"Why I've stopped [perfectly normal thing] and you should too!"
News is bad for you
111–120 of 239 posts
Re: News is bad for you
#112What is hilarious is that this article was Number 1 on Pocket Hits Best of 2013.
A reading app's top read article was an article about giving up reading.
Re: News is bad for you
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think so this idea is in Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (1985). A must read.
Thank you, I was just about to mention this book. None of this is new and I can only imagine what he would think of the today's media. He died in 2003 and even though the internet was going strong back then it has greatly surpassed that since then.
I wonder what he would think of the proliferation of cell phones (now) and how they distract immensely from life and thought.
Re: News is bad for you
#114This is a rather ignorant stance to take. I know a lot of people don't like the doom & gloom of news. But it's needed. I recently discussed with someone who doesn't consume news about the NSA revelations. They were shocked. They said "why didn't anyone tell me?" Instead of blocking things out and being happy with our ignorance, we need to change how news is done. If you whine about something, change it. The Guardian…
I rely on talking to people who share my interests and do read the news. Works pretty well.
Re: News is bad for you
#115I was raised on NPR and have used/use it as my main source for general news and find it very informative. Although it is not perfect, NPR seems to focus on the delivery of information in a balanced (if that is possible) way allowing me to draw my own conclusions. My problem with the big news outlets (cnn, msnbc, fox, etc) is that they are clearly a business and focused on profitability (I have much empathy for them as I do the same when I am at work). The problem is when editorial decisions are made not by what is news worthy but by what will draw the most eye balls. For me it feels presenters are trying to one up each other with outrageous comments as their personal views become the story at the expense of the news. I am sorry but I want the news presented in a sterile/factual way. But instead it feels like American Idol with the presenters angling for a book deal, more twitter followers or other forms of personal enrichment. Of course there is nothing wrong with self-promotion, I do it every day at work, but maybe I am old fashion in my longing for the days of Ted Koppel who for the most part delivered the facts as he knew them and purposely tried not to show emotion one way or another. So I don’t think consuming news is bad but the self-promotion/echo chamber creating delivery of that news is another thing entirely.
Re: News is bad for you
#116While I agree with the sentiment, Rolf Dobelli himself is a plagiarist. This whole reasoning is basically stolen from Nassim Taleb. http://fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm http://blog.chabris.com/2013/09/similarities-between-rolf-do... EDIT: For another take on not reading the news, see http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews
That this is the top comment on Hacker News, rather than discussion about ideas, demonstrates Rolf/Taleb's ideas pretty well
Re: News is bad for you
#117 s/journalist/commenter
Re: News is bad for you
#118Just stick to reading HN. If outside news is significantly important, then it'll reach HN too.
That's only (arguably) true for issues of national or global importance. It is also important to be an informed citizen and voter on state and local issues, and many local news sources are woefully inadequate. Many states and towns have local referendums and elections held at times of no national election, counting on apathy, ignorance and low turnout to be able to more easily sway the vote.
Re: News is bad for you
#119While I agree with the sentiment, Rolf Dobelli himself is a plagiarist. This whole reasoning is basically stolen from Nassim Taleb. http://fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm http://blog.chabris.com/2013/09/similarities-between-rolf-do... EDIT: For another take on not reading the news, see http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews
Of course we can put our heads in the sand.
The problem is: if you do this, you should no longer be allowed to vote. Because democracy can only survive if the feedback cycle is encouraged, not sabotaged:
(Good|bad) news => critical thinking by the citizen => citizen votes accordingly => corruption (and other problems) are corrected.
If you stop reading news, you stop being a responsible citizen.
If you feel bad about the news, there's 1 thing you should do: Channel the anger and produce positive action. It will make you feel good and problems will vanish. That is how this works.
Re: News is bad for you
#120"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." Thomas Jefferson "Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists." Norman Mailer "Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation." George Bernard Shaw "In the real world, the right thing never happens in the right pl…
What is the point of this post? To say that journalism is a worthless endeavour? It would be just as easy to go cherry pick some quotes that say just the opposite without providing a substantial argument.
News is not the same thing as journalism. Journalism is worthwhile when it is the news, not when it covers it.