Why I Don't Read the News
These days it seems the general consensus is that you need to know what's going on everywhere at every moment of every day. The expansion of news outlets and social media certainly seem to back that up. But, at least for many, it's not as good an idea as you might think.
I stopped watching the news or reading it online, about seven years ago or so. At least, I stopped watching it every day in my spare time. And I mean everything. News on TV, news websites, or social media...though I hesitate to refer to the latter as “news”. It happened quite randomly in fact.
I just opened up Firefox and it was still configured to display random articles on it's start page. I was about the browse someplace when the title of one of the articles caught my eye. I don't remember it specifically, but it talked about why reading the news was a bad thing. At least reading it indiscriminately.
News and information, believe it or not, can be like a drug, and an addictive one at that. Our brains are incredible tools for absorbing and processing information, and if one happens to get used to that, it'll start wanting more. Now, in many areas of life, this can be a good thing. But with news in general, it really isn't. At least, not for a lot of people.
Here's why.
News media has really taken off in this century. Before then, for the most part, you got your news from two places. The daily newspaper, and TV news shows that ran maybe 3-4 times a day. usually early morning, noon, prime time, and sometimes late night. Now, in the 90's more people started getting cable and, therefore, had access to 24 hr news networks. However, for most of the century, even through the 80s and early 90s, most people made due with broadcast TV, which limited our exposure.
So, what did this mean? It meant you had very limited exposure to what was going on in the world. News programs had thirty minutes...occasionally an hour...to give you world, national, and local news along with weather and, sometimes sports. I don't count shows like Good Morning America or Today, or other shows like that because those were more for entertainment even if there was a minor news component to them. Besides, by the time they came on most people had left for work already. Only the stay-at-home people watch them.
So, in general, what do you get in thirty minutes? Not much. They'd cover whatever they considered to be very top stories at each level of interest which was really not much more than a few minutes each, because they had to squeeze commercials in too. Once a day, in prime time, the national networks had a half hour where they focused on world and national news, but you still didn't get very much.
Purely for the sake of this post, I went to CNN just now and just scrolled down the main page where I saw a headline about some road rage shooting in Louisiana, which is no where near where I live.
What do you think that odds are of that making the news in say, Seattle, Phoenix, or Charlotte if this had happened in the 1980's? Not very good. Local outlets wouldn't have seen a point in mentioning it since there where other things deemed more important “closer to home”. They might have mentioned it if it made national headlines, but there's only so much the national news could fit, either into sections of newspaper, or that thirty minutes to an hour they had to tell you what was happening in the world.
I don't mind saying only people in Louisiana, and maybe a few surrounding states would've known it happened at all.
Today, though, we all have the ability to know everything that's going on everywhere in the world, almost at a moment's notice through, not hundreds, but thousands of outlets. News media of every kind, and the explosion of social media. Add to that the fact that more and more often the news is more biased than ever.
I remember occasionally glancing at my mother's news paper in the eighties and one of the reasons I thought it was boring (as a little kid) was it just stated facts about what happened and didn't seem all that interesting.
Now, news media is entertainment. A twisted form of it, but entertainment nonetheless. If you still not quite sure you're grasping it, go to Spotify or iTunes or someplace and dig up a song called “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley. That sums up the problem pretty well.
It's only gotten worse because, now that there's so much of it, right down to having it on our phones, that it's honestly become a problem of overexposure. I see reports now and then that talk about how people feel “less safe” than they did ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. This is in spite of the fact that, in many places at least, crime rates have been going down. There are parts of the world that are safer now than they were thirty years ago, and yet the people in those places feel less safe. Why? Because the virtual onslaught of news all day everyday is scared the living daylights out of them that's why.
So, as John Oliver might say, “What can we do?”
Well, here's the lesson I learned seven years ago.
When I'm tempted to go to a news site or read a news article, I ask myself a simple question.
“What practical value does this information have in my life?”
Let's go back to that road rage shooting I mentioned earlier. Why is it so important that I know such a sad thing happened? I already know I don't like guns. I already know I don't like violence (at least in RL). I also don't live anywhere near where it happened, so I didn't need to know it for safety reasons either. I also know that I don't make enough money to help the victim financially if that's even an option here. So, again, why did I need to know it happened.
Yeah, I know. I re-read that and that sounds really cold to me too. But think for a moment. Reading the story would probably make me sad. It would probably make a lot of people sad, or upset, even mildly so. That just means you're a good human being. But what are you supposed to do with that emotion? What practical value does being upset about this have? What can you even do with this information?
Well, as I said, people local to it probably should know. You need to know what's happening in your immediate area, so I do try to read local news on occasion, but national and world news isn't something we need all day everyday, nor is news that is local to someone else.
Local news is practical. I read it. Not all day everyday, but now and then, so I can stay just informed enough without overloading. And, of course, during the pandemic, I did make sure I stayed very informed on that. But otherwise. I don't need any other news in my life. Not for the most part.
As I said, I ask myself what practical value there. Now there are national and world news articles that do have practical value to me, but they're very few and very far between. It's not the sort of thing I need to know about every second of every minute of every day.
So, does this make me ignorant? Yes. I'm ignorant in many things. So are you, even if you'd rather not admit it. There are plenty of things you shouldn't be ignorant of, but the vast majority of news isn't one of them.
People say they read all the news they can scroll through on their phones or on TV to “stay informed”. Stay informed of what? Again, local news I understand, but everything outside...no.
So-called 'doomscrolling' has already been demonstrated to be emotionally damaging to people. News is an addiction now more than ever. But once you kick the habit, you might find you live a calmer life.
In the seven years since I do find, in general, I live a more relaxed life. Sure there are things in my life that upset me, or scare me, or depress me. But that''s the thing, isn't it? I already have that stuff to deal with in my life. Piling loads of depressing and upsetting news articles on top of that does nothing good.
Read the news that has practical value in your own life. Most of it will be at the local level. Occasionally there might be national or world news that has practical value. It might help you decide how to vote in the next election. That's practical value. Just don't drown yourself in it. You've got much more important things to do in your life.
Anyway, I think I've rambled long enough. If you're on Bluesky, feel free to drop me a comment with your own thoughts on the post I linked to this from.
Until next time...
“In a world that sometimes forgets, be the reminder that kindness still matters.” —Serinthia Kelberry