261–270 of 405 posts
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I know this is frowned upon here but: Nice try Mark
First rule of HN: don't astroturf. Second rule of HN: don't call out people who you think are astroturfing. Third rule: astroturf.
I used to work in the Caribbean when internet there was ridiculously expensive. Local social life was fantastic - I missed nothing about the internet. Also - I missed nothing about not keeping up to date on latest news - locals just didn't care what was going on for the most part - the latest "outrages" were 100% irrelevant. If you went to bar at night, and IF they had a TV on, it was sports. So you'd come back to th…
Part of what you’re describing can be attributed to lack of internet. But other part is just being an outsider that doesn’t really care that much (and I mean that in totally non offensive way - it’s just a benefit of being an outsider). Outrage existed long before internet. Daily tv news, newspapers, gossips at work, coworker with totally opposite world view, etc, were all great sources of outrage. At smaller scale,…
I find it very beneficial, and it definitely helps broaden you general outlook on these things. I used to follow the news pretty closely, now I just get the headlines once a day and move on with my life.
But as always it's a rather privileged position. I'm a high-wage childless white dude with a French passport, I don't have a lot to fear from politics. If things go bad here for some reason I can just move somewhere else, a luxury the vast majority of human beings don't have.
Having the possibility not to care is a luxury, in a way.
My dad doesn't use the Internet. Not on principle or anything, but he grew up without it, has friends but meets them in person or talks on the phone, same as he has for the past 40 years. He's retired now, but never needed it working as a skilled tradesman with a county job. In retirement, he still builds stuff, but physical stuff. No need for Internet. My ex-wife's mom also didn't use the Internet, but she was a sch…
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Did you try just... not following the outrage parts? Not getting outraged? If you want to spend more time connecting with people you care about, getting rid of facebook feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant ba…
You can also keywords (which I think you can do with the Twitter app as well) for more granular curation.
I think solutions like this allow one to benefit from Twitter without paying the heavy price that their shitty engagement tactics demand.
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Getting rid of “newstainment” and 24-hour news programs significantly improved the quality and breadth of the news I consume. By just reading a quality daily newspaper and a couple of newsmagazines, I’m better informed than when I was a news junkie with cable news on in the background and news websites refreshing on my phone. “Breaking news” is broken. Print media, especially weekly newsmagazines, have the luxury of…
(This is not addressed directly at you, parent commenter, these are just general thoughts.) I studied journalism in undergrad, and I have never understood why people are so drawn to watch these national 24hr 'news' channels. During a major crisis, sure, but day in and day out? I just don't get it. There just isn't that much that happens at a non-personal level (personal meaning self-, family-, friend-, work-oriented)…
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How is it so high? Are these people immigrants from developing nations or something?
I don't think its any more likely for an illiterate person to pass through the immigration system than it is for same person to get AWS certification.
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I found I had to get rid of a decent portion of the news too, and news-adjacent comedy shows like Colbert. It's not enough to personally not read FB/Twitter, since they have gotten so integrated into mainstream media. Maybe 10 years ago you could just ignore social media, but by 2018 (when I started making an effort to avoid it), you could end up seeing thousands of tweets without ever using twitter yourself, if you…
I once did an exercise where I went over every single news article on the front page of my prefered online paper and asked myself if that was relevant to me and my life. The answer was no to everything single one. That was pre-covid, and sometimes the news are relevant, but you can mostly do a quick checkup once a week. Prefer something in text form that you can scan over.
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Part of what you’re describing can be attributed to lack of internet. But other part is just being an outsider that doesn’t really care that much (and I mean that in totally non offensive way - it’s just a benefit of being an outsider). Outrage existed long before internet. Daily tv news, newspapers, gossips at work, coworker with totally opposite world view, etc, were all great sources of outrage. At smaller scale,…
Most definitely. I live as an expat in a foreign country and while I use the internet a lot and even speak the local language, I still feel very disconnected from the celebrity and political drama. I find it very beneficial, and it definitely helps broaden you general outlook on these things. I used to follow the news pretty closely, now I just get the headlines once a day and move on with my life. But as always it's…
I try to never bother with 'celebrities'. They are glorified nothings. Actor X is using phone from ABC company, only because they paid him to pose holding one. Not because it has anti-matter/matter fusion technology. Also most celebrity events do not affect any of our lives. They divorce? pity.. but still.. don't care. Model X went to a party? good for her (wear a mask!) but still.. don't care.
> Having the possibility not to care is a luxury, in a way.
I remember the Minimalists once said "most crises, aren't". There is wisdom in that phrase. Lack of immediate exposure to 'news', filters out most of the non-crises and the unecessary drama. The important news will stick around after 48 hours/days/weeks (Sollarwinds, unemployment rise, COVID, a major shift in political events, etc.)
With that said, a quick scroll through a couple of news-worthy outelets (BYOsite) will give you all the info within 60seconds, and will give you the opportunity to seek out more - without the spammy exposure of TV/Radio.
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Getting rid of “newstainment” and 24-hour news programs significantly improved the quality and breadth of the news I consume. By just reading a quality daily newspaper and a couple of newsmagazines, I’m better informed than when I was a news junkie with cable news on in the background and news websites refreshing on my phone. “Breaking news” is broken. Print media, especially weekly newsmagazines, have the luxury of…
(This is not addressed directly at you, parent commenter, these are just general thoughts.) I studied journalism in undergrad, and I have never understood why people are so drawn to watch these national 24hr 'news' channels. During a major crisis, sure, but day in and day out? I just don't get it. There just isn't that much that happens at a non-personal level (personal meaning self-, family-, friend-, work-oriented)…
Because the alternative (other than going out for a walk) is watching re-runs of many years old shows or other outright crap.
Personally, I like the 24/7 radio news channel of the local public broadcaster ("B5 Aktuell") - news and information program, but no pop music that was bad already when it came out.
It's surprising how many people here equate "the Internet" with "social media". It's like having access to 1,000,000 x the Library of Alexandria every day and only being interested in keeping up with what people are talking about in the lobby