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Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#211

Post by AdrianB1 »

It may be a feedback loop that makes people read news.

When I was a kid or teenager I used to live in some mountains where even newspapers were rare. Being disconnected for months or years had no negative impact. Working in IT, being disconnected for a couple of years can catastrophic for you because changes are often, not of substance but there are legion of minor things that add up and catching up is possible, but difficult. Therefore I read IT news to keep up and ignore regular news, I don't watch TV and just read the titles of online news for something that I really need to know (like a virus lockdown in my city or country).

In a way I am concerned about the many "show HN: I did that I am proud of "; it gives the impression important things happen, when they don't. This feeds the loop to continue reading for some stuff for the fear of missing something important or useful.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#212

Post by stakkur »

News is stimulus. All you're describing is a habit you've formed, and a stimulus you respond to.

When we're 'addicted' to anything, it's just us abusing our individual coping mechanisms.

The answer, like in all other aspects of life, is to take steps to form the habits you want, and steps to discard the habits you don't want.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#213

Post by sjg007 »

darkerside wrote: post #205
ericsoderstrom wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Name anything that happened 5 years ago. If it’s significant, I remember it. If it isn’t, I never heard about it at all, and nobody else remembers it either. OP has heard of COVID. It would be impossible not to. I follow a similar approach (avoiding news as much as possible) and I still am exposed to much more information about COVID than is useful.

So relying on informal networks to pass on the key information? That's actually a really sensible strategy. I retract my argument.

You outsource it. Like I’m not on FB but my wife is.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#214

Post by leonroy »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #174
coffeefirst wrote: post #88

The premise is wrong. It’s less about news than your phone. Before, news was timeboxed. You might have a daily paper habit, or listened to the radio in the car on a commute, or a nightly broadcast, and a handful of longer term magazines, but that was it. It may capture your attention for a bit but there wasn’t any more of it to obsess compulsively. 24/7 cable broke this contract, but let’s be honest, that’s really no…

What newsletters do you get? I'm definitely interested in this.

not the OP, but I find BIG by Matt Stoller and Notes on the Crises by Nathan Tankus a nice break from the mainstream press.

Insightful, well considered and non-dramatized writing on important subjects: https://nathantankus.substack.com/ https://mattstoller.substack.com/

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#215

Post by mcswell »

tossthere wrote: post #109
frereubu wrote: post #21

Seems 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…

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…

Don't worry, we've always been at war with Eurasia, and nothing's changed.

Oh--wait--MiniTruth is saying something about Eastasia...

(All seriousness aside, you do have a point.)

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#216

Post by mcswell »

omarhaneef wrote: post #67

It may be the case that we just crave variety. If I am scrolling hacker news, and someone opened a portal to the Australian outback, I’d probably put down HN (sorry, folks) and crawl through the portal to hang out for a bit. I lived on a beach for years and in a big city for several, and in each place I craved the other.

I lived among a group of Mayan Indians for six months once. It was the most boring experience of my life. The next time I was in a similar situation, I packed several very dense non-fiction books to satisfy my intellectual hunger. (This was long before the Internet, even before the Arpanet.)

I should add that it wasn't the Indians' fault, they were very nice neighbors. But there's only so much I can say or hear about corn farming.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#218

Post by somishere »

jkingsbery wrote: post #101

That sounds awesome! If you're going to spend time on the Internet, you could make it a better place by telling us more about what sounds like an awesome trip so we have something to read that's not the stupid news.

When I have the time!

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#219

Post by somishere »

barbs wrote: post #59

From a fellow Aussie: I'm in Melbourne atm in the midst of the latest C19 outbreak and I wish I was there

Sorry to hear! Hard to enjoy a Melbourne winter without the culture (and a pandemic). Tho not sure how much you'd be able to relax up here ... Have been getting some major earbashings about Victorians on the lam.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#220

Post by warranty »

lukehack wrote: post #16

Almost all news and social media site structure is derived from research using the Skinner box[1, scroll down to A Man, a Plan, and a Rat in a Box]. Researching operant conditioning, they found that introducing randomness to some sort of dopamine release would cause habitual behavior of the action that caused dopamine release. This reaction to novelty was then successfully transferred to humans. This is most obvious…

Good luck nitro.
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