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Part of what you’re describing can be attributed to lack of internet. But other part is just being an outsider that doesn’t really care that much (and I mean th

• dhosek 6y ago
  My outrage quotient has dropped significantly in the two and a half months since I deleted facebook and twitter. Just removing those two things from my life has made a measurable improvement in my quality of life.
  • _delirium 6y ago
    I found I had to get rid of a decent portion of the news too, and news-adjacent comedy shows like Colbert. It's not enough to personally not read FB/Twitter, since they have gotten so integrated into mainstream media. Maybe 10 years ago you could just ignore social media, but by 2018 (when I started making an effort to avoid it), you could end up seeing thousands of tweets without ever using twitter yourself, if you just regularly watched TV news and/or current events comedy. Whole portions of these shows turned into literally putting a tweet on the screen and then talking about the tweet and responses to it. Especially Trump tweets and their replies, but not solely those.
    • marlor 6y ago
      Getting rid of “newstainment” and 24-hour news programs significantly improved the quality and breadth of the news I consume. By just reading a quality daily newspaper and a couple of newsmagazines, I’m better informed than when I was a news junkie with cable news on in the background and news websites refreshing on my phone. “Breaking news” is broken. Print media, especially weekly newsmagazines, have the luxury of time to actually think about their coverage and provide adequate research and follow-up. Conversely, space is limited, so if it’s not adding value, it gets chopped. Live news, on the other hand, needs to alternate between being first to report, then filling time until something else occurs, all while making whatever is occurring seem more important than it really is.
      • SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
        Which print media do you recommend?
        • mcgin 6y ago
          The Financial Times is my main news source. It seems to be the only one that I've found which doesn't have sensationalist stories/click baity headlines
          • Stupulous 6y ago
            Financial journalism really outperforms most media sources in terms of picking important stories and telling them in an unbiased way. Maybe their wealthier audience means that they're not racing to the bottom for clicks. Maybe the people in charge know to run a business that gives people what they want without alienating half of potential customers. Maybe something else entirely. Whatever it is, it's working, and I hope it stays that way.
            • lostandbored 6y ago
              Agreed. Even Reuters News is high quality in comparison to CNN and Fox News.
              • deleted 6y ago
                [deleted]
        • DyslexicAtheist 6y ago
          not OP but I've had a long running subscription to The Economist since the early 90ies. One of my favorite sections usually glossed over by everyone I know (but I'm weird) is the quality from "Letters to the Editor" that are incredibly well selected and often hilarious when checked with the original piece that they are referring to. The Letters are not my causa primera for reading it, but if something so mundane is done with so much attention to detail, the rest should also be up to my expectation (and it usually is). Secondly there is also their Tech section which compared to politics / economics / finance ..., I can as an insider judge its quality. It stands out among the rest IMO. I also like the FT for similar reasons.
    • tomjen3 6y ago
      I once did an exercise where I went over every single news article on the front page of my prefered online paper and asked myself if that was relevant to me and my life. The answer was no to everything single one. That was pre-covid, and sometimes the news are relevant, but you can mostly do a quick checkup once a week. Prefer something in text form that you can scan over.
      • ghaff 6y ago
        A weekly news magazine was where I got most of my news for a long time. The US ones are all pretty bad these days; I dropped my Time subscription a few years back after having it for decades. The Economist is probably the go-to in English these days.
  • Tokelin 6y ago
    But those two services are not the internet as a whole. The internet is just the medium, unfortunately it has been taken over by a handful of private organisations.
  • gberger 6y ago
    I'm curious, you mention "outrage quotient" and "measurable improvement". How do you measure outrage?
    • throwawayffffas 6y ago
      I would guess, minutes of day being outraged.
      • dhosek 6y ago
        Pretty much that. Can I look back over my day and see that I spent time being angry/unhappy? It's not zero. There are other human beings on the planet with or without social media. But I have much less of the provocation-outrage-anger-depression cycle without Facebook and Twitter in my life.
  • MrGilbert 6y ago
    I deleted my facebook account some years ago. Also, I set my Twitter account to private. I use it to be connected to some people, and read their stuff. I'm pretty happy. Also, I have a second account for "open" discussions and work-related stuff that I barely use. It would be awesome if one could set certain tweets in a locked account to "visible for everyone".
  • psychiatrist24 6y ago
    But maybe you are now like the turkey who thinks everything is fine, and then it gets eaten at the end of the year. You might wake up in Socialism one day, with a mob outside of your house wanting to evict you.
