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Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

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Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#101

Post by ziggus »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #24

So much to unpack here. For starters, being informed makes for more interesting conversations with others. It means that you get to reflect on what you stand for, and grow as an individual with an opinion. News is also the gateway for deeper information. If you stick to just the news, that's one thing, but if you then go deeper into the topic (what is the relationship between Ukraine and Russia?) then you get invalua…

Hard disagree.

Watching/reading/consuming modern news is too stress-inducing (as it is designed to be) just to have something to chat about or become more well-informed about issues that in large part have no bearing on me.

I pay attention to issues that are important to me at scopes that matter - state and municipal. Everything else is noise.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#102

Post by Buttons840 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #9
macksd wrote: post #4

I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…

My father tells me - "Why do you care what Andrew Cuomo is doing in New York city?" and it kind of was eye-opening. I really don't. I wish I paid more attention to local news, local politics, and perhaps check-in on international news on a weekly basis. The internet changed all this. When I was growing up, my dad read local newspaper daily. National and international news were briefly covered in the local paper. He'd…

As tossthere put it: "Who decided that this was important to you, and why did you let them decide that?"

Can't help but think of this when I start forming an opinion about what Dr. Seuss should do with his old books, etc. All kinds of trivial issue the news and social media prompts me to think about. Why do I care? Especially since I'm not going to do anything about it. There are more important causes to fight for, and I don't have the time to take action for trivial things. If I'm not going to act, and cannot influence the situation, why bother even forming an opinion?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23940090

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#103

Post by einpoklum »

Dave_Rosenthal wrote: post #37

I quit the news roughly 20 years ago and never looked back. The way I explain it to people is that the news is simply a form of entertainment that I don't really enjoy. I'm sure it's been pointed out before, but the news is also a horrible way to actually understand the world around you. What gets discussed is the most novel/stimulating things that happened--if you attempt to fit a model of the world to these data po…

> I quit the news roughly 20 years ago and never looked back

Said an avid follower of Hacker News ? :-)

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#105

Post by einpoklum »

0_____0 wrote: post #79

Life hack: if you do want to keep up on global current events but can't stand the breathless media circus, get your news from Wikipedia.[1] If you actually want to make a difference consider putting more into getting engaged locally, whatever that means for you. National and global scale issues are really easy to fall into a despair/paralysis cycle with. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

Wikipedia will be a short and less inflammatory summary of the "breathless media circus", which is still really not good enough.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#106

Post by s1artibartfast »

giobox wrote: post #53
mhardcastle wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a test of whether it was "news" at the time - it's a test of its relevance to you. If you look back at the news from a particular day and see now that reading it didn't convey information you've used since, then that is a good indication that the news you're reading now probably won't convey anything you find useful going forward.

This is demonstrably nonsense. People make investment decisions for one, based on events in the news. The news every day is not required to be relevant specifically to you alone, that's an absurd notion, but it will from time to time be relevant to you, as it will be for anyone who exists in a given polity.

It is a signal to noise issue. If you are a day trader, daily financial news may be relevant.

99.9% of news isn't relevant or actionable for most people.

If I can't answer the question "how will this inform a decision I have to make?" the news is purely entertainment. If entertainment doesn't make your life better, don't consume it.

There is no value in having an "informed opinion" about topics that don't change your life.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#108

Post by 40four »

This is a great article, I can surely relate and confirm the main points, from my experience. I ‘quit’ news a few years ago, and it greatly improved my mood. Obsessively trying to stay ‘informed’ can be quite stressful, and I believe gives you a warped sense of what the world is really like.

I’m not completely in the dark. I still scan headlines a few minutes of the day, but I have switched completely to RSS feeds. I use the NetNewsWire app on my iPhone, and I have feeds from all the major news networks.

This way I’m in complete control of my intake, and I get a completely text based experience (my settings default to ‘reader’ mode once I click through to the article website). I get to just read, and not be bothered with all the other ads & nonsense on news sites.

It’s really nice to consume news on my own terms, and not what the Google news algorithm wants me to see. Or not consume it at all and be happy :) Taking a step away from obsessively reading articles everyday can go along way from disconnecting from the ‘propaganda machine’, and thinking for yourself, instead of getting sucked into whatever ‘narrative of the day’ is.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#109

Post by freedomben »

systemvoltage wrote: post #9
macksd wrote: post #4

I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…

My father tells me - "Why do you care what Andrew Cuomo is doing in New York city?" and it kind of was eye-opening. I really don't. I wish I paid more attention to local news, local politics, and perhaps check-in on international news on a weekly basis. The internet changed all this. When I was growing up, my dad read local newspaper daily. National and international news were briefly covered in the local paper. He'd…

Your dad's broader point is a really good one, but the example of Andrew Cuomo doesn't seem like the best to me depending on when it was said.

For a while there Cuomo was being talked about very seriously as the heir apparent to the Democrat presidential nomination. I agree with OP that "civic duty" is a silly reason for watching the news, but when it comes to voting to give people massive amount of power, that really does matter.

Now that Cuomo is out, I agree, for those of us not in NY his actions are less consequential.

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