I think when it comes to news it just ends up being another skinner box for me. Reload the page/pull the lever whatever you want to call it. You almost always will find another story that's interesting. But, almost always it will just be another fluff-filled piece about some topic.
Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
131–140 of 222 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#132Seems 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…
That was beautifully said. Thank you for sharing. Alas, gems like this is also why I'm addicted to HN.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I figured this out a few years ago and completely stopped all news watching/reading entirely. I have nothing but positive things to say about that decision, and surprisingly I seem to be better-informed and feel like I have a worldview that more accurately reflects reality than most of the people who follow news daily. Daily news watchers now seem like such ineffective people to me, and I’m reminded of the know-nothi…
This is a bit unrelated to HN, but in the terms of "memeculture." What you've discovered and described is called "NPC" by meme culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
I find meme culture just as, if not worse than news in some ways.
It convinces people that something that has enough truthiness and is funny enough is true.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#134My understanding is it’s the little thrill your brain gets from the possibility of finding something super interesting. That’s the addicting piece. The gambling piece of it. I read (or more likely heard on a podcast) about an experiment with mice and a food dispensing button. In one case, the button reliably dispensed food every time it was pressed. In the other case, sometimes the button wouldn’t work. The mice with…
This is a super interesting take. Are there studies / clinical definitions of this or something similar?
Sounds like the gambler's fallacy
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I figured this out a few years ago and completely stopped all news watching/reading entirely. I have nothing but positive things to say about that decision, and surprisingly I seem to be better-informed and feel like I have a worldview that more accurately reflects reality than most of the people who follow news daily. Daily news watchers now seem like such ineffective people to me, and I’m reminded of the know-nothi…
This is a bit unrelated to HN, but in the terms of "memeculture." What you've discovered and described is called "NPC" by meme culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
Can you elaborate on this?
I am unsure if you are saying not watching the news makes him an NPC, or if the people who just parrot the news are the NPCs.
I am leaning toward the latter, but based on your wording and the wording of the parent post, that's not what I initially expected.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> Even the vaunted NPR does this.
I recently upped my monthly donation to my local NPR station, and I feel like if anything it's made me more critical of them. Probably most of it is that I lean politically Right, and they lean Left. But it feels like sometimes they just go out of their way to try to check all the boxes of "woke" culture, whatever the hell that is.
The example that sticks out in my mind is they did a piece on immigration detention centers a few weeks back (no qualms there). The person they chose to interview was a transgender Guatamalen.
It's basically the most on-brand thing the reporter could have done. Talking about immigration? Better throw in some LGBT issues as well.
It's too much I guess to expect a news organization to just report on the news.
When I get feeling really irritated about it, I calm myself down by rationalizing that I like the music they play in the evenings.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#137It's a pure dice-rolling addiction. Let me share a personal story: For the last 3.5 years, every night before bed, I would browse https://www.gitlogs.com , a site that had it's own algorithm for ranking top-trending Github repos for the day (it is much better than Github Trends, don't ask how). It was my nightly ritual, and my favorite part of the day. Sometimes I would find 3-5 REALLY fucking awesome projects, or on…
This is the exact same excuse I make for myself whenever I get a thought that I might be spending too much time on HN: all the interesting and actually useful stuff I've found here makes the time spend worth it. Right?
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I figured this out a few years ago and completely stopped all news watching/reading entirely. I have nothing but positive things to say about that decision, and surprisingly I seem to be better-informed and feel like I have a worldview that more accurately reflects reality than most of the people who follow news daily. Daily news watchers now seem like such ineffective people to me, and I’m reminded of the know-nothi…
This is a bit unrelated to HN, but in the terms of "memeculture." What you've discovered and described is called "NPC" by meme culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
It's kind of weird that this is attributed to 'memeculture', given that I can recall people referring to others (in a denigrating fashion) as NPCs back in the 90s, before 'meme' was part of our lexicon.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a bit unrelated to HN, but in the terms of "memeculture." What you've discovered and described is called "NPC" by meme culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
Can you elaborate on this? I am unsure if you are saying not watching the news makes him an NPC, or if the people who just parrot the news are the NPCs. I am leaning toward the latter, but based on your wording and the wording of the parent post, that's not what I initially expected.
The later, the parroting of facts and the inability to go into deep detail besides being told information tidbits and repeating them is what makes the NPC so chilling in todays world. Especially when a few people get that high level of norieity and trust.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#140I'm in the same boat. News is addicting. I've done a lot to rid myself of various addictions but news has been the last and hardest one to crack. It seems like it would be beneficial to know what's going on, and sometimes it is. Socially you look like a weirdo if you don't know the latest scare.
But that's not why I check it. I am addicted, and people a hundred years back recognized this as well.
Why I don't spend the time reading Tolstoy or Neitzsche or something more substantial I don't know. What I do know is that I burn more time than is healthy consuming it and it doesn't give back nearly as much as I give in. I have no suggestions, but maybe this will be what I try to expunge for the rest of this quarantine phase. I think at the end of it, the only thing in control of any addiction is one's self, site blockers and timers help, but what I really need are bulletproof arguments against consuming it, and from there I believe the motivation will follow.