Mentioned this a while ago but I try to skip all the CNNs and just subscribe to a couple of newsletters for Zeitgeistish stuff. the hustle, briefingday.com, etc.
Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
91–100 of 222 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#92I stopped reading news for a while as an experiment. It made me start to dwell on my personal life. Money issues, my love life, loneliness, my future in general, etc.
This can either be a happy thing or not. I imagine the more bleak one's personal life is, the more we are drawn to news.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#93The media tries to induce fear and rage so they get the maximum number of eyeballs to see their ads. Couple that with high access to information and low transformative power on the part of the individual and you're set: almost everyone seems to be expecting some kind of "happening" to turn the tide towards their own ideology, since they cannot participate themselves. The media abides, but only gives them some breadcrumbs here and there to keep them glued to the screens.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate this. Watching the news cycle feels like being in an abusive relationship. You watch and wait for the next eruption, anticipating if it will be violent or joyful. It leaves you feeling depleted and helpless.
The problem is that it isn't really the "news". It is infotainment. I'm not talking about the fact that truth is subjective and every story has a lens. The truth of the matter is that the story (and "updates") are all crafted specifically to be addictive, to be click bait. It isn't about sharing information or exposing the truth. All that matters is ad revenue. I do get it that we need to pay journalists. It has beco…
You are clearly right on the topic of intentionally addictive click bait.
> that long-sought serenity
But i don't think changing your input is related to gaining that long-sought serenity - in a sense of being immune to those inputs if required.
I my opinion it boils down to being human and being to some degree a puppet of your brain chemistry, meaning we can search for said serenity but are propably doomed to never find it.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#95Seems an appropriate time to post my favourite piece on news addiction by Charles Simic in the NYRB. "I’m having trouble deciding whether I understand the world better now that I’m in my seventies than I did when I was younger, or whether I’m becoming more and more clueless every day. The truth is somewhere in between, I suspect, but that doesn’t make me rest any easier at night. Like others growing old, I had expect…
Great quote I feel that way too.
2 ways that I've found some refuge in the chaos that is the hyper-modern world:
1) More news. Flood your brain. Find all the news sources you can in your chosen language. Most big-time newspapers have an English-language resource. Look at those. Once, I put the online English version of the top 100 newspapers in the world (by circulation and if they had an English version) in my morning readings. I'd have to open them all at once and then go through each of the 100 tabs and skim them and close each one. You get really good skimming the world's news that way and really seeing what is important internationally: US politics, cyclones/hurricanes/weather, sports, etc.
2) Read a book. Books tend to draw you in much better than the news. At least the better-ish books. Though it's not as easy as chewing the candy that is Twitter, the 'classics' are a great jumping in point. Struggling to read and grok a few pages of Dante's Inferno does become preferable after a time. Lists of classic literature abound and nearly any of them are top-notch.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate this. Watching the news cycle feels like being in an abusive relationship. You watch and wait for the next eruption, anticipating if it will be violent or joyful. It leaves you feeling depleted and helpless.
The problem is that it isn't really the "news". It is infotainment. I'm not talking about the fact that truth is subjective and every story has a lens. The truth of the matter is that the story (and "updates") are all crafted specifically to be addictive, to be click bait. It isn't about sharing information or exposing the truth. All that matters is ad revenue. I do get it that we need to pay journalists. It has beco…
News is not news. It is entertainment. Pick your flavor and let them tell you how to feel.
It is designed to be addictive. Either by accident or deliberate is up for debate. I have my opinion on it but it is just that. They use your own feelings to manipulate you into watching/clicking for more. Facts matter little, feelings do in this segment of our world. Mr. Bernays should be proud of the monster he set loose upon us. Even the vaunted NPR does this. I noticed it years ago after a drive across the country and realizing they try to make it look like they were investigating things and not just reading something of one of the 4 or 5 news wires.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a non-subjective basis, there are many bad things going on in the world, with implications for both ourselves and our families. A genuine question: is it access to news or content of the news that messes with our sense of wellbeing? Does “the media” upset me, or knowledge, for example that climate models appear to be more conservative than reality, upset me? In not reading the news, are we simply happy in the way…
For me personally, it's the volume. If you concentrate on your local area, particularly if you live somewhere smaller than a city, there are crimes and tragedies, but even if some of them are horrible they're relatively few and far between, and can be processed mentally. If you take the entire world of 7+ billion people you could spend your entire waking hours reading about brutality, tragedy and horror from around t…
I live thousands of miles away from New York city. A few months ago I was reading about someone getting into an argument in central park. Why am I being show that? It was to provoke an emotional response out of me. They are using our emotions to manipulate us.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#98This article enabled me to see and take care of my news addiction:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-ro...
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Conservative” here is being used to mean “marked by moderation or caution”, rather than the set of political positions called conservatism. The poster is saying that global climate change is probably even worse than people think. Often, the reporting around climate change focuses on the best case, the average case, or what could be achieved with an immediate strong response. But the actual paths we are on seems to t…
I wouldn't blame the reporting... the scientists are also very conservative, because they're afraid of being labeled doom-sayers by deniers.
If they are worried about being labeled doom-sayers by deniers then they aren't very good scientists.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#100Saltwater crocodile: eating humans and their phones since prehistorical times...