5 ms·

I stopped watching and reading the news, in general. I have some friends who balked at the idea when I mentioned it. They'd say, "Oh, but how do you keep up on

by akulbe 2y ago

I stopped watching and reading the news, in general. I have some friends who balked at the idea when I mentioned it. They'd say, "Oh, but how do you keep up on important news?" I don't. My life is better for letting it go. If something is genuinely important, and I really need to know - I always end up finding out somehow.

amelius 2y ago
And yet, here you are, on HN.
- takumif 2y ago
  I read tech news because I enjoy it. I don't read articles about autocrats or mass shootings or whatever because I don't enjoy them, and me reading them doesn't make the world a better place.
TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
I think a reasonable barometer for a lot of news is: will this be important or relevant in 1 month? If the answer is "no", then it's probably more entertainment than anything else. However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. For certain vulnerable groups, keeping up to date with politics and the news might have a tangible impact in their everyday life. With that being said, I generally don't keep up with the news either.
- majormajor 2y ago
  Slicing economically (oversimplifying here and ignoring other certain types of vulnerable or feeling-under-attack groups) the people at the bottom and the people at the top don't generally need to worry about the news. The ones at the top will be fine either way. The ones at the bottom will continue to have to scrap along either way. It's the people in the middle who's level of comfort day-to-day could be most affected by political changes, for whom a change in tax rate or inflation or social subsidies could shift comfort into precariousness or vice versa.
  - amelius 2y ago
    You mean the people who are at the edge between the bottom and the middle. Those people will be most affected by political events.
- bsder 2y ago
  > However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. Well, the other issue is that people pay too much attention to national news and waaaay to little attention to local news. That fracking site that just opened up next to your farm should probably occupy your attention. The four slobs trying to bring fiber to your town need your support. The fact that your local sheriff's office is swinging around with military gear might be a bit of a concern. etc. Sure, you want to make sure you are paying attention to whether the fascists are trying to take over nationally, however, those same people can do a lot more direct damage to you by taking over local control.
  - jkestner 2y ago
    Yes! And you can do a lot more about those local issues. The small-scale but impactful to _you_ actions are a more satisfying way to exercise democracy and a good way to build that muscle.
rightbyte 2y ago
It is usually better to read about stuff like months later when the dust have settled. Watching CNN lazer focus on some "developing story" with almost nothing to talk about but gossip makes my head hurt. If the local bridge is closed due to X people tell you.
- bqmjjx0kac 2y ago
  Have you found a good place to read about slightly less current events? I feel like most articles are little salami slices of events as they occur, without context.
  - wizzwizz4 2y ago
    There's https://tedium.co/what-is-tedium https://tedium.co/what-is-tedium, but that's just one site.
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    Not really, not on the internet, sadly. On paper there are some semimonthly environmentalist magazines my wife subscribe to, and the news coverage in those is quite settled and nice in that way. I guess magazines would be the place to look, but those seem to be dying off or are losing quality...
  - WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
    Wikipedia has a few spread over several countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_journalism#Slow_journalism_titles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_journalism#Slow_journalis... Techdirt does analysis https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=techdirt.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=techdirt.com Prospect Magazine does yesterday's journalism https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ RetroReport does event postmortem videos https://retroreport.org/ https://retroreport.org/ For particularly brilliant writers (ex: https://duck.com/?q=Kashmir+Hill https://duck.com/?q=Kashmir+Hill https://duck.com/?q=Zeynep+Tufekci https://duck.com/?q=Zeynep+Tufekci), I'll see where else they're writing. Sometimes that turns up mags I don't know about.
hn_version_0023 2y ago
Real news has always traveled by word-of-mouth very rapidly. I am also trying to give it up— it’s definitely a difficult battle missing out on that dopamine fix (or whatever it is )— but I continue to struggle!

by akulbe 2y ago

amelius 2y ago

And yet, here you are, on HN.

takumif 2y ago
I read tech news because I enjoy it. I don't read articles about autocrats or mass shootings or whatever because I don't enjoy them, and me reading them doesn't make the world a better place.

TheAceOfHearts 2y ago

I think a reasonable barometer for a lot of news is: will this be important or relevant in 1 month? If the answer is "no", then it's probably more entertainment than anything else. However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. For certain vulnerable groups, keeping up to date with politics and the news might have a tangible impact in their everyday life. With that being said, I generally don't keep up with the news either.

majormajor 2y ago
Slicing economically (oversimplifying here and ignoring other certain types of vulnerable or feeling-under-attack groups) the people at the bottom and the people at the top don't generally need to worry about the news. The ones at the top will be fine either way. The ones at the bottom will continue to have to scrap along either way. It's the people in the middle who's level of comfort day-to-day could be most affected by political changes, for whom a change in tax rate or inflation or social subsidies could shift comfort into precariousness or vice versa.
- amelius 2y ago
  You mean the people who are at the edge between the bottom and the middle. Those people will be most affected by political events.
bsder 2y ago
> However if I were to try and steelman the opposition for your position, I'd probably explore the argument that you could be living a very privileged life which might be part of the reason for why you're able to ignore the news. Well, the other issue is that people pay too much attention to national news and waaaay to little attention to local news. That fracking site that just opened up next to your farm should probably occupy your attention. The four slobs trying to bring fiber to your town need your support. The fact that your local sheriff's office is swinging around with military gear might be a bit of a concern. etc. Sure, you want to make sure you are paying attention to whether the fascists are trying to take over nationally, however, those same people can do a lot more direct damage to you by taking over local control.
- jkestner 2y ago
  Yes! And you can do a lot more about those local issues. The small-scale but impactful to _you_ actions are a more satisfying way to exercise democracy and a good way to build that muscle.

rightbyte 2y ago

It is usually better to read about stuff like months later when the dust have settled. Watching CNN lazer focus on some "developing story" with almost nothing to talk about but gossip makes my head hurt. If the local bridge is closed due to X people tell you.

bqmjjx0kac 2y ago
Have you found a good place to read about slightly less current events? I feel like most articles are little salami slices of events as they occur, without context.
- wizzwizz4 2y ago
  There's https://tedium.co/what-is-tedium https://tedium.co/what-is-tedium, but that's just one site.
- rightbyte 2y ago
  Not really, not on the internet, sadly. On paper there are some semimonthly environmentalist magazines my wife subscribe to, and the news coverage in those is quite settled and nice in that way. I guess magazines would be the place to look, but those seem to be dying off or are losing quality...
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  Wikipedia has a few spread over several countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_journalism#Slow_journalism_titles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_journalism#Slow_journalis... Techdirt does analysis https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=techdirt.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=techdirt.com Prospect Magazine does yesterday's journalism https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ RetroReport does event postmortem videos https://retroreport.org/ https://retroreport.org/ For particularly brilliant writers (ex: https://duck.com/?q=Kashmir+Hill https://duck.com/?q=Kashmir+Hill https://duck.com/?q=Zeynep+Tufekci https://duck.com/?q=Zeynep+Tufekci), I'll see where else they're writing. Sometimes that turns up mags I don't know about.

hn_version_0023 2y ago

Real news has always traveled by word-of-mouth very rapidly. I am also trying to give it up— it’s definitely a difficult battle missing out on that dopamine fix (or whatever it is )— but I continue to struggle!