Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I stopped following the news

mertbulan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 205 posts

Re: I stopped following the news

#121

Post by sotix »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #117
nicbou wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s unfortunate that American news slip into the HN feed, and that Americans get indignant when it gets flagged. I took so much flak for saying that I already know where to hear about US politics, and don’t need it forced into every unrelated forum.

Front page consists of 30 links. If one of those 30 is related to politics I don't see the problem. Just don't click on it. Right now I see two posts about Rust (don't program in it, don't care), Kyber is hiring (retired, not interested in a job), etc. That's fine though, I just don't visit those links/comments.

> If one of those 30 is related to politics I don't see the problem. Just don't click on it.

I think it's a fair issue for people trying to avoid triggering news topics. Sometimes the headlines can be really inflammatory. Avoiding them might be feasible for you and me but may be tougher for others. For example, the top post right now is titled, "ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants", which is tricky because it is tech related and straddles the line of politics and tech. But I can see how someone might get triggered by reading that. Telling someone, "Just don't click on it", may be akin to telling an alcoholic, "Just don't drink that poured beer" in this case.

It would be nice if you could unsubscribe from certain tags like you can on Tildes. That way, you would have slight control over what you see while allowing others to keep what they want to see.

Re: I stopped following the news

#122

Post by switchers »

popalchemist wrote: post #74
kornaki wrote: post #18

I’ve had similar experiences. These days I only visit Hacker News to read some tech-related stuff. For me, not reading the news to the point where I ask my mom to turn off the TV when I visit is important, because I want to avoid hearing anything about wars, etc. As someone who lives in Poland, I followed so much news about the war in Ukraine in 2022 and 2023, and it was really bad for my well-being and my behavior.…

When the world is on fire and people are suffering, we have a moral obligation to be aware of it and take part in the healing. To turn off your access to the media is a temporary solution that may well be justified in the short term, but you do not have the luxury of forgoing your part in this world, because if you do, it will burn all the way to your doorstep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXgWZyb_HgE

If you already have a prepared list then fair enough, but what are you personally doing to take part in the healing of society that consuming mainstream news media helps with? The person you're replying to hasn't said they live as a hermit and don't engage in any part of their local society.

I fully agree that it all seems fucked and there is no point in following anything other than specific tech stuff I'm interested in. Anything else actually important someone else in my life will probably mention it to me. Or the explosion will vaporise me and knowing it's coming won't have helped much.

Re: I stopped following the news

#123

Post by sotix »

sjw987 wrote: post #4

I think it's important to keep reading the news occasionally. Personally, I, as a programmer, read the news in the same way as my grandad who was a farmer. I read a printed weekly publication (in my case The Economist) on Sunday morning. Outside of Sunday morning I don't read the news at all. I prefer printed news to media-supported news, because I think the imagery (I acknowledge The Economist still has images) and…

If anyone is interested in keeping up with current events in a manner closer to "reading the history" rather than reading the news, check out Wikipedia's Current Events portal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

Re: I stopped following the news

#124

Post by EffrafaxOfWug »

c16 wrote: post #99
EffrafaxOfWug wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds very interesting. Have you published this extension (or the source code)? I think I would like to try it out.

Yeah, it's available here https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/start-screen-a-busi... . Can't say it's the best extension in the world, but it scratches my own itch and I'm happy with it. Sometimes that's good enough.

Thanks :)

Re: I stopped following the news

#125

Post by hagbard_c »

The Dutch term for the German 'neurgierig' is 'nieuwsgierig' which translates to 'greedy for news' and as such is even closer to the subject of this post. I also use an RSS reader - Nextcloud News - to follow the 'news' (including this here site, HN) and I sometimes feel the same about what is pushed by the legacy media and its more recent competition. Much of what is published is tailored to fit some political agenda, often a 'progressive' one for most of the legacy news media and - due to my conscious choices - a more 'conservative' one for the more recent counterparts. I made this choice to get a somewhat more balanced view of what actual facts the stuff published by 'left' and 'right' seems to be based on but... man, is it often tiring to see 'both' sides go on and on and on pushing their agendas.

