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Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

theatlantic.com

101–110 of 333 posts

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#102

>Don't read the news, don't stay informed. >If you read too much news, it's bad for you. I do enjoy the idea of a newsbubble, as it really does not add much to your everyday life, knowing something bad happened here, or there - because the news is a marketing machine of commercials and local interests that sell your attention to sell stuff. But, it's also hilarious how they say too much is bad, it's akin to buzzfeed…

What purpose does it serve for you to be well informed about the democrats and republicans, what they vote on, who they elect, etc, when you have no control over their actions afterward?

Same goes for voting. None of the research you do and the research others don't do will alter the outcome of the election.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's intentional, especially with CNN. The major news sites have essentially been tabloids since the death of print. Sites from local TV news groups seem to be the most dispassionate reporting these days.

PBS News Hour. I've never watched more boring and informative news in my entire life.

Cspan in a nutshell

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#104
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only worthwhile journalism is activism. Discomfort the powerful. Unfortunately it's dangerous to be too good at this, see Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Sorry, that is exactly the attitude that got us into the mess we are in. I for one care very little for activists doing journalism. Just tell people the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as best as you can ascertain it and let them make their own choices.

If you have 1 hour a week or even 1 hour a day, the truths you choose to tell will look just like activism.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#105
post #98

Sorry but what exactly is non-political news? I’m convinced that people who talk about “politics” as a thing external to them are just refusing to engage with the parts of the world that are uncomfortable to them.

I don't engage with politics online seeing as the psychotic leftist sentiment doesn't allow for an honest discussion of the current democrats. Also if anybody simply says they vote for trump, theyre labeled online as if some sort of abhorrent miniscule group.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#106
post #67
post #63

I put myself into a news bubble about six weeks ago. I still very occasionally read local news and a mainstream front page (say, every few days), which seems sufficient to let me know what's going on in broad terms. Stuff leaks into the bubble (e.g., via HN) but the point is not to be totally isolated, just not to get caught in hours-long doom spirals. I've given money to the campaigns that are going to get money fro…

Same, my new routine is I receive a daily news briefing email in the morning and read that, and then don't read/watch any other news for the rest of the day. I feel relatively informed but no longer feel as depressed as when I would check the front page of news sites every hour. The other plus side to this is that the whiplash of rapidly developing news is never an issue. Previously the news headlines would speculate…

What service do you use for daily news briefing by email?

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#107

When the rich and powerful rig the economy, then the real problem is when you read about it. Not that it really happens.

I think that’s by design...

From Sun Tzu (loosely): when an enemy is large in number, divide them.

Isn’t that what news does, especially the political crap we call news in the US - divide the population so they fight among themselves.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#109
post #98

Sorry but what exactly is non-political news? I’m convinced that people who talk about “politics” as a thing external to them are just refusing to engage with the parts of the world that are uncomfortable to them.

I think that the good faith of "politics" is more related to "winning elections and/or otherwise gaining the power to create and change legislation". This differentiates it, ideally, from e.g. processes to find solutions to problems that have different kinds of approaches depending on your political outlook.

Someone who says that any discussion of e.g. energy policy is "political" is just being stupid. Someone who points out that someone is taking a particular position w.r.t e.g energy policy purely as a cynical political move might be right.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#110

Worth a read for explanation as to why: https://rb.gy/81ygny

this is a link to the wikipedia page on "Trump Derangement Syndrome", and contains little, if any, "explanation as to why".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome

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