Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

All for profit media is biased trash to live and enjoy your life far away from.

There's no objectivity especially with political news (barf) and world event news (things that try to control your life).

Ive posted this same sentiment many times here on hacker news about the garbage media .. always gets voted down. But im passionate about living and enjoying life far from it .. think for myself and for me my relationships with people are most important not some dumb for profit news cycle that's manipulated bias trash. Such will never come between me and someone i care about! They can believe that garbage they fill their head with but i only very briefly give my opinion on it and move the topic to something positive/fulfilling!

I am avid reader of tech, entertainment and some local news cause that's fluff vs brainwashing/try to control how I enjoy the time Im here on earth.

I used to listen to NPR while doing chores like washing dishes, laundry, driving, etc. As of late, I’ve come to be increasingly dissatisfied with NPR functioning as the unofficial spokesperson for the Democratic Party (chiefly broadcasting stories compressible into 0 bits…). I’ve nearly completely replaced that habit with listening to Lex Friedman. Lex does long form interviews with a wide variety of guests. He is both respectful and curious. The medium is just flat out better on both sides - you can start/stop a podcast when the dishes are done, or to look up related info or to discuss something. You can skip the episodes that don’t interest you. And, perhaps best of all, it isn’t a constant stream of doom, gloom and outrage porn

Timing's about right for the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, since that news broke at the beginning of '98. And we already had multiple 24/7 cable news stations by then. :-(

A very timely article. I've recently decided to completely abandon the news after the most recent issue in my country (the occupation of our capital city) once the issue was resolved. It was taking up far too much of my life and was negatively affecting my emotions. It's been a few days and I'm still amazed how much I've been able to accomplish on my projects now that I've got that time and energy back.

I hope I never relapse.

I still don't understand how we made it through the 00s with trust in television news media still fully intact, at least here in the US.

the nation was basically united in wanting to invade Iraq/Afghanistan all because the talking heads on TV manufactured that consent. it wasn't a "party lines" or "oh that was just FOX News" kind of thing—the news stations were a united front in getting us to believe in something absolutely ridiculous, and we accepted it at face value because we were scared and confused following 9/11. we now know it was all bullshit that resulted in the further unnecessary loss of life, American and otherwise, yet millions of Americans still "trust" these "news" programs implicitly—it's The News, why would you question it?

now these same news stations with overly-polished talking heads—including "former" intelligence agency regulars—and pharmaceutical advertising money (most Americans never bat an eye at the pharma ads on TV and how creepy and weird they are, or are even aware that they're illegal in most of the rest of the world) claim to be the Arbiters of Truth and The Best, Perhaps Only Way To Stay Informed, and we eat it right up. my dad thinks he's consuming a "balanced news diet" by watching the nightly news from every station. it's insanity. turn it off and don't look back. they call it programming for a reason.