Even more tiring is to see how useful idiots [1] happily take the propaganda pushed by the media and trumpet it as if it were pure gospel, often with dire consequences. Should I just quit following the legacy media and the more recent anti-dotes and try to live here in quiet and solitude on the farm? Well, no, I don't think I should. I will be confronted with te results of the media poisoning the minds of their victims the next time I go to a city and find the roads blocked by a crowd of people shouting inane slogans. Where did they get those from, what are they blathering about, why does this crowd of screechy weasels hollering about some supposed misdeed performed by some government somewhere far from here occupy the station? Almost invariably it comes down to the propaganda pushed by the media - nowadays usually some on-line version which is amplified up by the legacy dinosaurs and trumpeted by the other titles which are more often than not owned by the same conglomerate - which the useful idiots uncritically pick up and use as their guide star. I read this stuff because I want to know what ideas the media is trying to amplify and which they are attempting to suppress. I read it because I sometimes have to quench whatever fuse has been lit by them in the heads of my children. So, tiring as it is I'll keep the feeds running and try to follow my way through the mire of deceptions, half-truths, outright lies and other propaganda which is what goes for 'news'.

[1] https://wordhistories.net/2021/03/26/useful-idiot/

Re: I stopped following the news

#126

Post by chucksta »

alserio wrote: post #84
josfredo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consequences are exactly the same, unless you hold an enormously influential platform.

Maybe, but some groups are banking on you having "news fatigue". So maybe they don't feel that way. And doing it in spite of them is something that balances out my anxiety for me.

So the third party gets annoyed either way? Gee I wonder why we see posts like this

Re: I stopped following the news

#127

Post by wappieslurkz »

nicbou wrote: post #59
kornaki wrote: post #18

I’ve had similar experiences. These days I only visit Hacker News to read some tech-related stuff. For me, not reading the news to the point where I ask my mom to turn off the TV when I visit is important, because I want to avoid hearing anything about wars, etc. As someone who lives in Poland, I followed so much news about the war in Ukraine in 2022 and 2023, and it was really bad for my well-being and my behavior.…

It’s unfortunate that American news slip into the HN feed, and that Americans get indignant when it gets flagged. I took so much flak for saying that I already know where to hear about US politics, and don’t need it forced into every unrelated forum.

This might be an open door, but I use the amazing HN-reader app called Hack which offers a filter that hides posts via a list of keywords you can manage. Of course some false negatives happen this way, but I don't mind about that.

Re: I stopped following the news

#128

Post by hagbard_c »

PurpleRamen wrote: post #38
M95D wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why read news and not directly read the new laws and regulations that were voted and passed, or new proposed laws under discussion? https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa...

Threats are not necessarily originating from laws or their execution. And not everyone has the time to read all laws, or is able to fully understand them and their impact on your well-being.

It probably takes less time to read those laws than it does to follow the hyperbole pushed by the media. Read them, discuss them with others - like-minded as well as those with a different view - and try to form your own opinions. If you rely on the media to curate your opinions you're just being groomed by one party or the other. In that case at least follow both the media which you most often agree with as well as those which you disagree and try to find out the truth behind the half-truths and lies pushed by them.

Re: I stopped following the news

#129

Post by JKCalhoun »

sotix wrote: post #121
JKCalhoun wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Front page consists of 30 links. If one of those 30 is related to politics I don't see the problem. Just don't click on it. Right now I see two posts about Rust (don't program in it, don't care), Kyber is hiring (retired, not interested in a job), etc. That's fine though, I just don't visit those links/comments.

> If one of those 30 is related to politics I don't see the problem. Just don't click on it. I think it's a fair issue for people trying to avoid triggering news topics. Sometimes the headlines can be really inflammatory. Avoiding them might be feasible for you and me but may be tougher for others. For example, the top post right now is titled, "ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants…

I like the idea of tags and filtering.

Re: I stopped following the news

#130

Post by berrycan »

voidUpdate wrote: post #52
berrycan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your entire existence? That sounds kind of hyperbolic, unless you're being targeted by genocide.

I'm trans. I live in the UK. I know it's not as bad as some middle eastern countries, but I'm still being actively legislated against

Do you mean the Supreme Court case last year? I thought that just covered interpretation of equalities law for single-sex exemptions, not actively legislating against anyone.
Post reply on HN