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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)

#281
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is what news is supposed to be though! To expect otherwise is the problem. Just because something isn't immediately actionable or entertaining that day in some measurable outcome is a poor test of "value" too, and would eliminate many other things people consider of "value". Where do you think the value of news comes from, if not helping people take better actions to navigate their lives? >Continuing my previou…

The list of things that can affect me and many others and appear in the news is pretty much limitless; new legislation, interest rate changes, changes to my school district, tax rate adjustments, rebanding of my property, changes to what animals are allowed on a leash in local parks, road or business closures, the list goes on and on. We do not exist in a vacuum of one and decisions of others will from time to time a…

>The list of things that can affect me and many others and appear in the news is pretty much limitless; new legislation, interest rate changes, changes to my school district, tax rate adjustments, rebanding of my property, changes to what animals are allowed on a leash in local parks, road or business closures, the list goes on and on. We do not exist in a vacuum of one and decisions of others will from time to time affect even the most introverted of individuals

100% agree. As I said, many things can have an impact on you, but that doesn't mean they are worth paying attention to proactively unless you are even slightly likely to do something about them.

>All of these things can be actionable, and all of them require paying attention to a news source of some kind to take that action in time.

Again, 100% agree, assuming you might actually take action. I think most people are not honest with themselves about what might actually lead to action.

My point is not that news cant be actionable, but that for most people it rarely is. People would be better served if they curate their news consumption based on what may actually be relevant and likely to lead to action, and gasp perhaps spend some more time actually taking actions.

If you feel you already do that, then great. Based on my experience, the vast majority of people don't. They spend dozens of hours following local elections for states they will never visit, building "informed opinions" about protests while never attending one themselves. They track stocks they don't own and will never buy and read crime exposes for locations they will never visit.

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

#282
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah enormous difference. It is indeed a good idea to avoid TV news. My suggestion: Go to a news stand instead and grab a copy of The Economist. One who does that will learn much about the world. About countries one rarely hear about in other media outlets. About advances in science and technology. In my opinion, time spent reading The Economist is not wasted. Well that’s my 2¢ anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My suggestion is don't even bother with the economist. It's news in more pretentious and intelligent packaging. It's honestly better than some other sources for sure, but that isn't the point. The point isn't to find good sources of news. I think the point is that most news, no matter how good it is, is largely pointless. I'll pick up the economist if something in it interests me. Otherwise I largely ignore all news.

The Economist is also like 100+ pages per week. Very hard to consume without significant dedication.

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

#283
I used to listen to the whole of Today on BBC Radio 4, every day. Plus Any Questions and watch Question Time, News Night etc on the TV.

I quit, and now other than a 5 minute scan of the BBC News Website occasionally, I am news free. I know the important stuff, such as the ending of Covid restrictions in the UK and the invasion of provinces in Ukraine, but I don't dive deeply into the articles, or do any wider reading.

The reason for my switching off from the news, is that there is bugger all I can do about it, other than voting once every five years, or becoming an activist.

I don't have the time or energy to campaign as an activist on issues I care about. I have a family to look after and a job to maintain. My priorities are selfish.

Voting for me, is a waste of time (although I always do vote). I live in a Tory county, and my vote counts for nothing without proportional representation (which I voted for, but did not happen).

What's the point of digesting news. I learn stuff that mostly has little impact on my life, and when it does have an impact, there's nothing I can do about it.

My quality of life is certainly better since I cut back on digesting the news, in any form, other than this site.

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

#285
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…

There are very few things, I've found, that I need to be informed of by an authority. I read whatever the CDC's latest guidelines are, I read some papers that have been replicated and thoroughly vetted, and blog posts. The people that I know that stay tapped into news either nationally or globally are almost always "concerned" with something. It's their topic of the day and leaks into their speech, attitudes, and values. I've previously phrased it as, "Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking to an RSS feed more than a friend. Maybe there's more to our friendship than my opinion on the latest social issue and whether it aligns with yours?" As a consequence, I rarely talk about news or current events with anyone. While my views may not be heard or represented much I'm at least not arguing over hegemony.

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally (but not lastly), news makes you informed when it comes time to vote at the municipal, state, and federal level. If you don't follow the developments in your community, your vote is at best useless, at worst it's harming the democratic process. Election time is when candidates (or some of them) pump out propaganda against their opponents. Negative ads about what some candidate said 15 years ago. Who wins in…

It may be a good idea for you to follow up on your elected officials outside of the election period in that case. See what bills are being proposed, and signed. Who they choose to put in their cabinet, what leaders they meet with and public statements they make. If your idea of political news is opinionated partisan coverage during elections, then you're doing it wrong.

> If your idea of political news is opinionated partisan coverage during elections, then you're doing it wrong.

But that’s the news. That’s what “following the news” means. The American media covers each federal election for, what, two years? Who except people who follow politics as a hobby will remember whatever “the news” was before that? (Sure, in more local elections things are bound to be better than that.)

And you already have to be savvy in order to distinguish the partisan coverage from things that are more substantial—you don’t know what you don’t know.

Whatever you are talking about is not on the topic of The News.

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

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> subscribe to The Washington Post. that implies no bias on the part of WAPO. > You will get a reasonable overview of the most important topics primarily focused on the US. and youll most certainly be positively or negatively affected by that news daily. which seems pointless to me? why worry about US and iran going to war if 2 weeks later its no longer relevant? Or about how good spiderman is doing in its first week…

> that implies no bias on the part of WAPO. No news source is completely unbiased, WaPo included. But WaPo is an outstanding journalistic outlet with a long history of accurate reporting and worthy of being a singular news source if you had to pick one.

Right. Even deciding what to write about is a form of bias. I've found it's best to read news from outlets where you clearly understand the bias at play. Then you can calibrate your brain to what you're reading.

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong disagree with the idea that watching or reading mainstream news is informative. I don't think it's unfair at all to label mainstream news (US) as propaganda. Have you ever compared the home pages of major mainstream media companies? It's as if they are reporting on a completely different country. It begs the question of whether it is better to be uninformed or misinformed. Consuming mainstream media in the US…

How would you have found out about the Texas power outages last year or the rising Opioid epidemic if it were not for news (unless you lived in Texas or knew someone addicted to Oxy)? Or any other event from your city all the way to your federal government? You can dismiss all news as being misinformation, but even the shadiest outlets report some semblance of facts. It's the cause of the news that's often up for deb…

I have a different question. What does it matter if I am uninformed on those two topics? What does it matter if I am uninformed on most topics? There are (almost) never any single issue items on the federal ballot. On local or state ballots there are single issue items maybe once every two to four years. I can inform myself on those topics or I can cast an uninformed vote. Again, I would consider an uninformed vote to be a better outcome than a misinformed vote.

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

#289
Today the supposedly liberal NYT has a news article about Jews in Ukraine in order to whip up pro-war hysteria. (The implied premise that Putin is Hitler is too absurd to rebut. This is “Iraqi nurses kill Kuwaiti babies” for 2022.) And they’re the best mainstream news source. :-(

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/world/europe/ukraine-jews...

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

#290
I hate how difficult it can be to escape non-stop exposure to the media. Too many restaurants and public spaces have televisions blaring, most set to a news channel. Even when not on a explicit news channel, political news and activism leaks through on sports channels and through political ads that no longer stop outside of election season. I can simply stop eating at restaurants what engage in this behavior but when it's the dentist or doctor, you're pretty much captive until you're called in. Thankfully not all of them do this (at least not yet) but it is disturbing how many do.
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