Anybody cut back on their news intake?

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Grandpa's Spells
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Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Grandpa's Spells »

I was reading an interview with James Altucher, who's kind of quacky, but he pointed out during a talk about avoiding negativity that never consuming news is a good idea. The idea being that news organizations typically sell everything as "THE WORST THING EVER," even though this is never the case.

I see this in people I know who have Fox News on all day (Fox Geezer Syndrome is real), but I have a number of RSS feeds I read throughout the day, and there's usually a fair amount of complaining going on.

Tim Ferriss talks about not consuming news as it's usually a time waster, but his endorsing the idea actually makes me want to do the opposite.

Experiences?
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syaigh
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by syaigh »

Yeah, I hate Tim Ferriss so I'm happy to say I stopped watching the news with regularity around the time I had my kids. It seemed every day there was something horrible being done to a baby and I couldn't really deal with that very well as a new mother. Some stuff still pops on the radar, the really awful stuff, but for the most part, I ignore it. The media would have us believe that the world is going to hell in a handbasket when in actuality, violence and atrocities are on a huge decline since the middle of the century. We can find out more things the things are now so it seems worse, but truth is, we're getting better all the time.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Mickey O'neil »

I never watch the news. Read a little bit of internet news.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by milosz »

If you're worried about staying informed and being knowledgable, you'd still do well to completely ignore political process stories. That's 90% of what the bad media - Fox, MSNBC, etc. - sells you. That shit isn't news.

The intake required to stay up on truly important issues - and if studies are correct, to be better informed about reality than someone who just listens to Fox News or MSNBC constantly - is rather small. Ten minutes a day tops, the BBC website or BBC World Service radio, the Google News front page.

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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by WildGorillaMan »

Twitter and an innate ability to know when someone is pissing on your leg and telling you it's raining.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Grandpa's Spells »

milosz wrote:If you're worried about staying informed and being knowledgable, you'd still do well to completely ignore political process stories. That's 90% of what the bad media - Fox, MSNBC, etc. - sells you. That shit isn't news.
For sure, but when you got category by category, there's a lot of crap:

Health news: garbage
International news: sensationalist
Financial news: irrelevant/sensationalist/garbage

I'm going to tune out for a while.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by buckethead »

I have made no conscious effort in the last 3 years to seek out "news". I don't flip to news channels, I don't subscribe to news feeds, and I don't read newspapers or magazines.

Yet, I have yet to be caught "unaware" of something truly newsworthy.

In today's world, real news will find you.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Gin Master »

BucketHead wrote:I have made no conscious effort in the last 3 years to seek out "news". I don't flip to news channels, I don't subscribe to news feeds, and I don't read newspapers or magazines.

Yet, I have yet to be caught "unaware" of something truly newsworthy.

In today's world, real news will find you.
Same here. I haven't watched a news program in about five years. Sometimes I'll go down a youtube rabbit trail looking for Robin Meade's tits or something, but that's about it. I have honestly spent more time watching jungle battles on world star hip hop than I have anything on Fox/CNN/MSNBC. If it's important enough, I'll see it on Facebook or here. That sounds awful, but I'm as informed as I need to be and don't have to sift through the garbage.

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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Fat Cat »

Grandpa's Spells wrote:I was reading an interview with James Altucher, who's kind of quacky, but he pointed out during a talk about avoiding negativity that never consuming news is a good idea. The idea being that news organizations typically sell everything as "THE WORST THING EVER," even though this is never the case.

I see this in people I know who have Fox News on all day (Fox Geezer Syndrome is real), but I have a number of RSS feeds I read throughout the day, and there's usually a fair amount of complaining going on.

Tim Ferriss talks about not consuming news as it's usually a time waster, but his endorsing the idea actually makes me want to do the opposite.

Experiences?
YES. The common perception is that we can consume media without any type of effect, it just passes through us. You hear arguments to the contrary all the time: "violent media doesn't make you violent" or "pornography won't affect my views of women" but that is not true. I don't pass judgment on other people's choices, but I try to be both aware of, and somewhat careful with, my media choices. We are all far more impressionable than we like to admit and that's true of our choices in personal association as well, environment, etc.

On a more subtle level, news is designed to provide an illusion of control over things but you have no control over civil war in Syria, a pulmonary disease spreading in Saudi Arabia, melting polar ice caps, fucking al-Qaeda, etc. and preoccupation with these things causes additional allostatic load on your organism and makes it more difficult to focus on the small-scale, immediate challenges which you DO have the capacity to affect. We should expend our energy looking after the people and things around us.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by KingSchmaltzBagelHour »

I catch it once or twice a week, always at work during dinner.

