Overabundance of News

I saw this article today, and after reading it, the concept has been rattling around in my head all day. Often, many videos and articles I cite on the forums in long discussion threads mention that we're actually living in a amazing, peaceful time, but we're now exposed to far more news than we ever have been, and it throws our perception off wildly.

This article has it's own 'clickbait' feel to it to begin with some of the wording that the authors chose, but I still found it an insightful read, and I feel I may try to steer clear of 'news' a bit more. It made me realize I spend at least a hour or more reading news a day, and I'm questioning how useful that is to me, or my health.

I'd love to hear others thoughts on this as well, please check out the article below if you're interested!



Also, bonus plug, I read stuff like this at work a lot and there's an addon called ' Readability ' that makes image heavy websites like this easier to read. It strips out images, ads, sounds, and other things which make articles slow to load and harder to read at work (where I read this). Feel free to use it on the above article if you'd like an easier reading experience. :sick:

I was lucky enough to sorta develop an area or 2 of specialization, and quickly realized most news sources are terrible at reporting information in those areas I knew a lot about. Which told me they probably are as inept in everything else as well!!!

Quite simply the reporters/writers have to usually paraphrase stuff so much that often its inadvertently misleading, entirely wrong or just sorta missing the point entirely... haha well a lot of the time. They do seem to focus on what they consider 1 or 2 attention grabbing concepts and getting the attribution correct, and that is it. So I try to know the limits of what I know, and use the media to spot stuff that I can investigate myself to add to that - rather then paying any attention to the narrative of reporters or sources. That is if you cannot give it up entirely
:lol:

I find reading the news to be a double edged sword. On the one hand I feel that it is important to be well informed about the world around us. On the other though, the news does seem to focus on negatives that make it feel as if the world around you is crumbling down.

I do a few things to combat this.

One is that I read more local news than any other type. The closer it is to me physically the more I feel it will affect me personally, so I should pay more attention to what's happening at home. For example, while it's sad if there's been an Earthquake in another country, it is more immediately relevant to me that there's been a string of armed robberies right near my office. This can help limit the feeling of the world ending and keep you well informed of goes on next door.

Second, I try to click more on happier news than sad news. If I see a headline about how many shelter animals got put down last year and another article about a six year old who gave all the money he made selling lemonade to a local charity I'm going to click on the lemonade story. This does two things. One, it lets me feel good reading a happy story. Two, it gives a click to a happy story and not a sad one so that maybe, just maybe, it will start to appear that people want to read happy stories more and that will encourage the news to report more happy stories. They give us what we click on, it's up to us to click responsibly.

Goken wrote: I find reading the news to be a double edged sword.

Very well said! This is the crux of what I struggle with, also. I love being informed, on the 'cutting edge' and always learning.

But on the flip side, it can cause stress, over worry, and all the bad side affects mentioned in the article above.

I like your 'click responsibly' idea though, I should try to keep that in mind when I browse. A version of this I practice is only trying to read verified sources / science based articles for one, and not opinion pieces.

As Goken indicates: it's, as with most things, about self control. Most people don't have it and the media feed on that fact. News is like snow constantly falling on us: the smaller, colder snow flakes tend to not stick. But the warmer, bigger flakes cling to our coats and drench them. So the media's task is to present news items in a way that they stick. There are many techniques to achieve that and most people are fooled by them.

In order not to get drenched by wet snow, we can either choose not to step into the snow or we can wear a better coat.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

i loved the article Cayce, thanks for sharing!

the author gave us a picture of the difference between news and journalism

Society needs journalism – ... Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth.

"police our institutions and uncover truth": thats what journalists do

NEWS is primarily an entertainment industry

News misleads.
News is irrelevant.
News has no explanatory power.
News increases cognitive errors.
News inhibits thinking.

these things are so obvious that i dont understand people who think its some far fetched "conspiracy theory" to believe that there is a deliberate agenda to make people stupid

there might not be a deliberate effort to dumb down and misinform the population, but media and entertainment are effective enough at doing it that there may as well be one, and if there isnt then it is quite a coincidence

"I have now gone without news for four years, so I can see, feel and report the effects of this freedom first-hand: less disruption, less anxiety, deeper thinking, more time, more insights. It's not easy, but it's worth it."

cosigned

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BONUS!!

how screen time affects our brains - youtube, 4 mins

how screen time affects our brains - Psychology Today article

An Overabundance eh?

Tsst.


*Sigh*

The news is awful, and I say this for similar reasons to Adder - Once you know they're full of it in *your* field, it's not a big leap to imagine similiar innaccuracy everywhere.



I try to keep an international circle of friends for that "grass roots" information on what is happening in the world that The News (TM) has no interest in....


Time for the Quote Selection on the subject of News

I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing.

“Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.”

'I'm sure it's all journalism, said William. 'And what is that supposed to mean?' “It means it's true enough for now."

"Disquietude is always vanity, because it serves no good. Yes, even if the whole world were thrown into confusion and all things in it, disquietude on that account would be vanity." ~ St John of the Cross

"Sufficient not only unto the day, but also unto the place, is the evil thereof. Agitation over happenings which we are powerless to modify, either because they have not yet occurred, or else are occurring at an inaccessible distance from us, achieves nothing beyond the inoculation of here and now with the remote or anticipated evil that is the object of our distress. Listening four or five times a day to newscasters and commentators, reading the morning papers and all the weeklies and monthlies -- nowadays, this is described as "taking an intelligent interest in politics." St. John of the Cross would have called it indulgence in idle curiosity and the cultivation of disquietude for disquietude's sake." ~ Aldous Huxley

I was checking a local news site this morning and felt that I should share this. I counted the total number of headlines on the first page and the number of them that involved at least one person dying. 10 out of 19 headlines were about death. Of the 9 that didn't involve a death two were about armed robberies and one was about a car crash with multiple injuries. That leaves 6 out of 19 about something other than death, injuries, and crime. Of those 6 it's mostly business news and one nice story about some kids starting their own little pumpkin patch.

Remember, this is not an accurate reflection of the world, just on what they know we'll click on.

Goken wrote: Remember, this is not an accurate reflection of the world, just on what they know we'll click on.

Well said!

I recently saw a post on-line, I believe on Reddit titled, "If a headline tells you how to feel, it's not news". Your example just reminded me of that, and I really think it's a good one to keep in mind when looking over the news as well.