  • ChrisRR 6y ago
    I completely agree. My anxiety has been so much better since I stopped reading the news, facebook and twitter. I don't really need a constant drip feed of all the terrible things going on in the world. Most of it doesn't affect me, and only serves to make me feel worse about humanity
  • lmm 6y ago
    Did you try just... not following the outrage parts? Not getting outraged? If you want to spend more time connecting with people you care about, getting rid of facebook feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
    • Swenrekcah 6y ago
      I know this is frowned upon here but: Nice try Mark
      • kreeben 6y ago
        First rule of HN: don't astroturf. Second rule of HN: don't call out people who you think are astroturfing. Third rule: astroturf.
        • morelisp 6y ago
          Nice try Paul.
        • ricardobayes 6y ago
          Just the term 'astroturf' and the meaning behind it makes me feel like an ancient roman 5 years before the collapse of the roman empire.
    • alnorth 6y ago
      The problem is that whoever you follow (whether they're friends, family or just interesting people) they ARE following the outrage parts. And of course there's the "trending" sidebars, and ads and other stuff that gets injected into your timeline without you asking for it. So things bleed in no matter how careful you are. The platforms are designed to drag you in and outrage you. Trying to avoid that is a constant battle - and you're going to give in to it from time to time.
      • LightG 6y ago
        Exactly this. My current move is to delete Facebook completely (well, deleted that years ago). I just didn't find as much value there as elsewhere on the internet. And the psychological cost wasn't worth the little value there was there. So, complete deletion. Twitter, I've deleted the mobile app and I follow no one. I have a separate list of profiles I find interesting. I have to physically go to that list and click on their profiles. This keeps me out of 90% of the drama and into 90% of the worthwhile content. It's hard to not look at "trending" but I'm trying. I wish there was a way to turn off "trending" and "timelines" completely. End result: hugely more productive and psychologically lighter.
  • anovikov 6y ago
    I can only second it. Deleting Facebook 3.5 years ago made me so, so much happier!
• random5634 6y ago
  I'm not disagreeing but a couple of things. - When living and interacting locally I think folks moderate their views a bit - call it "politeness"? - Views locally are somewhat more homogenized? - For better and worse, I'm not sure you'd last that long in Caribbean if you were just a twitter bomb thrower, even if justified - my impression was even things like whistleblowing would not be very well received (ie, if I'd complained about various govt officials not being at their desks when they should have been - it wouldn't have come over well). This may be wrong and certainly has changed as folks become more aware of what should and shouldn't happen.
• Spooky23 6y ago
  I would have agreed before getting rid of Facebook in 2016. Two key things - a power force for stealing my attention is gone, and I’ve dumped faux friends who are really just old acquaintances that felt more intimate because I got to see them on Facebook. Instead, I actually talk to people who are here.
• donpott 6y ago
  And politicians/powerful people doing and saying outrageous things predates the Internet by far. The fact that now we can be informed about it if we so choose is nothing but a blessing from my perspective.
• TorKlingberg 6y ago
  This is very true. You get the same thing with people who live in Japan for a bit and declare that the political climate there is so much better. Eh, no, you just can't read the newspapers.
• simias 6y ago
  Most definitely. I live as an expat in a foreign country and while I use the internet a lot and even speak the local language, I still feel very disconnected from the celebrity and political drama. I find it very beneficial, and it definitely helps broaden you general outlook on these things. I used to follow the news pretty closely, now I just get the headlines once a day and move on with my life. But as always it's a rather privileged position. I'm a high-wage childless white dude with a French passport, I don't have a lot to fear from politics. If things go bad here for some reason I can just move somewhere else, a luxury the vast majority of human beings don't have. Having the possibility not to care is a luxury, in a way.
  • HenryBemis 6y ago
    > I still feel very disconnected from the celebrity and political drama I try to never bother with 'celebrities'. They are glorified nothings. Actor X is using phone from ABC company, only because they paid him to pose holding one. Not because it has anti-matter/matter fusion technology. Also most celebrity events do not affect any of our lives. They divorce? pity.. but still.. don't care. Model X went to a party? good for her (wear a mask!) but still.. don't care. > Having the possibility not to care is a luxury, in a way. I remember the Minimalists once said "most crises, aren't". There is wisdom in that phrase. Lack of immediate exposure to 'news', filters out most of the non-crises and the unecessary drama. The important news will stick around after 48 hours/days/weeks (Sollarwinds, unemployment rise, COVID, a major shift in political events, etc.) With that said, a quick scroll through a couple of news-worthy outelets (BYOsite) will give you all the info within 60seconds, and will give you the opportunity to seek out more - without the spammy exposure of TV/Radio.
• drdeadringer 6y ago
  > Outrage existed long before internet I recall the film 'Network' with its "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" thread. Among other messages.