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Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#61

Post by olkyts »

I live in Ukraine. From 2015 till 2022 I didn’t read or watched news and no social media or blogs or analytics. Then war started. Now I follow news everyday, because I have to take care of my family’s security. I follow analytics of battlefields progress so if I see warning signs I would have to take decisions to move my family further to the western part. I follow news on volunteers who help military so I can take action and donate help. I follow politics, because corruption is still an issue and during war it’s like enemy inside. I follow local authorities media so that I get info on local issues, warnings or even when humanitarian aid is available, so I can notify my neighbors-refugees from southern part to go get mattresses and pillows or diapers (thanks unicef). I follow economic news so I can take action on my still little assets.

Seems too much. I have to dose and follow rules I set for myself. Some days I go off. Some are more filled with information.

People in Belgium watched news and decided to host my wife with infant during attack on Kyiv. Some journalists investigated that one judge had russian passport and citizenship. It created tensions and people pushed to president to solve the issue. Drop in an ocean and no guarantees of results, but it’s better than nothing.

I don’t praise media, but in my specific circumstances I need it.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#62

Post by Test0129 »

lukevp wrote: post #30

I’ve found that text.npr.org is really good for me. They don’t have pagination, only a handful of new articles a day, and no images. The lack of images really helps with some graphic stories being less emotionally impactful. Other than that, I just check hackernews.

I used to like NPR a lot. I listened every single day on the way to work and back home. It seemed around 2013 or so the agenda became far less neutral and far more one-sided.

I haven't really found a source that is truly neutral. Reuters does an okay job and that's about it. Journalism is more-or-less dead in the era of eyeballs.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#64

Post by vinay_ys »

I see different kinds of news consumption people around me

1. Those who are so busy in local community/politics activities that they don't have time or interest in happenings far away in the world. They still consume some national news via printed newspapers.

2. Those who are so busy in tech work and consume only sources like hn and nothing else as far as regular news media. There's a subset of this who consume economic/financial news.

3. Those who are busy consuming all kinds of news media – cable tv, printed news, social media etc.

The number of people around me in #3 bucket is definitely dropping. I'm in #2 bucket and seem to be surrounded by more such people. I'm curious about people in #1 bucket.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#65

Post by bruceb »

karanmg wrote: post #15

I don’t think you should live without news. Being informed and discussing things happening around us is a natural expectation of community. I suggest find a balanced way to consume some so you can be reasonably well informed. It’s not social media that is entirely bad, rather it’s the notifications and infinite scrolling feed which cause cognitive overload. I changed my consumption habits and don’t open news apps min…

I do agree reading fewer but fuller pieces is better. But I would not limit it to one place then you are only getting what the NYT is pushing.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#66

Post by Bhurn00985 »

For those of you who are considering the same, the following articles make good arguments

- Rolf Dobelli - Towards a healthy news diet [https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf]

- Adam Mastroianni - Reading the news is the new smoking [https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/reading-the-news-...]

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#67

Post by SanjayMehta »

olkyts wrote: post #61

I live in Ukraine. From 2015 till 2022 I didn’t read or watched news and no social media or blogs or analytics. Then war started. Now I follow news everyday, because I have to take care of my family’s security. I follow analytics of battlefields progress so if I see warning signs I would have to take decisions to move my family further to the western part. I follow news on volunteers who help military so I can take a…

What sources of news are reliable on the conflict?

I can't find anything which doesn't reek of propaganda: Western or Russian.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#68

Post by erwan577 »

News addiction and constant interruptions are indeed very bad for focus.

A long time ago, like in the 90s, non professionnal traders on the stock market were the first to have this kind of problem. Depending on their trading style some cope by only reading the news during the week end.

For general news, there is a lot of content that follows this weekly pattern. But for folks that really want to focus on some project, maybe need to spend some months in the jungle or focus for weeks... Maybe it would be interesting to have monthly summaries, something that can help you catch up months in mere hours.

I personally would feel very unconfortable to completely unplug for many weeks without some way to catch up.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#69

Post by spiderfuss »

I stopped following international and national news a few years ago, and I don't feel like missing out.

On the other hand, I subscribed to my local regional newspaper (print), so I can stay informed about stuff in my immediate environment. It's boring, nothing ever happens, but somehow I can relate to it so much.

Re: Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

#70

Post by Test0129 »

I haven't had any social media in nearly a decade (actually, probably a decade now). I'm regularly called ill-informed because I don't watch television news and I do my best to avoid any news on the internet. I listen to the radio mostly for entertaining talk shows and even those have been attempting to capture eyeballs (earballs?) with the latest in pseudo-journalism. I used to be really into NPR for a long time. The news seemed okay, but the shows were absolutely the best. Then at some point around 2013 they started doing away with more entertaining shows, and by 2016 it was all politics all day. Every talk show had some hot take on the latest event (usually from a deep left-leaning stance) and it drove me nuts.

I haven't found actual journalism. Reuters does an okay job most of the time. It's serviceable. The closest I've ever gotten to real journalism was the news feed in a trading platform I paid a lot of money for several years ago. Very "just the facts" - exactly how I like it.

"Journalists" have realized two things about modern media that I think lead us to this:

1. People LOVE drama. The more you can doll up a story to be a life-or-death fight, no matter how mundane or irrelevant, the better.

2. Since everything is on the internet there's no need to be right. 50 years ago when a newspaper, or news show released its information that was it. There was usually no easy way to redact parts of a story and not take massive heat for it. Now, we can watch news articles change in real time. You might say this is good but it leads to lazy journalism. Misinforming people and then pretending they had the right idea by the time they've edited the real story in.

I just stay away from most things now. Anything important enough to truly effect me I'll hear through other channels. It's a good enough filter. I don't need to be a "good global citizen" and take the burden of the world on my shoulders. My life is tough enough as it is.

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