Once you step outside the news market it seems crazy how committed people are to this idea that news is a moral requirement for a respectable adult. My withdrawal from mainstream has happened over the last 4 years, but I am very interested in world and home news, but being interested in the state of UK politics, I feel the BBC is biased towards those in power, after all they hold the purse strings. I love this article, it’s so true. Great thought, saving time (thousands of hours) and focusing only on meaningful information. So I quit reading news, quit Facebook, and very consciously put my head in the sand. at the same time, for myself, having avoided following the news for decades of my life, i now regret it to some extent as i witness the way the powers that be have learned to take advantage of the vast majority’s ignorance of what those powers are doing to them. coping with the anxiety and sense of futility that comes iwth holding that awareness and not simply screening it out (a psychological phenomenon known as denial) is quite a tall order even for advanced spiritual teachers these days. This deregulates your immune system and inhibits the release of growth hormones. It’s still better than nothing, though, and can actually be pretty vital when it comes to political issues. The Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War and several Yemeni Canadians joined a car cavalcade through the city on March 25, urging the government of Canada to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia. I read anything not to better society but to bring a better self to the table. On a side note I would be interested to know if you track multiple things in this way? I gave up TV news some years ago: an assault on the senses, biased, trivialising and selective. As the saying goes: “Garbage in, garbage out”. Absolutely not….:-). Thanks for an eye opening article. I haven’t missed it for even a second! So, then I wonder, what sources do you like best for getting the information that you need? Nice article, will translate it to spanish and pass it on to my family and Friends (i’m from Uruguay and Venezuela). DeepBreath! I gave up broadcast/cable TV in 2004, when I moved to Vermont, and haven’t regretted it for a second. Americans probably watch a hundred million hours of news coverage every day. Quit FOX. It makes a lot more sense to go deeper rather than broader. I must read this book ! My kids find it hard to understand that we used to have to wait for the morning paper or the 11:00 news to know what had happened that day, and so we spent our evenings living our lives and still contributed to the world we live in. It feels like we have an unmet need to provide in-depth, unbiased, and accurate facts through an unfiltered source, free from interference by any government, big corporation, or profit motivation (the initial goal of freedom of the press that has been so watered down by prosecutions of reporters and strong financial, legal and cultural motivation not to rock the boat). We have inherited from somewhere—maybe from the era when there was only an hour of news available a day—the belief that having a superficial awareness of the day’s most popular issues is somehow helpful to those most affected by them. I have a civic duty to be a good citizen. And your point is more relevant now, when it takes only a click to forward endlessly, such news links to group members in whatsapp, etc. And the big stories get to you anyway, for whatever it’s worth. You can take actions to help stop the spread: Only travel if it’s essential, and isolate for 14 days if you do.. Stay home – save lives and don’t put others at risk.. Practise physical distancing – stay 2 metres away from anyone who is not in your household.. Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly and often. Information is no longer a scarce commodity. If you quit, even for just a month or so, the news-watching habit might start to look quite ugly and unnecessary to you, not unlike how a smoker only notices how bad tobacco makes things smell once he stops lighting up. This is a serious question. I certainly could have defined what I meant by “news” better, because there are a lot of different takes in the comments. I am not a social activist. Once you come to the saved article, some days will have passed. We need you. Now I’m out. One is enough. Astronauts are over-rated. I agree with the overall point to this story – “news”, as produced by mainstream outlets, should not be mistaken for authentic insight, and really shouldn’t be used as an input to shape worldviews. Thank you for sharing your observations on what happens when you quit the news. It’s aim is to shock and keep you hooked, not to give you a rounded insight into what’s happening in the world. Doesn’t mean you wont research and inform yourself about whats going on, but its likely to mean you wont have someones agenda forced down your throat. Many people I talk to, say they were unaware, and that is their excuse for doing nothing, but I sincerely suspect that even if they were aware, they would have done nothing about the issue anyway. I’d like to believe I’m in pretty “informed” social circles (beyond just “information” that news provides to my colleagues/friends), but the junk seems to win out a lot. During my workweek, I occasionally check headlines on BBC America, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, and the local papers of the county where we are buying property. I often have people tell me I’m insightful so my personal media boycott does not seem to have harmed me. