I have to admit I worked in "news" a few years back. Since then I mostly refrain from the dopamine kick of reading news (or headlines). Imho news is like a mix

I have to admit I worked in "news" a few years back. Since then I mostly refrain from the dopamine kick of reading news (or headlines). Imho news is like a mix of slot machine (aka Skinner Box) and a 'Confirmation Bias Machine'. Our brain is wired to prefer new things. Especially if we have the delusion this new thing (or information) might benefit us in some way. What I found enlightening was the late Hans Rosling's idea (in his book Factfulness) that one roughly consumes (on average) about 10.000 news pieces a year (about 30 per day). And that one should ask oneself how many of them trigger or at least influence a relevant decision one makes/has to make. How much of news is noise vs. signal? To me this combination of low signal-to-noise ratio and addictive quality of media/news consumption while fostering my confirmation bias was enough to change jobs and turn my back to news. Given the additional fact of massive propaganda in war times (or any crisis) would only be the icing on the proverbial cake.