4 ms·

Is it feasible to “turn off the news” in 2021? I’m not so sure.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
Yeah it is, but it involves curating a lot of your online experiences and media consumption habits. It may involve losing contact with some of your online friends on social networks if they (re) post news. And with 'rona restrictions, "offline" alternatives / distractions have been limited.
bart_spoon 5y ago
Feasible? Yes. But it certainly requires effort and saying now to things that are considered standard parts of daily life by much of society, such as engagement with platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
stackedinserter 5y ago
I cut myself from consuming news and FB/Twitter feeds many years ago, maybe back in 2014 when MSM went ape shit in my region. Can't say I was successful, for number of reasons. News still find their way into my head via HN headlines (although I disabled them via Tampermonkey scripts), via buzz in comments, via talks with (some) friends etc. Also, only bad news go through via these channels, so the world looks even more depressing because when something good happens, nobody brings it up. Probably I need to cut myself from passive consumption of reddit/HN too.
- vmception 5y ago
  For me its just recognizing how the news is formed and syndicated. For example, everything on the news is supposed to match your worst nightmare. The more closely it matches, the less likely it is accurate. Knowing that helps filter what you actually need to be cognizant of and react to. Actually consuming it is just to apply critical thinking to know why it isn't the complete story, and solely for conversation purposes.
  - stackedinserter 5y ago
    > everything on the news is supposed to match your worst nightmare. The more closely it matches, the less likely it is accurate To my experience, it's the opposite.
    - vmception 5y ago
      which part? All your nightmares are accurately occurring or you dont see news that matches your nightmares?
celsoazevedo 5y ago
I managed to reduce it a lot. I never tried to cut it to zero because I still want to be informed and because I think the problem is consuming a lot of news. - The radio I used to listen to during the day had a small news segment every hour. I replaced it with listening to my own music (or use Spotify, Apple Music, etc). It was mostly repetitive and had advertising, so it was easy to replace. - I no longer watch TV, especially news stations. They keep repeating the same thing every 30 minutes anyway and hyping up everything that happens because there's not enough content. What I used to watch on TV (eg: series) can be found somewhere else and I can watch it when I want. - No more "news" notifications. Most "news" aren't really "news" (I don't care if a celebrity did or said something...) and most of the "breaking news" are not that important. - Disabled/removed everything that had news on it (they're everywhere!). I don't use a news app, my browser doesn't show me news in the new tab page, left Facebook (best decision ever - I use direct messages to keep in touch), stopped following people that shared news or where always fighting with someone on Twitter. Now I use newsletters, podcasts and RSS feeds to follow the news. - Some news organisations have free weekly newsletters or a weekly podcast with a recap of the week. Short, direct and doesn't use much of my time. - RSS feeds allow me to follow certain subjects or websites that I want to follow closely. - Some news agencies seem to do a better job than some rag using clickbait titles to bring traffic to their crappy website. They're often not as one sided as certain orgs and tell you what happened without wrapping it in their opinion. - Sites like Hacker News can be useful. I already knew this about the Pfizer vaccine, but some people made good points here. Sometimes I'm a bit behind other people, but not by much. For some things, it's nice to follow everything as it is happening, but usually I don't miss much. I might be interested in knowing what's happening, but not everything about who did it (eg: the sad story about the people involved - I can find more details if I want) or as if it was entertainment. The rush to be first at reporting the event also means that often they're wrong about something. I also don't really care about some accident that happened in a completely different country, need to know what's the covid situation everywhere in detail or something bad that may happen. This works for me, but it also requires some self control and some curation. RSS feeds and podcasts won't help me much if I subscribe to all websites and multiple podcasts about news, politics, etc.
BeetleB 5y ago
What is the difficulty? Don't browse news sites (including HN if the stuff here gets you down). Don't use social media where you have poor control of what gets in your feed. If you have contacts who keep sending you news, ask them to stop and if they won't, put them in an ignore list. If your in-person contacts with friends is always about the news, limit the time you spend with them. Substitute that time with other things - be it other sites, hobbies or activities. Reading novels can be a lot of fun. Building things, etc. It is in your hands.