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter, – we need never read of another. Thanks for a needed reminder! I don’t need to know about the protests at Standing Rock if I’m not immediately affected, right? As I said in the article, we all must choose how much time to invest in learning about world and local issues and on what sources we’re going to spend our time. Our country will be better off with a more-informed populace. I’m happier for it and not any less informed. It’s just the spectacle of current events. The author is not saying all news watching is pointless and bad. Thanks Rob. So I don’t. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. I have been seeing some remarkable young people rising up on Facebook forums, who have no fear whatsoever of looking foolish and are forming communities with some radically unusual belief systems. Yet we’ve been sold a cultural meme that they are the foundation of any responsible adult’s self-education about world issues. Even my rants :), I very rarely watch the news…it might be on in the background if somebody else is watching it…I would like to be able to switch off the trending news stories on Facebook/Twitter as it catches me out from time to time….do I miss it when I don’t see it?? “Thank you , thank you” for sharing this. But people find it very difficult to recognise what's relevant. I quit watching TV during the OJ Simpson trial in the 90s. I felt the constant replay of the horrors of 9-11 were a form of mental abuse against all Americans, so I “tuned out”. I have realised that the news over recent years and particularly this year (with Brexit here in the UK and Trump here in the world) has led to an internal meltdown for what I can process. Listening to the radio with concern yet doing nothing is probably what most people did in response to the rise of Hitler. In UK, the tone, the words and the pictures are a lot more dramatic and scary than in France and i started feeling stressed, as if living on the bricks of some imminent disaster. stuff. Read the following article published on the Morning Star, People’s Daily on March 2nd by Manal Shqair of Stop the Wall and popular activist Mahmoud Soliman. You might as well substitute the word “television” for news. Laura Woodward Video Journalist. So terrorism is over-rated. The more news we consume, the more we exercise the neural circuits devoted to skimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading deeply and thinking with profound focus. It does make me feel out-of-touch sometimes, but I usually end up hearing about any major developments anyway. And then, how many of us are guilty as charged (raising my hand), that no matter how many times we are saddened or incensed by the news, we don’t choose to take an affirmative action to help. Totally unhelpful and you just look like an arse. might i recommend future crunch? He asked for more in-depth journalism not for in-depth Propaganda. Moreover I used that time on my career. I have a question, however – how do you know what issues to read books about if you don’t know what’s going on in the world? I am better informed on many issues, such as health matters, politics and many other things. For some reason it helps her feel like she’s riding herself of guilt that she can’t do anything. People should quit the crappy “news” outlets. This is why you need to stay engaged.” What set of actions does fighting entail? A possible problem of this is that many people switch from tv&newspaper to facebook as their main news source. YMMV. A lot of this stuff can apply to any news, not just the news you get on the main channels. I’ll be sharing this one. TV news in Canada is mostly vapid and awful but when I turn on the TV in an American hotel room it’s like all of that is multiplied by 10. staying informed about the recent american election did nothing to improve my mental health. Now, when the news is on the radio, or I’m at someone else’s house and the TV news is on, I realize just how demeaning it is to me and the subjects they cover. What appears is whatever sells, and what sells is fear, and contempt for other groups of people. WMD. Very true Peter. Live breaking news, national news, sports, business, entertainment, health, politics and more from CTVNews.ca. My objection to current news is that it is usual poor prejudiced thinking. Real stuff isn’t interesting.”. Everywhere you look, it is the same watered-down news. News pieces are specifically engineered to interrupt you. All I could see was personal attacks on Trump’s hairstyle and orange skin. Much more real than they can ever seem through a television. I realized that news is mostly someone coming into your home and telling you something awful, frequently wrong, sensational, biased, fear mongering, or, for local news in particular, stupid. IT IS SO EASY TO GET SUCKED IN. 5. it’s sort of the antidote to all the things you say (that are 100% right) about regular news. Feminism. And I wonder if there’s a kind of “substitution effect” at work here. Curate your own portfolio. I gave up on mainstream media a year ago. Read three books on a topic and you know more about it than 99% of the world. I don’t have a civic duty to read the news. I “quit” the news nearly 23 years ago. A big part of investment is psychology: what do other investors feel about a particular investment. No “U.S. Stop consuming it altogether, Out of the 10,000 news stories you may have read in the last 12 months, did even one allow you to make a better decision about a serious matter in your life, asks Rolf Dobelli. In retrospect, it was really a way to escape the now. I stay in touch with things by reading longer