Hacker News Reader

Comment by treebornfrog | Hacker News Reader

You can 'get away' for as long as you like.

I stopped consuming news years ago.

The only way it reaches my conscious is if:

1) friends or family mention something (or anyone else within my social circle). Fair game. This helps me understand their thinking patterns too. Very helpful to see what they find important.

2) retweets. If I'm following someone who is retweeting low quality news I immediately block.

I don't feel anxious, when I go to the barbers and everyone is staring at the TV in the top corner, it reminds me of why I stopped.

Gyms are evil that play general trashy news on TV.

On the whole, you are not ignorant if you don't consume the news, not by any standard.

Don't believe that one bit.

P.s great handle.

View on HN

Thanks!

Agreed about the TVs. I never understood why so many places have it running in the background all day long.

Now we have Facebook and Netflix for passive consumption.

To wash your brain.

> On the whole, you are not ignorant if you don't consume the news, not by any standard.

I don't mean this in an insulting way, but aren't you ignorant (by definition) of current events if you don't read/hear about them?

Ignorant of current events but not ignorant generally. Most news is not worth me knowing.

But how will you decide which is worth knowing if you never look? I get why you may want to take it in at a slower pace than a social media feed, but it seems like there's no way to tell what's worth knowing if you "stop consuming news".

The idea here isn't if one should consume mainstream news and make decisions on what is relevant.

99% is irrelevant Decision fatigue Generally crap stuff Unhealthy Chips away on your perspective

Better to vet individual publications and consume at really moderate rates, for example, the economist, pointed out in the paper.

If it matters to my work I’ll find out about it through industry channels or coworkers. If it matters to my family/community/area I’ll hear about it from local interactions.

> I’ll hear about it from local interactions

Why is the medium of acquisition of news important here, seems like an irrelevant distinction. How can one be 'Ignorant of current events' if he is acquiring said current events through coworkers/locals.

This is precisely what I was referring to in my original comment. Not everyone has the privilege to leave safety of their family to random happenstance local interactions. eg: My wife's grand parents are on greencard and unenrolled themselves from one govt service based on recent news about being a public charge. Some ppl are constantly on the edge to leave it to 'local interactions'

> if it matters to my family/community/area I’ll hear about it from local interactions.

Reading only relevant news is still reading news.

I’m talking about reading and consuming news as Dobelli is describing it, not avoiding new info at all costs.

Spot on.

Anything that will impact your life will be filtered through.

> will be filtered through.

How are you so sure it will ? It might not. correct?

If it affects your life, you’ll become aware of it eventually. By definition.

It’s surely possible that something could occur that has repercussions for your life, to where you would have preferred to be aware of it ahead of time. But I can only think of 1 time in my 40 years when that’s happened with any significance. Hardly worth making myself an anxious wreck trying to constantly “be informed”. No matter how diligent one tried to keep pace, you’d never be certain of catching everything anyway.

Ignorance of “current events” is a good thing when what is presented as an “event” is largely a twisted, biased misrepresentation of truth.

Far easier to see the bull for what it is when you’re not acclimated to being deceived 99% of the time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com