Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stop Reading News (2013)

fs.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 213 posts

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#71

Post by Theodores »

skilled wrote: post #6

For the last 4-5 years, Hacker News has been pretty much my only source of any kind of news outside of the topics that I work with on a daily basis. This is true. Before that, I did not read newspapers or follow any kind of journalism. I still recall being around age 12 or 13 and making a conscious decision not to watch TV anymore. It has been around just as much time since I last saw a TV news report. Maybe it has s…

HN is a good filter. If it makes it to HN and happens in the real world then it probably is worth taking note.

Regarding your choice not to watch TV at age 12-13, this reminds me of reading tabloid newspapers at that age or possibly earlier. It all seemed so much below me and for people that must be thick.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#72

Post by fsiefken »

teletext for me provides the most informative news per byte. For the Dutch 'teletekst' I use nostt on the terminal (or with geektool on the mac desktop).

https://github.com/sjmulder/nostt https://github.com/zevv/termtekst https://twitter.com/Teletekst https://nos.nl/teletekst#101

Listening to the radio news once a day works as well (5 minutes or so). I would like to have a podcast feed for that!

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#73

Post by platz »

If you didn't read anything about the Panama papers or pfas, etc.. how will you know who to vote for in the next primaries and elections? Or will you vote how you did the last time?

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#74

Post by barrad0s »

As far as TV goes, I made a choice about a year and a half ago to stop viewing any news on TV and haven't looked back. I like to think I'm informed, I will read certain things, or pursue things I think necessary or interesting, but I have abandoned all the nonsense on TV.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#75

Post by js8 »

nailer wrote: post #37
zimpenfish wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the new generation is caught up in quizzes that stir up emotions, and psychological tests that determine whether a giraffe is your spirit animal. Given the activism they're showing in, eg, the US, I think if you read the news, you'd be surprised how wrong you are. > How can anyone justify reading news that only talk about negative things? To be aware of them in order to help fix them?

A lot of that activism is more performative than practical, judging by voter turnout.

Didn't the last US election have the largest turnout in the past century? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_elections

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#76

Post by holografix »

nkozyra wrote: post #70

Do not stop reading news. Be selective with your sources. Be a discerning news consumer. An uninformed populace is a malleable one. Controlling and limiting information has long been a strategy for despots or worse. > The point is, most of what you read online today is pointless Don't read that then. Read sources you believe are important to you and deliver information that is important. Be a discerning news consumer…

Thank you.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#77

Post by taude »

nkozyra wrote: post #70

Do not stop reading news. Be selective with your sources. Be a discerning news consumer. An uninformed populace is a malleable one. Controlling and limiting information has long been a strategy for despots or worse. > The point is, most of what you read online today is pointless Don't read that then. Read sources you believe are important to you and deliver information that is important. Be a discerning news consumer…

>> Being well informed isn’t regurgitating the opinion of some twenty-two-year-old with no life experience telling me what to think or how outraged to be.

> This isn't news, it's opinion. Don't read this.

Sometimes this is harder than you think, even with popular news sources. I subscribe to the NY Times, but if I go by notifications on my phone for the "popular" stories, many of them are opinion pieces. In fact, I'm looking right now at "Most Popular" in my NYTimes app and I'm seeing multiple "opinion" pieces in that list (actually 5 of the top 10) and only after you click into them do you know that they aren't hard news.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#78

Post by justtopost »

nkozyra wrote: post #70

Do not stop reading news. Be selective with your sources. Be a discerning news consumer. An uninformed populace is a malleable one. Controlling and limiting information has long been a strategy for despots or worse. > The point is, most of what you read online today is pointless Don't read that then. Read sources you believe are important to you and deliver information that is important. Be a discerning news consumer…

You seem to mean well, but your post is also a recipie for creating a personal bubble, no matter how well spoken.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#79

Post by welly »

nkozyra wrote: post #70

Do not stop reading news. Be selective with your sources. Be a discerning news consumer. An uninformed populace is a malleable one. Controlling and limiting information has long been a strategy for despots or worse. > The point is, most of what you read online today is pointless Don't read that then. Read sources you believe are important to you and deliver information that is important. Be a discerning news consumer…

Well said. Exactly what I thought but more eloquent than I'd have responded.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#80

Post by elorant »

The beef I have with journalism is that every time they write on a topic I have good knowledge of, I find their coverage to be lame and lacking depth. Which leads me to a more generalized assumption that this is probably true for any given subject, except perhaps politics. Most notable example I can think of is how the media covers A.I. issues. I don't expect newspapers to have book quality analysis but at the very least I expect some kind of integrity. If I have to wonder every time whether the journalist knows what he/she's talking about then I'd rather not read them at all.
Post reply on HN