articles in the London Review of Books, and also Private Eye, both of which are excellent publications. But it is your CIVIC DUTY TO BE INFORMED ABOUT THE WORLD AND YOUR PLACE IN IT. You are not that irresponsible with your money, reputation or health. My theory makes no sense whatsoever, since as you say, nothing at all is accomplished by merely learning about a situation. You can watch the town hall on … Humor is a really good way of responding to grim stories. Well said! The sense of “at least I care” may actually prevent us from doing something concrete to help, because by watching sympathetically we don’t quite have to confront the reality that we’re doing absolutely nothing about it. I had been riveted to the US elections, but would good did that do me ? That's the underlying risk that has been lurking, and could lurk in other bridges. Online news has an even worse impact. The back of your shampoo bottle contains information. I also find that people don’t generally ask me about that (enter tragedy name here) that happened in (some place) so I don’t need to know about them. I used to read the newspaper while I had my breakfast: this morning I read your article instead! Yes, exactly, and that’s what I was trying to address in the last point of the post. I guess we should all just ignore the state of the world because it has nothing to offer us. These are all great points, thank you. This is one reason that mathematicians, novelists, composers and entrepreneurs often produce their most creative works at a young age. On the contrary, I would add though that through news, people do learn about issues, tragedies and problems, and enough people do help that makes it worthwhile to get people informed. Quit MSNBC. People expect news to be ” truth”, and it can’t be. How would you guys would know stock investments, general state of economy without following news? Stop Traumatizing Yourself by Watching the News Your energy will rebound if you avoid the news. Because news disrupts concentration, it weakens comprehension. If more people could cut out the landslide of misinformation, lies, and general manipulation of the media they would cease to be soldiers of the media. I hadn’t paid all that much attention to such events prior to that, and diving into such an endeavor was a strange experience. Financial news though is infotainment specifically focused on fear and greed. News is all about injustice and catastrophe, and naturally we feel uncomfortable ignoring stories in which people are being hurt. The other potential side-effects include fear, aggression, tunnel-vision and desensitisation. Most current-events-related conversations are just people talking out of their asses. Many people need that shared piece of reality to keep somewhat safe and in control. Great thoughts, David. Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. That’s why I spent the last year compiling stories about how the world is actually becoming a better place. News is irrelevant. This topic is discussed frequently on the No Agenda podcast, by John C. Dvorak and Adam C. Curry. News isn’t news until it doesn’t make sense. The news is harmful to me. would you have given this same advice to readers in germany in the 1930s? I think you’re spot on! Extremely helpful to my mental health. Hi David. I still don’t feel like I understand all of it, but I do have a better sense of the complexity of this particular issue. Why? We have all acted on something we saw on the news. Mr. Hughes, did you attend Colorado College? Our brains crave stories that "make sense" – even if they don't correspond to reality. Same goes for sports news. Now, we’re not talking some media outlets, we’re talking the overwhelming majority of them, across the western world. It’s not like you can get involved and impact any meaningful change. I feel I am very well informed yet relaxed :-). So when you see “news” about a person’s outrageous behavior revealing their terrible inner soul, the facts upon which it is based are unlikely to be true. I realised that most ‘news’ is now gossip wrapped up adversarial opinion and often factually incorrect or misleading. Bright Blessings! News severely affects memory. Your essay is just about perfect. Stops me from feeling so powerless and dejected about everything. You could probably knock it all out in an afternoon. This idea is interesting but I’m a little confused by it. Instead read the articles there in the chronological order you saved them. For some reason, reporting news brings out the worse about almost anything. I second the recommendation of The Atlantic (or Harper’s http://harpers.org/), and would also add a couple: the London Review of Books http://www.lrb.co.uk/ contains deeply researched articles related to current events in each issue, alongside its more literary-focused items; and Longreads https://longreads.com/ has a good email newsletter you can subscribe to, providing a curated selection of longform articles from various sources. Use This Link For MORE Videos. I strongly recommend The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world as well as the BBC. Giving it up allows for engagement today, now, here. That's why we experience almost no saturation. And I don’t think that helps anyone really! Thank you. You are just ignorant of your ignorance. CNN just isn’t anything close to journalism anymore, if it ever was. Whether is was Jonas Mekas or Arthur Krock, agree or disagree, to read them you had to use your mind. It is hard to convincente people to quit the habit. You allude to this in the article, but it seems that you are really suggesting the your