4 ms·

Must be nice to live in country stable enough for you to able not to follow the news.

ghaff 4y ago
Not sure about your point. Trekking in Nepal in the 1990s, there wasn't an option to get the New York Times delivered to my tent every morning regardless of the stability of the country I lived in. And, indeed, backpacking in many locations even in the US, I wouldn't expect Internet access today.
hans1729 4y ago
Now I’m curious, where do you live? “News” are serving a very weird market, almost 100% about selling stories that satisfy the distorted attention span of demographic majorities who have no interest in going beyond the surface level of their groups model of consensus. It’s an omnidirectional intellectual wasteland, ignoring some pieces of economical (etc) analysis. What do you have to be informed about a priori? After years of dodging newspapers I got hooked on “news” in feb-mar 2020 due to Covid. Took about one month until I remembered that it’s a complete waste of time. I feel like the HN-audience has very little to gain from news directed at the general population.
- golergka 4y ago
  Used to be Russia until early March.
  - windowsrookie 4y ago
    Is there any real mainstream news in Russia? I'm lead to believe that all of the news there is government controlled propaganda.
    - golergka 4y ago
      There are independent media in Russian language (most not physically located in Russia), internet at large, social networks and VPNs to access those that are banned. But if you were someone who "didn't follow the news" for the last 10 years, you would consume government's propaganda instead, and believe it. Which is my point.
- rakejake 4y ago
  Same here, got hooked to news during Covid and for a few months it was agony. Then I realized why I stopped reading news regularly in the first place.
windowsrookie 4y ago
That's a ridiculous comment. I don't follow the new here in the United States and do just fine. I don't watch TV, I don't visit news websites, I don't use twitter, reddit, or Facebook. But I still hear about important news thru everyday conversation. 99% of the "news" is useless unimportant filler.
- golergka 4y ago
  > here in the United States That's my point.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
My parents come from a developing country which was underdeveloped in the '90s and we did not "follow" the news. Relevant bits of news were hawked by anyone and everyone (if there were any general strikes, curfews, etc) but otherwise we were just blissfully unaware. My family came from an urban area and it was probably a different situation in rural areas, but rural areas never had any of the events you needed to steer around from the news anyway, so I don't know if it was any different practically speaking.
8bitsrule 4y ago
Back in those times, that was often limited to places that hadn't been recently politically de-colonized. Wow ... great article. Imagine calling Nat Geo and getting to actually talk to the photo editor. Or going someplace to enjoy navigating a culture without guides or signage or language or pocket tech. Real adventure.

Not sure about your point. Trekking in Nepal in the 1990s, there wasn't an option to get the New York Times delivered to my tent every morning regardless of the stability of the country I lived in. And, indeed, backpacking in many locations even in the US, I wouldn't expect Internet access today.

hans1729 4y ago

Now I’m curious, where do you live? “News” are serving a very weird market, almost 100% about selling stories that satisfy the distorted attention span of demographic majorities who have no interest in going beyond the surface level of their groups model of consensus. It’s an omnidirectional intellectual wasteland, ignoring some pieces of economical (etc) analysis. What do you have to be informed about a priori? After years of dodging newspapers I got hooked on “news” in feb-mar 2020 due to Covid. Took about one month until I remembered that it’s a complete waste of time. I feel like the HN-audience has very little to gain from news directed at the general population.

golergka 4y ago
Used to be Russia until early March.
- windowsrookie 4y ago
  Is there any real mainstream news in Russia? I'm lead to believe that all of the news there is government controlled propaganda.
  - golergka 4y ago
    There are independent media in Russian language (most not physically located in Russia), internet at large, social networks and VPNs to access those that are banned. But if you were someone who "didn't follow the news" for the last 10 years, you would consume government's propaganda instead, and believe it. Which is my point.
rakejake 4y ago
Same here, got hooked to news during Covid and for a few months it was agony. Then I realized why I stopped reading news regularly in the first place.

windowsrookie 4y ago

That's a ridiculous comment. I don't follow the new here in the United States and do just fine. I don't watch TV, I don't visit news websites, I don't use twitter, reddit, or Facebook. But I still hear about important news thru everyday conversation. 99% of the "news" is useless unimportant filler.

golergka 4y ago
> here in the United States That's my point.

Karrot_Kream 4y ago

My parents come from a developing country which was underdeveloped in the '90s and we did not "follow" the news. Relevant bits of news were hawked by anyone and everyone (if there were any general strikes, curfews, etc) but otherwise we were just blissfully unaware. My family came from an urban area and it was probably a different situation in rural areas, but rural areas never had any of the events you needed to steer around from the news anyway, so I don't know if it was any different practically speaking.

8bitsrule 4y ago

Back in those times, that was often limited to places that hadn't been recently politically de-colonized. Wow ... great article. Imagine calling Nat Geo and getting to actually talk to the photo editor. Or going someplace to enjoy navigating a culture without guides or signage or language or pocket tech. Real adventure.