I find it amusing how much people buy into the bullshit. The MSNBC guys parrot that bullshit, the Fox News guys parrot that bullshit.

Two sides of the same coin, but what can you say or do without sounding like a pompous assbag? Fats has it right, just take care of you and yours and try to be the best influence you can be on your friends and family.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by TerryB »

Fat Cat wrote:
Grandpa's Spells wrote:I was reading an interview with James Altucher, who's kind of quacky, but he pointed out during a talk about avoiding negativity that never consuming news is a good idea. The idea being that news organizations typically sell everything as "THE WORST THING EVER," even though this is never the case.

I see this in people I know who have Fox News on all day (Fox Geezer Syndrome is real), but I have a number of RSS feeds I read throughout the day, and there's usually a fair amount of complaining going on.

Tim Ferriss talks about not consuming news as it's usually a time waster, but his endorsing the idea actually makes me want to do the opposite.

Experiences?
YES. The common perception is that we can consume media without any type of effect, it just passes through us. You hear arguments to the contrary all the time: "violent media doesn't make you violent" or "pornography won't affect my views of women" but that is not true. I don't pass judgment on other people's choices, but I try to be both aware of, and somewhat careful with, my media choices. We are all far more impressionable than we like to admit and that's true of our choices in personal association as well, environment, etc.

On a more subtle level, news is designed to provide an illusion of control over things but you have no control over civil war in Syria, a pulmonary disease spreading in Saudi Arabia, melting polar ice caps, fucking al-Qaeda, etc. and preoccupation with these things causes additional allostatic load on your organism and makes it more difficult to focus on the small-scale, immediate challenges which you DO have the capacity to affect. We should expend our energy looking after the people and things around us.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by lasalle »

A news fast is recommended as part of a health cleanse by Dr. Andrew Weill in "8 weeks to optimum health", and self professed genius Nassim Taleb essentially says that reading newspapers is masturbatory and useless.

So, you're in good company.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by ___________ »

WildGorillaMan wrote:Twitter and an innate ability to know when someone is pissing on your leg and telling you it's raining.
Knowledge bomb right there.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Gene »

Fat Cat wrote:On a more subtle level, news is designed to provide an illusion of control over things but you have no control over civil war in Syria, a pulmonary disease spreading in Saudi Arabia, melting polar ice caps, fucking al-Qaeda, etc. and preoccupation with these things causes additional allostatic load on your organism and makes it more difficult to focus on the small-scale, immediate challenges which you DO have the capacity to affect. We should expend our energy looking after the people and things around us.
This. Especially "Global Warming" horseshit... helping out a neighbor or providing advice to a confused kid is something you can do.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Sassenach »

syaigh wrote:I stopped watching the news with regularity around the time I had my kids. It seemed every day there was something horrible being done to a baby and I couldn't really deal with that very well as a new mother.
This.

Working in emergency services I had already cut back on my news consumption to lessen my stress load, but now that I've had the mini juggernaut I don't watch anything more hardcore than Sesame Street most days. I don't have any coping mechanism for stories about people doing awful things to children.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Batboy2/75 »

I unplugged from network and cable news in 2006 and I unplugged from TV all together in 2008.

I know a lot of Liberals, Conservatives, and Independents that would be better off unplugging from the instant doom and gloom message the news media sells.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by baffled »

Part of my job requires me to be tuned into the news on a regular basis.

That's the part of my job that I'm trying to get rid of.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Yes, I'm drunk »

lasalle wrote:...self professed genius Nassim Taleb...
=D>

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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Shafpocalypse Now »

Taleb fucking loves how smart he is, doesn't he? I bet he's never been punched in the mouth.


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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by TomFurman »

I scan google news in the AM and tweet anything of interest. More about developments in medicine, technology, nature and space. All the other stuff is just annoying.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by WildGorillaMan »

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Taleb fucking loves how smart he is, doesn't he? I bet he's never been punched in the mouth.

More of same:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871 ... z2VZeMOULZ
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by buckethead »

WildGorillaMan wrote:
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Taleb fucking loves how smart he is, doesn't he? I bet he's never been punched in the mouth.
How physically fit are you?
I lift heavy weights and sprint but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries. Like now.

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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by WildGorillaMan »

BucketHead wrote:
WildGorillaMan wrote:
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Taleb fucking loves how smart he is, doesn't he? I bet he's never been punched in the mouth.
How physically fit are you?
I lift heavy weights and sprint but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries. Like now.
I can't wait for his 1400 page @fit Journal article.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Testiclaw »

I get all of my news from The Onion and T-Nation Livespills.
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Re: Anybody cut back on their news intake?

Post by Sassenach »

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