowed you to make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, your career or your business. Okay... Consuming political news has empowered me to communicate with my elected representatives about policies that matter to me. Consuming local news has kept me informed of importa…

>Consuming political news has empowered me to communicate with my elected representatives about policies that matter to me. Give an example. Otherwise it's a post-hoc hand-waving justification. Also include how you meaningfully communicated with your representative about the issue (e.g. writing a complaint email about the popular news of the day doesn't count).

I wrote to my governor and my districts state reps about making Net Neutrality Washington State law after the FCC repealed those rules.

My state is now planning to pass a state law, despite federal law prohibiting us from doing so.

I didn't do that alone, but if nobody was paying attention to the news and doing their part, it likely wouldn't have happened.