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This story might be helpful to those tearing their hair out about the news lately:
I grew up believing that following the news makes you a better citizen. Eight years after having quit, that idea now seems ridiculous—that consuming a particularly unimaginative information product on a daily basis somehow makes you thoughtful and informed in a way that benefits society.
But I still encounter people who balk at the possibility of a smart, engaged adult quitting the daily news.
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A few things you might notice, if you take a break:1) You feel better
A common symptom of quitting the news is an improvement in mood. News junkies will say it's because you've stuck your head in the sand.
But that assumes the news is the equivalent of having your head out in the fresh, clear air. They don't realize that what you can glean about the world from the news isn't even close to a representative sample of what is happening in the world.
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2) You were never actually accomplishing anything by watching the newsIf you ask someone what they accomplish by watching the news, you'll hear vague notions like, "It's our civic duty to stay informed!" or "I need to know what's going on in the world," or "We can't just ignore these issues," none of which answer the question.
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A month after you've quit the news, it's hard to name anything useful that's been lost. It becomes clear that those years of news-watching amounted to virtually nothing in terms of improvement to your quality of life, lasting knowledge, or your ability to help others. And that's to say nothing of the opportunity cost. Imagine if you spent that time learning a language, or reading books and essays about some of the issues they mention on the news.
Read on for the rest of the list.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 13 2016, @08:08PM
We travel, flip through the cable channels in the hotel - that's enough reminder for us.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13 2016, @09:58PM
Always bring a book and laptop for emergency entertainment!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 13 2016, @10:24PM
Same here. I'm (possibly) visiting another physical culture, may as well amp up the surreal with some more weird subculture and I watch CNN till I can't.
1) More commercials than I remember. Seems like 2010s TV news is all commercials.
2) In the 90s they had to show off their Amiga computers by putting on scrolls and occasional bugs but I remember seeing a near parody channel a couple years ago with a scroller on the top and two on the bottom all going different speeds and when they panned the camera I felt seasick. I've been thru some stuff in boats and planes and I never feel seasick but the TV got me.
3) When I was a kid "breaking news" meant the prez or the pope got shot, or a manned spacecraft exploded, or minimum hundred people on public transit (plane, whatever) died. Now it means nothing, all news is breaking. F you guys you get to trick me once or twice but I'm done now.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday December 14 2016, @03:40PM
Huh. Jesus. I pull up the channel guide, see all the same movies I already had seen 50 times 20 years ago, a bunch of reality TV crap I have zero interest in, and that's enough for me.
My kids happened to turn on the TV at the last hotel we stayed at. I was not really paying attention to it, being busy with other things, but after a good stretch my beautiful son proclaimed, "Daddy, when are the commercials ever going to end?!" When I told him they never end he switched it off in disgust and they entertained themselves playing with coasters instead.
Washington DC delenda est.