Yeah it is, but it involves curating a lot of your online experiences and media consumption habits. It may involve losing contact with some of your online friends on social networks if they (re) post news. And with 'rona restrictions, "offline" alternatives / distractions have been limited.

bart_spoon 5y ago

Feasible? Yes. But it certainly requires effort and saying now to things that are considered standard parts of daily life by much of society, such as engagement with platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

stackedinserter 5y ago

I cut myself from consuming news and FB/Twitter feeds many years ago, maybe back in 2014 when MSM went ape shit in my region. Can't say I was successful, for number of reasons. News still find their way into my head via HN headlines (although I disabled them via Tampermonkey scripts), via buzz in comments, via talks with (some) friends etc. Also, only bad news go through via these channels, so the world looks even more depressing because when something good happens, nobody brings it up. Probably I need to cut myself from passive consumption of reddit/HN too.

vmception 5y ago
For me its just recognizing how the news is formed and syndicated. For example, everything on the news is supposed to match your worst nightmare. The more closely it matches, the less likely it is accurate. Knowing that helps filter what you actually need to be cognizant of and react to. Actually consuming it is just to apply critical thinking to know why it isn't the complete story, and solely for conversation purposes.
- stackedinserter 5y ago
  > everything on the news is supposed to match your worst nightmare. The more closely it matches, the less likely it is accurate To my experience, it's the opposite.
  - vmception 5y ago
    which part? All your nightmares are accurately occurring or you dont see news that matches your nightmares?

celsoazevedo 5y ago

I managed to reduce it a lot. I never tried to cut it to zero because I still want to be informed and because I think the problem is consuming a lot of news. - The radio I used to listen to during the day had a small news segment every hour. I replaced it with listening to my own music (or use Spotify, Apple Music, etc). It was mostly repetitive and had advertising, so it was easy to replace. - I no longer watch TV, especially news stations. They keep repeating the same thing every 30 minutes anyway and hyping up everything that happens because there's not enough content. What I used to watch on TV (eg: series) can be found somewhere else and I can watch it when I want. - No more "news" notifications. Most "news" aren't really "news" (I don't care if a celebrity did or said something...) and most of the "breaking news" are not that important. - Disabled/removed everything that had news on it (they're everywhere!). I don't use a news app, my browser doesn't show me news in the new tab page, left Facebook (best decision ever - I use direct messages to keep in touch), stopped following people that shared news or where always fighting with someone on Twitter. Now I use newsletters, podcasts and RSS feeds to follow the news. - Some news organisations have free weekly newsletters or a weekly podcast with a recap of the week. Short, direct and doesn't use much of my time. - RSS feeds allow me to follow certain subjects or websites that I want to follow closely. - Some news agencies seem to do a better job than some rag using clickbait titles to bring traffic to their crappy website. They're often not as one sided as certain orgs and tell you what happened without wrapping it in their opinion. - Sites like Hacker News can be useful. I already knew this about the Pfizer vaccine, but some people made good points here. Sometimes I'm a bit behind other people, but not by much. For some things, it's nice to follow everything as it is happening, but usually I don't miss much. I might be interested in knowing what's happening, but not everything about who did it (eg: the sad story about the people involved - I can find more details if I want) or as if it was entertainment. The rush to be first at reporting the event also means that often they're wrong about something. I also don't really care about some accident that happened in a completely different country, need to know what's the covid situation everywhere in detail or something bad that may happen. This works for me, but it also requires some self control and some curation. RSS feeds and podcasts won't help me much if I subscribe to all websites and multiple podcasts about news, politics, etc.

BeetleB 5y ago

What is the difficulty? Don't browse news sites (including HN if the stuff here gets you down). Don't use social media where you have poor control of what gets in your feed. If you have contacts who keep sending you news, ask them to stop and if they won't, put them in an ignore list. If your in-person contacts with friends is always about the news, limit the time you spend with them. Substitute that time with other things - be it other sites, hobbies or activities. Reading novels can be a lot of fun. Building things, etc. It is in your hands.