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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#201

Post by amelius »

samspot wrote: post #194
joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

If you decide not to totally quit a network, do what I do: 1. Turn off all notifications, especially for replies, likes, and content suggestions. 2. Train yourself not to look for feedback on the things you do post as a matter of habit. Intentionally check on the important discussions IFF you _remember_ to do so. 3. If possible, hide or remove any karma-like indications. Your life is better if the internet points are…

4. If you do scroll social media and you see a bad post then "punish" the platform by leaving.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#202

Post by munchler »

taylodl wrote: post #39
yostrovs wrote: post #25

What is actually outrageous is that Scientific American publishes articles like this. It's an institution that, like so many, is destroying itself by getting into politics, especially the politics of outrage.

Scientific American started "getting into politics" in the mid 20th century, so your comment is about 70 years late.

I grew up reading SciAm in the 70's and 80's, and I don't remember a single article about politics.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#203

Post by settsu »

matteoraso wrote: post #189

Why is it even important to stay informed? In virtually all cases, there's very little that I can do about anything, so I'm just wasting energy by looking at the news.

That's your right and I can understand why you might feel that way, but you should probably understand the compromises that are being made in doing so.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#204

Post by golemiprague »

lannisterstark wrote: post #163
miki123211 wrote: post #162

I wish there was a modern "news wire" service to help with this problem. I'm thinking tweet-sized news stories, a few per day at most, no threads, no images, no links, nothing but 140 characters of pure text. You could even deliver them as texts or unclickable push notifications. That format heavily discourages clickbait (because there are no clicks to be had) and forces journalists to only include the information th…

Or you could just read actual wire services. AP/Reuters etc have close to no clickbait.

[dead]

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#205

Post by awfulneutral »

boringg wrote: post #171
jordanpg wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One healthy way to consume Reddit that I recently learned about is creating a "custom feed" (see left margin of new UI). You can just add subs that are of interest that lack the torrent of bad news and only ever visit that custom feed. It doesn't ever algorithmically add posts from subs you don't manually include, as far as I've seen.

User groups you would be interested in get hijacked by whatever the overall sentiment of Reddit is. Threads that aren't political suddenly get political for no reason. It's completely dead in there - content quality is brutally low.

I just bookmark subreddits for things I'm interested in, and visit them individually. I hardly ever see any political content doing that.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#206

Post by declan_roberts »

snapcaster wrote: post #179

I think "being informed" is very overrated in general. Often it means being informed about palace intrigue and intelligence service/corporate narratives. I would say that in general media consumption or "staying informed" should be seen as a vice not a virtue

Self proclaimed "news junkies" are some of the most insufferable people I know.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#208

Post by Helmut10001 »

joshdavham wrote: post #42

One thing to consider for those of us who are more sensitive to online outrage is to just quit social media all together. I’m technically gen z and I’ve been off of social media (aside from HN, WhatsApp and discord) for years and you wouldn’t believe how great it’s been for my overall state of mind. Reddit, instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, etc are all the equivalent of digital junk food and I’d argu…

I did the same. I have some exceptions for technical topics on Reddit. I also still use Facebook in a very drilled down state (looking into it every 3-5 months and checking in with some remote friends). I have also set up my own Mastodon server, which is fine for niche topics and I can reach out to interesting people directly, where other channels fail (email). I heavily rely on RSS, particularly from people that I trust or who gained my trust over longer periods.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#209

Post by munchler »

Scientific American used to be a great magazine and should get back to what made it so valuable: Covering important ideas in science without watering them down. Their website now describes it as "the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology". Blech.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#210

Post by roguecoder »

miki123211 wrote: post #162

I wish there was a modern "news wire" service to help with this problem. I'm thinking tweet-sized news stories, a few per day at most, no threads, no images, no links, nothing but 140 characters of pure text. You could even deliver them as texts or unclickable push notifications. That format heavily discourages clickbait (because there are no clicks to be had) and forces journalists to only include the information th…

Part of the problem is that good journalism is expensive, and has been systematically undermined by monied interests around the world.

What is needed is a sustainable business model for quality journalism, set up in a way that is resistant to income inequality.

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