I find the attitude of "letting go" to be specifically helpful for news. Unless you're directly affected at the time of occurrence by something like the Malaysian airliner disappearing, or by a mass shooting...you gain virtually nothing from being atop the news. You skip all the knee-jerk reactions and theories, the hours of meaningless jabber used to fill the 24-7 newscycle, the errors in judgment made by first impressions.

I would say you gain less than nothing by following breaking news...you lose time and attention obviously...but for the most part, you also fill your mind with what is the very definition of information junk...stuff that, at best, is "the first draft of history", and at worst, is just the kind of nervous blather people make when they're anxious and waiting for resolution.

If there was a way to put a "Show me nothing newer than a week ago" filter on the Internet, I'd probably turn it on by default.