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Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#621

Post by leokennis »

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…

Just want to add that, while Reddit is a huge time sink, it is pretty easy to just see the good parts of it:

- Mute any subreddit you do not enjoy

- Generously block any asshole in the comments

- Subscribe to the subreddits you do enjoy

- Create one or more themed multireddits of the subreddits you enjoy

My Reddit experience is cheesy feel good clips, cool videos of skilled people or weird occurences, funny niche humor and nerdy niche hobbies. No drama.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#622

Post by simianparrot »

vaccineai wrote: post #614
majgr wrote: post #570

Living in Poland ruled by trumpists for 8 years I have these experiences: - Get subscription of high value newspaper or magazine. Professionals work there, so you will get real facts, worthy opinions and less emotions. - It is better to not use social media. You never know if you are discussing with normal person, a political party troll, or Russian troll. - It is not worth discussing with „switched-on” people. They…

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#623

Post by ein0p »

Here's a ready-made idea for a high value AI app. Present to me the view of my favorite websites with all outrage clickbait hidden or re-worded in neutral, non-clickbait language. Better yet if you can also focus on the topics that I actually want to read about. Currently all the news apps without exception are the polar opposite of this, so I don't use them.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#625

Post by yabatopia »

lmm wrote: post #555
warkdarrior wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know the editors at your local TV stations? The local radio stations? The people who curate the datasets that train the YouTube recommendation model?

> Do you know the editors at your local TV stations? The local radio stations? Not personally, but their names are public, and if they were taking backhanders there would be a scandal. Remember the payola lawsuits?

That was 65 years ago. There are way more sophisticated ways now to influence things.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#626

Post by padolsey »

returningfory2 wrote: post #357
LeoPanthera wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I decided that other people are far more organized than I am and can respond more effectively, so I'm outsourcing political action in the form of donations. I've earmarked 3% of my income every month for a list of selected charities that currently includes the ACLU, the HRC, and a short list of smaller ones. I encourage you to do the same!

Edit: decided I don't want to engage on this issue.

> Edit: decided I don't want to engage on this issue.

I think I want that on my headstone :p

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#627

Post by padolsey »

kbelder wrote: post #541
yostrovs wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

One of the very best things you could do for your cause is to tone down your rhetoric. You're driving far more people away than you're convincing of anything. There's no shortage of things to criticize Trump for that are clear and hard to argue against. What you're saying is only fuel for the extreme to become more extreme.

I'm personally ok with such rhetoric when the stakes are high (I am losing hope that "talking nicely/sweetly" to people is _actually_ beneficial, on net), though I think yeh the parent comment could do with more material insight.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#628

Post by 0xEF »

majgr wrote: post #570

Living in Poland ruled by trumpists for 8 years I have these experiences: - Get subscription of high value newspaper or magazine. Professionals work there, so you will get real facts, worthy opinions and less emotions. - It is better to not use social media. You never know if you are discussing with normal person, a political party troll, or Russian troll. - It is not worth discussing with „switched-on” people. They…

You nailed it. For ages, we've known that we can be hacked by anything that solicits an emotional response from us. People who set their sights on abusing that power have only gotten better at doing it, so much so that often the victim of the manipulation has no idea they've been manipulated.

There is still an alarming number of people out there who do not seem aware that this is even possible, let alone actively being done on almost all media fronts.

I think acknowledging this makes my outrage fatigue worse, because I am also forced to admit that it can (and does) happen to me, despite being aware of it. This renders me automatically suspicious of any news being reported from any source, regardless of liberal or conservative bias. So, on top of being outraged, there's layers of paranoia which is tiring in and of itself, especially now that it seems more justified.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#629

Post by chikere232 »

WesternWind wrote: post #466
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…

Eh I wouldn't have known a friend died if I didn't occasionally log into FB. I wouldn't have known that my best friend from middle school lost her house. I wouldn't have known that a family member was pregnant. But yeah, I feel like news stuff is better curated elsewhere, because outrage keeps eyeballs viewing, so algorithmic feeds tend to highlight it.

> I wouldn't have known that a family member was pregnant.

Wait... how?

Your family only communicate via facebook?

I'm not judging here, I'm genuinely curious

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#630

Post by neuroelectron »

denkmoon wrote: post #451
neuroelectron wrote: post #170

Google's attack on RSS has been quite successful. Not a single mention here in the 150+ comments. I would think the HN crowd would be savvy enough to recommend it on this subject.

The content of the "news" has little to do with its conveyance protocol? Whether you get it from foxnews.com or foxnews.com/rss (insert your favoured antagonist here)

You're not really looking at the big picture. RSS allows you to escape social media filter bubbles, allows you to read the articles without an internet connection which removes a lot of the algorithmic capture of engagement and allows you to precisely control where your information comes from. You have to actively seek out new sources of information instead of having them fed to you.
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