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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13 2016, @11:59PM
Except, as you've found out, there's a difference between paying attention to the news much like an intelligence analyst with a degree of detachment and dispassion, versus how most people seem to ingest it, where it turns into some form or another of "OMG! Did you hear the latest about..." story of the day.
The funnysad thing is seeing local and national news sources in many ways turned into "legitimate" forms of National Enquirer, People Magazine, etc., but for "serious" subjects. Just look at all the clickbait links they add to their "legitimate" information pages...
The (all) media is in it for their own lulz, lulz that they can go to advertisers with. So figuring that out should be useful. And it's not even a "bias" per se. it's just trying to figure out what kind of lulz they're trying to generate.
I listen to the sports radio yak jobs to and from work. Why? Well, it's sports. It can be entertaining to listen to, but I'm not going to get whipped up into some state of depression or angry frenzy. And, most important, it's really not going to affect my day to day life one way or the other, so it's kind of a safe attention sideshow, sort of like an "applied Seinfeld Show" (you know, like Applied Physics or Mathematics? granted, those are not topics about nothing). And, I can get a degree of schadenfreude/self-superiority complex out of the system too - Buffalo Bills or Cleveland Steamers lost again? Oh so sad, sucks to be you... but, good job on pulling down the curve, keep up the good work! But, hey, whatever...that's why you're a fan, right?
Plus, even in real life, it's easy enough to not be a fan of sports, but enjoy sports. not gonna get a punch in the face for being a San Francisco Dodgers fan going to a LA Dodgers baseball game, say, if you're not a SF or LA fan in the first place.
Anyhow.