> The future was much more certain a couple of week ago.
Turn off the news and you’ll be much happier. Remember they only make money if they’ve scared you into watching.
Turn off the news and you’ll be much happier. Remember they only make money if they’ve scared you into watching.
Rather, be informed and watch whats happening with a critical mindset. Ignorance may be bliss but its also irresponsible.
Now I think it needs to allow for exceptions for events like now with Russia invading Ukraine.
Cut NYT, CNN, The Guardian and all the rest, you'll be happier and will be better informed
(Joke explanation: my username is Dutch for 'time traveller'.)
I haven't watched the news for years, or read the newspapers. I do real articles from magazines and newspapers and books and such (from HN, among other places), which are far more useful. I don't really know what's going on in Ukraine right this moment, but most will have forgotten that in two weeks time anyway, so what's the point? Instead I spent some time reading up on the context a few weeks ago.
The news is also strongly biased towards negative events. The classic example is that "plane crashed" is big news, but that planes are actually very safe. "Man spills pint and gets punched" is news. "Man spills pint and it's all fine" is not. etc. It's not a particularly good reflection of reality.
Because we can completely fill our days with what's going on in Ukraine and yet be able to do very little about it at an individual level and I'm really not sure that's good for someone's sanity.
Instead of watching/reading news for hours. Take 30 min to donate some money and email your representative in Congress on your beliefs. You’ll have done way more to help your cause than watching news and you get your day back.
For me personally, I find the war to be incredibly distracting, because my attention was almost constantly drawn to it. But throughout the past few days I learned a few thing:
The situation on the ground does not change that quickly, fresh reports are often wrong or fabricated. But most importantly: I've gotten myself to be constantly obsessed over a distant war which made me forget what I actually wanted to do over the past few days.
I'll continue to follow the news, but not every hour and minute, and I'm just thankful a place like this exist.
what a privileged thing to say
Perhaps a more reasonable approach is reading the news once a week. You stay informed, but it's not something you worry about daily.
It's on the individual to find a happy balance of media consumption for their mental health in the same way it's on the individual not to eat candy every day for lunch.
Yeah! Imagine being so privileged you’re allowed to turn off the news and feel happier without mom and dad grounding you from the internet or the government aiming a nuke at you in response, which would thereby prevent you from typing words into a text box and clicking the Reply button when you’re done writing your thoughts.
That would suck because then someone else wouldn’t be able to come along and not actually provide a counterpoint to your comments, but instead just write “what a privileged thing to say”, undoubtedly smirking while simultaneously sipping a latte and clicking Reply to submit their effortless snarky reply from their $5K/month apartment located in the heart of some tech city.
I think CS Lewis explained it well when the atomic bomb was created:
> In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
I have absolutely no way of impacting events in the Ukraine, even if I decide to contribute to a charity or try to influence my local member of parliament there is still absolutely no benefit to be gained by anybody (except perhaps the media) of me consuming this coverage.
I can however benefit significantly by avoiding news reporting that is going to continually trigger primitive fight or flight instincts and leave me in a high state of stress.