5 ms·

The problem with totally unplugging is that you effectively put your head in the sand. You're less informed about what is going on around you. Sure you can read

The problem with totally unplugging is that you effectively put your head in the sand. You're less informed about what is going on around you. Sure you can read books, but you're increasing your risk of exposure to bias or falsehoods when you limit your selection like that. We may be getting pummeled with "fake news" right now, but at least we have the ability to discuss the matter and see more than one side. The early 20th century may have seemed hunky-dory to a lot of people, but there was a lot of bad stuff going on that just never had the chance to see the light of day. I don't want to go back to that. Take it to a further extreme, the Amish. I'm sure many of them think life is great out there on the farm. But they aren't going to be much help for solving problems on a national or global scale. Heck even their votes (do they vote?) are probably based on some community consensus or shared local interest. As you narrow your gaze you limit your ability to participate in the world.

tester756 6y ago
> You're less informed about what is going on around you. majority of things from the news has no impact on me at all
- kps 6y ago
  Some will, but probably not the ones that grab attention. For 99% of humanity's existence, if you even heard of ten people dying at once it meant that you were in extreme danger. (Or occasionally, had just finished putting the neighbouring tribe in extreme danger.)
- MetaWhirledPeas 6y ago
  Let's take one big example: climate change. Without the news, things would be different. It might never have achieved the level of funding and attention it has so far if it weren't for general public awareness.
  - anthk 6y ago
    He, you just couldn't do worse, right? I have a Gopher site for that, from a really insteresting guy: gopher.club/1/users/mmeta4/ No ads, no likes, no bullshit. Just pure text, some images and PDF's readable even under a Linux framebuffer.
  - tester756 6y ago
    well, but on the other hand I'm just one person, the rest (significant) isn't going to do the same (avoid news) You can argue that this logic is flawed or something, but that's how it is in reality.
anthk 6y ago
>. You're less informed about what is going on around you. https://lite.cnn.io https://lite.cnn.io https://text.npr.org https://text.npr.org https://efe.com https://efe.com I use them thru Lynx and a framebuffer image viewer. Everything else is bullshit. I'm probably 90% better informed than half of the mooks being idiotized at the social media.
- dv35z 6y ago
  Thanks for this list! Bookmarked. Here’s on that I would add: The Wikipedia Current Events summary page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events I check that a couple times a week, and feel very “caught up”, and also have an opportunity to dive in deep as needed.

tester756 6y ago

> You're less informed about what is going on around you. majority of things from the news has no impact on me at all

kps 6y ago
Some will, but probably not the ones that grab attention. For 99% of humanity's existence, if you even heard of ten people dying at once it meant that you were in extreme danger. (Or occasionally, had just finished putting the neighbouring tribe in extreme danger.)
MetaWhirledPeas 6y ago
Let's take one big example: climate change. Without the news, things would be different. It might never have achieved the level of funding and attention it has so far if it weren't for general public awareness.
- anthk 6y ago
  He, you just couldn't do worse, right? I have a Gopher site for that, from a really insteresting guy: gopher.club/1/users/mmeta4/ No ads, no likes, no bullshit. Just pure text, some images and PDF's readable even under a Linux framebuffer.
- tester756 6y ago
  well, but on the other hand I'm just one person, the rest (significant) isn't going to do the same (avoid news) You can argue that this logic is flawed or something, but that's how it is in reality.

anthk 6y ago

>. You're less informed about what is going on around you. https://lite.cnn.io https://lite.cnn.io https://text.npr.org https://text.npr.org https://efe.com https://efe.com I use them thru Lynx and a framebuffer image viewer. Everything else is bullshit. I'm probably 90% better informed than half of the mooks being idiotized at the social media.

dv35z 6y ago
Thanks for this list! Bookmarked. Here’s on that I would add: The Wikipedia Current Events summary page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events I check that a couple times a week, and feel very “caught up”, and also have an opportunity to dive in deep as needed.