Don't Watch The News - Gain A Happier Life

By /
Hmmm, what I really mean is:
  1. Don't become "news" addicted,
  2. Stay informed, and
  3. Don't replace one form of "news" for another.
By "watch the news" I also mean "read the social news", "click on the YouTube links", or any other way you might "get the news".

Local news, "Historic wall under threat", front page

  • News is irrelevant.
  • News has no explanatory power.
  • News is toxic to your body
  • News increases cognitive errors.
  • News inhibits thinking.
  • News works like a drug.
  • News wastes time.
  • News makes us passive.
  • News kills creativity.
[..]

Society needs journalism – but in a different way. Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. But important findings don't have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and in-depth books are good, too.
Check out the link for details on those bullet points they are intriguing, especially the Sherlock Holmes-esque, "News is irrelevant".

Let me perfectly clear, especially to those that believe I am only talking about the mainstream/traditional media. I absolutely mean, partisan news (Fox for instance), "own research" news, "news" links in your Facebook bubble, recommended "news" rants on YouTube, and especially "news" in TikTok. These are even worse for your sanity - way worse.

Oh, and ...
Calling it News, by the way, is misleading. What we call “News” consists almost exclusively of four categories: negative events, gossip, sports, and politics. Why? Because these topics have been shown to capture the most attention. Negative stories hook us because of our built-in negativity bias, gossip plays on our drama-and-entertainment seeking, sports let us experience vicarious success or schadenfreude, and politics triggers, among other things, our tribalism and sense of belonging.

So "news" is merely events that someone has decided to package up and put out with their own point of view with a point of selling adverts (this is the same, more so, for the junk 'news' from commentators that like to shout). Remember what engages our brains, negative events, gossip, sports, and politics.

Watching / reading about negative events will get under your skin. One study found that people who watched six or more hours of "news" about the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 were more likely to develop PTSD than people who were actually at the bombing.

If you are constantly being bombarded with negative events, even if you agree with what's being said, you will suffer. Life will not be joyful, you will be angry, scared, and/or sad.

Don't do it to yourself.

"No! I HAVE to be informed to be a relevant and active participant in today's society."
True, but I suggest this is not the way to be informed, the news is not giving you what you want.

"Buuuuttt, I might miss out, the FOMO is large with me!"
Hah, you'll be fine, grow up ๐Ÿ˜

It's funny, despite all of the above I do stay informed, I am aware of the current big stories, I have details about the events that directly affect me and mine, but I still don't watch, listen, or read the news ... it can be done.

I like this advice from Marcelo Soares on Quora:
What you can do to be better off is this:
  1. Don’t give up on news. Choose where you get your news from. Information is food for the brain. You don’t want or need to eat everything gets thrown at you, or everything that is on the front counter.
  2. That means: don’t let social media choose your news for you. Social media maximizes platform engagement, not depth of understanding. Junk news is highly engaging. If you need constant updates on things you care about, RSS feeds are a better option (I use Feedly for that).
  3. Reduce the frequency, pay for quality packages. Subscribe to a newspaper and read it in the morning, try to avoid the fast updates (I subscribe to the New York Times, Le Monde and Folha de S.Paulo). Or try a weekly or monthly magazine that tries to make sense of things (I buy The Economist with some frequency).
  4. Print publications offer less distractions than your phone. Use them whenever possible.
  5. Read the stories from lede to kicker as often as possible. Compare different stories on the same subject when you can.
  6. Try to get more reporting than opinion articles. Opinions are opinions. Some may be thoughtful, but always remember your opinion is worth as much as the next person’s opinion, and people who write articles are usually the next person. If they are knowledgeable about the subject, that may be enlightening. You can disagree with Henry Kissinger, but when he writes about foreign policy you read it.
  7. Avoid cable TV and its shouting matches. Avoid celebrity junk. Avoid hyperpartisan sites.
  8. Realize the real job of being informed lies in your brain.
Oh, and if someone can make this happen we'd all start to really get the value from "news".

More reading:
  • de Hoog, N., & Verboon, P. (2020). Is the news making us unhappy? The influence of daily news exposure on emotional states. British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953), 111(2), 157–173. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12389
  • Toff, B., & Nielsen, R. K. (2022). How News Feels: Anticipated Anxiety as a Factor in News Avoidance and a Barrier to Political Engagement. Political Communication, 39(6), 697–714. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2123073
  • de Bruin, K., de Haan, Y., Vliegenthart, R., Kruikemeier, S., & Boukes, M. (2021). News Avoidance during the Covid-19 Crisis: Understanding Information Overload. Digital Journalism, 9(9), 1286–1302. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1957967
And there's oodles more out there, just avoid the ones that start talking about, "you're not getting the truth sheeple!".

Local news, "Historic wall under threat", article

Comments

  1. Anonymous3:23 pm, September 08, 2024

    I've often thought this, and remember a friend who used to say, have you read your opinion today, when talking about reading the newspaper (back in the day)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike Riversdale7:55 pm, September 12, 2024

    This from Jeff Jarvis, whilst heavily US focused, is a relevant read

    https://buzzmachine.com/2024/09/11/whats-become-of-the-times-co/

    ReplyDelete

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