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Why We Should Watch Less News

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Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#11

Post by chrisco255 »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #2

"...But the question we need to ask ourselves here is not whether such behaviors (or the cover-ups of such behaviors) are outrageous, but rather why we have become such insatiable consumers of these outrages? What does it cost us?..." Exactly. There are four billion people on the planet. We are all connected instantaneously. If there isn't something happening every minute that's completely disgusting and outrageous,…

This is pretty on point. I tend to lean towards realclearpolitics.com for my news as it alternates liberal and conservative columns every other headline. The juxtaposition of the two slants is pretty telling about how each side sees current events.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#12

Post by [deleted] »

have_faith wrote: post #7

If you where to move your news reading to once weekly, what news sources would you use to catch up on anything useful you might have missed in that time? traditional online news outlets are too fast paced for this purpose I think, very high signal to noise.

[deleted]

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#13

Post by adiusmus »

This has been true for the last 4 decades. Most news is designed to make you angry, afraid or sometimes happy. Mostly manipulation and deception. Even the news cycle is nonsense. You probably won’t remember what happened 2 years ago on a random Wednesday.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#14

Post by chrisco255 »

beat wrote: post #5

OMG THIS. I recently deleted social media apps from my phone, and replaced most of my social media diet with reading books again, like I did in the good olde days before the internet. I feel... healthier. Smarter, for sure. After reading a ton of philosophy and history recently, the day-to-day political debate on the internet looks like nonsense most of the time now. And when I see someone is wrong on the internet, I…

Nothing wrong with that, sounds very healthy, but does it also mean you're not engaging in one of the most influential public forums of our time?

Why do you think it won't last?

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#15

Post by DanielBMarkham »

chrisco255 wrote: post #11
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #2

"...But the question we need to ask ourselves here is not whether such behaviors (or the cover-ups of such behaviors) are outrageous, but rather why we have become such insatiable consumers of these outrages? What does it cost us?..." Exactly. There are four billion people on the planet. We are all connected instantaneously. If there isn't something happening every minute that's completely disgusting and outrageous,…

This is pretty on point. I tend to lean towards realclearpolitics.com for my news as it alternates liberal and conservative columns every other headline. The juxtaposition of the two slants is pretty telling about how each side sees current events.

One of the funny things I've noticed about reading opinion columns in this format is how often you get these bombastic headlines on both sides of something. "X is bad! The end!" and right afterwards "X is goodness! A new age dawns!"

(X may be something like "local pickle farmers protest new holiday". The topic doesn't matter, oddly enough, it's audience size that counts)

If you scan the first column, it's very weak. There not much of an argument or factual substrate. Then scan the second. Completely different opinion. Same crappy argument quality. Sometimes you can go nine or ten columns like this.

I'm left with opinion on those days that not much of anything has happened regarding X. But folks still need views!

Consuming news in this fashion is a great way to disconnect emotional manipulation from actual news. When they're directly trying to manipulate you, you begin to learn the rules of the game.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#16

Post by beat »

adiusmus wrote: post #13

This has been true for the last 4 decades. Most news is designed to make you angry, afraid or sometimes happy. Mostly manipulation and deception. Even the news cycle is nonsense. You probably won’t remember what happened 2 years ago on a random Wednesday.

Most news is designed to sell you cars and laundry detergent.

More to the point, you're not the customer. You're the product. Advertisers are the customer. So the news isn't really meant to inform, but rather to encourage sticking around to see what happens next. Appeal to baser emotions works well for that.

Think of it that way, and people asking for cute kitten pics online because they're having a bad day is functionally the same thing as crazy talk radio.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#17

Post by beat »

chrisco255 wrote: post #14
beat wrote: post #5

OMG THIS. I recently deleted social media apps from my phone, and replaced most of my social media diet with reading books again, like I did in the good olde days before the internet. I feel... healthier. Smarter, for sure. After reading a ton of philosophy and history recently, the day-to-day political debate on the internet looks like nonsense most of the time now. And when I see someone is wrong on the internet, I…

Nothing wrong with that, sounds very healthy, but does it also mean you're not engaging in one of the most influential public forums of our time? Why do you think it won't last?

Social media will last. The things said on social media won't last.

But a thousand years from now, people will still be reading Spinoza, because his philosophy will never become irrelevant.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#19

Post by abhiminator »

I recall reading and saving (in my Instapaper) a super relevant essay[0] written by a Swiss entrepreneur/author -- Rolf Dobelli -- that talks about how news systematically alters your 'risk-map' of the world, thus making you worry about things that'll almost never affect you while distracting you from things that actually might; as an example, the author talks about how terrorism is overrated and chronic stress is underrated, as portrayed in the media.

He suggests going on a news diet by mindfully curating the news content one plans on consuming, and thinking about its relevance to everyday life.

Personally, I can attest to experiencing increased clarity of thought, creativity and productivity once I blocked all of the junky news sites and the ilk out. This combined with practicing mindfulness has had a massive impact on my state of well-being and lowering of stress. My overall happiness has increased as a result.

[0] http://www.dobelli.com/en/essays/news-diet/

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#20

Post by smoe »

have_faith wrote: post #7

If you where to move your news reading to once weekly, what news sources would you use to catch up on anything useful you might have missed in that time? traditional online news outlets are too fast paced for this purpose I think, very high signal to noise.

It is quite hard if want to have a weekly overview of what happened in the world, besides some traditional weekly print titles with online versions. Daily is much easier and still much better than real time.

I stopped reading "news" at around 2011, from being a news junkie before. Including news about tech, music, movies, books, etc.

Now I have the general mentality that either:

- If something is really important enough for me to care, it will reach me eventually in some way or the other.

- There is absolutely no reason to immediately start reading up after events like terror attacks, air plane crashes etc. For the first days it is pretty much pure speculation and hearsay. If I'm interested what happened, I will take a mental note to read up about it two weeks later when actual information starts becoming available.

So basically I don't keep myself updated on general news anymore. I investigate specific topics.

Ironically I changed my habits, while working at a big news site, which was part of the reason for doing so.

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