readers find higher quality news sources rather than “quitting the news”. There are plenty of better sources on current events — generally written journalism is deeper than TV news. But since monster creation and promotion gathers eyeballs, that will remain a hope unfulfilled. Great post – all my life I have been a news junkie. What the weather will be like tomorrow (finally something I can use). This is so timely for me. I also quite the news about 8 years ago. No follow through or profundity of discourse ensued. Good stuff, I agree with everything after 2 years of not watching TV. That’s why we should read lots of them. Regardless of the usefulness/quality of the information, it certainly is corrosive to the mood and that does have a real effect on our lives. I really do love you to bits.” When they ask my reason I tell them it’s too depressing! Actually it’s you who look like an ass with your ad-hominem attack, but please keep reading Huffington Post, BBC and The Guardian..The bastions of journalistic integrity lol, “And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If someone is pushing their body to the limit, then their body will push production to keep up with demand. It did me no good to get caught up in the chaos. This article is incredibly well thought out and well written. Great post. The daily repetition of news about things we can't act upon makes us passive. I stoped (binch) watching news during my exchange in Japan. Hi David, Have you quit the news? I am much more informed on the state of the world by reading books by people who are experiencing it, have lived through it, and have researched it rather than news reporters driven by ratings and sensationalism. Great thing about skipping the news is, you can always catch up on it later. Are there independent news sources that the people of this thread/David recommends subscription to? I agreed with every word you said up there. untold human suffering is on the horizon for our species. Why not learn about five or six issues to a meaningful level of depth by reading books, rather than keep superficial tabs on a hundred issues, understanding none of them and then forgetting them in three weeks anyway? Society needs journalism – but in a different way. I agree with everything espoused here and actively discuss these points with other people who try to guilt-trip me into consuming more news, regardless of source. I’ve gotten way, way more done on projects that I care about (mainly fiction and programming). Quitting the news is only quitting a particular kind of information product. Thank you. Finimize – Economics presented in such a way that it’s understandable for those of us who aren’t econ/business people. In addition, more and more “quality” news content (analysis, retrospects, deeper research, everything that is not exactly entertaining anyway) gets hidden behind paywalls, so people switch to the lower quality, free news. Cheers, Ingrid, NZ. Thank you for this. But the criticisms I made here still stand. Learn about a fraction of the issues but 50x the depth. I can accept bad news. All tend to focus on the bigger picture and less on the daily noise. However now I am finishing a three month stay in India (main purpose: relaxing at my Dad’s place) and the biggest source of joy and entertainment for me here was the daily newspaper. I’m a huge NBA fan but Everytime I try to give a radio sports station a listen, I can’t help but notice how negative the hosts are about everything. The path from short-term to long-term memory is a choke-point in the brain, but anything you want to understand must pass through it. To be clear, I’m mostly talking about following TV and internet newscasts here. Especially if you realised that the baker or butcher were paying the gossip to promote their wares? Also, point #5 is particularly well-taken. In my case, the disappearing plane in the Indian Ocean was one that I recall missing during my “no news” diet for a period of time and watching people speculate and argue was at best, amusing and at worst, atrocious. The real problem, as you stated, is that most of it isn’t even good, unbiased, well-researched and fact-checked journalism – it’s sensationalism and entertainment, and it’s very negative. Nina Pineda hosted a group of panelists Thursday at 4 p.m. for Stop the Hate: An Eyewitness News Social Town Hall. I will not discuss your points but I do not agree on everything. Watch news all day for years and you have a distant, water-cooler-level awareness of thousands of stories, at least for the few weeks each is popular. News increases cognitive errors. That’s why the news is often fake. As superficial as TV newscasts can be, the issues reported in them are (usually) real. i agree with other commenters that local and personal engagement is so much healthier and ultimately more useful than just reading news. The flashlight is the first step to improvement, and perhaps if even one more of us did one more thing to right a wrong, then news can still have a positive purpose, no matter how bad it has become. News makes us shallow thinkers. It provides a bit of a false sense of security or a false sense of “doing something” by staying informed, but his point is well taken. If you don’t know about it, then how can you help? Thanks for another thought-provoking article! There’s nothing further I can do, so there’s no reason to continue to give any of this my attention. Hi David, I get my news from Russell Brand’s Trews (True News) which has the advantage of some humour injected into even the most serious issues. 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