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> It's so aggravating and anxiety inducing that I only check a news roundup in the morning and I shut myself away from any other news sources. Not ideal, but at

> It's so aggravating and anxiety inducing that I only check a news roundup in the morning and I shut myself away from any other news sources. Not ideal, but at this point it's the only way to make sure I'm not consumed by the constant stream of bad news. I have attempted to stay away from news media since around 2018. Around last November, I decided to make a complete cut and stop consuming anything "news related" from secondary sources like podcasts, reddit comment threads etc. I expected that I'd live in ignorance, but I'd gain some peace of mind. This change has had a far greater impact on me than what I had originally assumed. First surprise is that I still find out everything that's going on in the world that's relevant to me or people I care about. Second, I feel like I turned sober for the first time in years - I've had soo much creativity and mental energy that bloomed out of nowhere within a few days after I stopped punishing my thought process with news from the world. There are a few things I have discovered in the past few months. First, if you put in effort to find very high quality information about an event that you hear about, you will usually find something from primary sources that are orders of magnitude better than anything that's published on popular media. Second, there really aren't that many new things happening in the world all the time - 30 mins of effort a week is usually sufficient to be on top of everything going on. There are a ton of people who will convince you that it's your moral duty to follow news as closely as possible. It's totally not worth it.

alfiedotwtf 7y ago
This. I’ve been doing the same for over 10 years. No news papers, and TV, and it’s been wonderful. I’ve regressed a bit with news subreddits under 30 minutes a day, and will read links from friends, but I’ve found that it’s mostly propaganda. > There are a ton of people who will convince you that it's your moral duty to follow news as closely as possible. It's totally not worth it. Most “news” is either PR or propaganda. So is “your duty” to keep consuming it. Side note: I buy all the Australian newspapers during the Christmas holiday and force myself to go through it, and it’s always a reminder how it’s all a waste of time.
dragonsky67 7y ago
This has been my mode of operation for the last couple of years, untill the virus started impacting Australia. Now restrictions etc are changing so quickly that you pretty much need to keep up to date. Got to say it's not doing my mental health any favours. One thing that has suprised me is the lack of any non-virus news that is around. The virus and it's fallout can't be the only thing happening in the world at the moment! The only non-virus related news I've seen over the last couple of weeks is a couple of local court cases and North Korea firing something into the ocean. Oh and we had a local government election here in Queensland which got about an inch of coverage. This tells me that most of the normal news we get fed is pretty much non-essential filler.
swat535 7y ago
I find it interesting that you lumped Reddit with Indie podcasts. Based on my experience, Reddit is incredibly toxic with a lot of low quality content. You just need a glimpse of /r/worldnews to get a feel for this. That being said, there are some excellent indie podcasts out there though.
not_kurt_godel 7y ago
> stop consuming anything "news related" from secondary sources like podcasts, reddit comment threads etc And yet you're commenting here, in a news-related comment thread?

alfiedotwtf 7y ago

This. I’ve been doing the same for over 10 years. No news papers, and TV, and it’s been wonderful. I’ve regressed a bit with news subreddits under 30 minutes a day, and will read links from friends, but I’ve found that it’s mostly propaganda. > There are a ton of people who will convince you that it's your moral duty to follow news as closely as possible. It's totally not worth it. Most “news” is either PR or propaganda. So is “your duty” to keep consuming it. Side note: I buy all the Australian newspapers during the Christmas holiday and force myself to go through it, and it’s always a reminder how it’s all a waste of time.

dragonsky67 7y ago

This has been my mode of operation for the last couple of years, untill the virus started impacting Australia. Now restrictions etc are changing so quickly that you pretty much need to keep up to date. Got to say it's not doing my mental health any favours. One thing that has suprised me is the lack of any non-virus news that is around. The virus and it's fallout can't be the only thing happening in the world at the moment! The only non-virus related news I've seen over the last couple of weeks is a couple of local court cases and North Korea firing something into the ocean. Oh and we had a local government election here in Queensland which got about an inch of coverage. This tells me that most of the normal news we get fed is pretty much non-essential filler.

swat535 7y ago

I find it interesting that you lumped Reddit with Indie podcasts. Based on my experience, Reddit is incredibly toxic with a lot of low quality content. You just need a glimpse of /r/worldnews to get a feel for this. That being said, there are some excellent indie podcasts out there though.

not_kurt_godel 7y ago

> stop consuming anything "news related" from secondary sources like podcasts, reddit comment threads etc And yet you're commenting here, in a news-related comment thread?