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Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

theatlantic.com

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Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#251

Post by guscost »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #152
gaze wrote: post #98

Sorry but what exactly is non-political news? I’m convinced that people who talk about “politics” as a thing external to them are just refusing to engage with the parts of the world that are uncomfortable to them.

Looking at the CNN front page for a good source of examples, non-political news would be things like: * Evacuations ordered in Colorado and Utah as crews battle new blazes * NFL reports no new positive Covid-19 tests * Preorders are open for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro When people discuss political news, they're referring to stories like "Biden is putting red states in play" or "Mexican restaurant takes political…

“Political news” very often consists of what Daniel J. Boorstin called “pseudo-events”, actions taken by people for the purpose of generating news. Today’s example:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/18/politics/pelosi-stimulus-talk...

In a profound sense, most political news really is “fake news”.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#252

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

mhneu wrote: post #244

The author, Arthur Brooks, is the past president of a Republican thinktank, AEI. Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes. Brooks is one of the Republican elites who shapes Republican political strategy. He has a deep conflict of interest when he tells you to stop reading a…

> [Republican] policies are deeply unpopular

Well, this is demonstrably untrue with people at large. You know, about 50% of the country or so.

Are you sure you are thinking outside of your bubble. Those polices may be unpopular with you or I but clearly people support right-wing polices.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#253

Post by abootstrapper »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #231
r00tanon wrote: post #228

Social Media and 24-hour Cable News were designed for addictive effect. it's all based on fear. Fear of missing out mainly. The monkey brain wants constant reassurance. Then, to be assaulted with ads while consuming these "information sources" on top of the crap. It's designed to sell you things you don't really need or want, and if your mental health suffers as a result, well, neither the producers or the advertiser…

I don't blame them. They're not responsible for managing how much media we consume. We are.

Eh, sounds like cigarette manufacturers defense. Social media is addictive. They know it is, they leverage that to make money. They have some responsibility for their products affect on people.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#254

Post by yashap »

sgustard wrote: post #216
yashap wrote: post #65

This point rings strongly true to me. I have a number of members of friends/family who have become very difficult to be around, because they’ve become so intense/constantly outraged about politics, even if they are on the same end of the political spectrum as me: > The research doesn’t reveal precisely why we tend to dislike overly political people, but it doesn’t take too much imagination to guess that constant foam…

A couple years ago all you heard about was kids who didn't want to get shot in school. Now it's communities of color who don't want to get shot by police. It sure is a lot nicer to keep my head in the sand.

There are always tonnes of terrible things going on in the world, throughout human history. Hell, my grandfather was an Auschwitz survivor, and his entire immediate family was murdered by Nazis.

I think Trump is a terrible, terrible President, causing a tonne of damage to America, but he’s not exactly Hitler, more of a poor man’s Putin. I’m all for having political conversations, even reasonably frequent ones, but barring a legitimate Hitler situation, I don’t want it to be the ONLY thing I talk about. There’s a lot more to life. Some members of my friends/family can talk about nothing else anymore, it’s nonstop outrage, and they completely ignore all social queues from people who want to change the subject. These people suck to be around. The article sums it up well:

> it doesn’t take too much imagination to guess that constant foam-flecked political outrage makes one quite tedious

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#255

Post by aww_dang »

zarkov99 wrote: post #215
aww_dang wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, truth hasn't published any articles. So far, only subjective views have been published by fallible humans.

The fact that something cannot be done perfectly is not a valid excuse to do it poolry.

Agreed. However, it would be a good reason to hedge expectations accordingly. Everyone has a bias. Much of the current political acrimony could be avoided if both speakers and listeners acknowledged this.

Instead we have appeals to 'truthiness' and 'fact-check' that defy the basic premises of human nature.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#256

Post by unityByFreedom »

abootstrapper wrote: post #253
unityByFreedom wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't blame them. They're not responsible for managing how much media we consume. We are.

Eh, sounds like cigarette manufacturers defense. Social media is addictive. They know it is, they leverage that to make money. They have some responsibility for their products affect on people.

Tobacco companies knew smoking contributed to a rise in lung cancer and hid that from the public. If there is something like that being hidden about social media, then they should be held accountable for it. However, I doubt that's the case as we're all here discussing it. We already know it's bad to consume news in excess.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#258

Post by prawn »

kabdib wrote: post #63

I put myself into a news bubble about six weeks ago. I still very occasionally read local news and a mainstream front page (say, every few days), which seems sufficient to let me know what's going on in broad terms. Stuff leaks into the bubble (e.g., via HN) but the point is not to be totally isolated, just not to get caught in hours-long doom spirals. I've given money to the campaigns that are going to get money fro…

How common is it for people to donate to campaigns? I don't think I know anyone who does it in Australia, unless they do it secretly.

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#259

Post by rayiner »

mhneu wrote: post #244

The author, Arthur Brooks, is the past president of a Republican thinktank, AEI. Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes. Brooks is one of the Republican elites who shapes Republican political strategy. He has a deep conflict of interest when he tells you to stop reading a…

> Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes.

Conservatives outnumber liberals in every age bracket above 30, among both men and women, in every income bracket, among every education class except folks with post-graduate degrees, in every region, and among both non-Hispanic white and Hispanic people: https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/remained-center-right-id....

Re: Reading too much political news is bad for your well-being

#260

Post by guscost »

RonaldRaygun wrote: post #167
kyle_martin1 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading too much negative anything is bad for the psyche. It just so happens that the MSM is full-on TDS and they can't seem to let go. Trump is the blackhole for MSM, everything is somehow connected to "Orange Man Bad". Moreover, the Washington Post reported that 90% of Trump's coverage is negative [1]. Do you know anyone that is 90% terrible? I doubt it. Taking a step back from one's political views, which is hard…

Very strange that an unusually terrible politician would have an unusual number of negative articles written about him, isn't it? Clearly this is bias in action. Many people don't realize that everyone has exactly the same moral standing, and that any indication to the contrary is not to be trusted. Thank goodness we have the catchphrases "Orange Man Bad" and "Trump Derangement Syndrome" to safely allow us to ignore…

You have part of a point.

But then you also go into this fantasy where most criticism of Trump is the sober assessment of dispassionate intellectuals with no conflicts of interest, rather than plain old opposition PR funded by the people whose power he threatens. You’re not seeing the whole picture by a long shot.

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