Should I avoid or engage in current news right now?
Should I avoid or engage in current news right now?
During the last 'election summer' things went haywire but ultimately nothing meaningful really happened, and not a whole lot really changed as a result of that unrest. This time things are going haywire again, and it seems like something big will happen but people thought that the last time... Would it just be better to ignore everything and go work on yourself, your skills, etc. or consume whatever thing is going on? The constant fear that's being pushed is so emotionally exhausting... I'm finding it harder to care about these things without anything major happening, as shitty as that sounds
Try to stay informed, but also recognize that news is all going to be bad because humans engage with that more.
Learn to recognize when youve had enough bad news and then disengage and find something else to do.
Obligatory Wendover video, he's better than that HAI guy.
It's worth the 18mins of your time, even if it's just to identify that nobody's immune to advertising or propaganda, and what the negativity bias is.
Just my opinion:
"Politics" impacts a huge amount of what happens in our lives. It used to be possible to have a single-income family living in a nice house from working a 40-hour job, take vacations, have a nice retirement. The process that got us that was definitely a stressful and unpleasant time (TL;DR unions). The reason it all stopped being that way was "politics" (TL;DR Reagan).
IDK if any particular outwards manifestation is or isn't productive but I definitely wouldn't look at the whole endeavor as unmeaningful. I think a lot of what comes through TV and social media is partisan and engineered to produce an emotional response, which is draining. I get that. If that's what you're talking about then maybe just ignoring it is honestly a better response because a lot of it is just noise and nonsense. But disengaging from the whole thing doesn't seem like the right way either.
BLM produced a lot of positive changes to policing, neoliberal economic policies produced a lot of unnecessary not-having-enough-money after decades of people getting jaded about "getting political" in the union-drive sense and just showing up to vote every few years and thinking that'll be enough. To me what's happening now actually feels hopeful - like people are starting to care again, because things are getting so bad that it's unavoidable that things need to change. IDK if any particular stressful thinking is going to produce change (probably not, if it's coming from consuming media) but I definitely would say that people caring about politics and government and what public policy looks like seems like a good thing (instead of just leaving it on rich-person-in-Washington autopilot and hoping that the result from that is gonna be good.)
Stay informed. When you feel like the news make you depressed, or even worse you start doomscrolling, take a break. There is a German word called Weltschmerz. It’s the pain you feel when the world seems to go to shit. It is a depressing form of dissatisfaction. I had this the last time when US and allies withdrew from Afghanistan and we left the people who helped us to die. The pictures of desperate people falling from planes still haunt me to this day. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and I doomscrolled for a couple of weeks.
I am not willing to sacrifice my mental health for this. So I cut news from my feed but I still read them every couple of days. Blissful ignorance can also not be accepted. I think the way I do it is a good compromise.
Uh. I'm always depressed after reading the news. And loose faith in humanity. I'm far better off meeting neighbors and realizing there are actually lots of nice people around. Or partying with family. Or reading a good book or working on my projects. Sometimes I get (politically) active in my neighbourhood.
I also have the urge to follow the news and politics. But in the end I don't get anything out of it. And it doesn't provide me with anything lasting for me. So I try to balance that... And national politics isn't all there is. If you don't like that show (and I think it's more a show than anything else), you could also learn about European politics, or what's going on in Korea (for example). I think that's going to provide you with a broader perspective on the world, than just watching something that's supposed to be a show to stir up emotions.
Agree with the first one. As someone with anxiety, I am fully informed of what's happening in the world, but that doesn't mean I need a constant stream of doom into my eyeballs.
When Russia invaded Ukraine I went into a full panic spiral, anxiety attacks and depression. I went out, I got help, and now I know when things happen but don't just look up the news, I keep informed but also acknowledge I'm not going to change anything. So I live my life.
IMHO you always have to stay informed. Just find a news source that does not create too much FUD and you're set. E.g: Axios, NPR, Reuters, etc
Most news outlets promote the outrageous and controversial stuff to get viewers face time. Try to go with informative but reasoned news sources. Also the MSM, and social media tries so hard to capture audiences that they miss vital but less sensational topics. That said, the AP presents pretty non-inflammatory news. I get news from comedians like Jon Stewart and Emmy Award winner John Oliver to lighten things up and Beau of the Fifth Column for unique non-partisan points of view.
Once you understand the major forces and their interests, there is little reason to follow day to say, it's just poisonous.
Always.
By now you probably have the gist of what's going on - that won't change. It's useless to attend to it at the expense of your own actual life.
In my personal opinion, the largest impact you have as an individual is your vote. Once elections are over there's no need to keep up with the news, there's nothing you can really do after all.
Something that really changed my perspective is that one of the oldest men to have ever lived, lived and grew up in Venezuela, a horrifically mismanaged country with tons of despair. Despite everything around him and living very modestly, he lived to an extremely old age.
You don't live that long without will to live but despite his circumstances he found personal happiness and fulfillment.
Moral of the story, despite the gloomy world out there doesn't mean yours deserves to be too.
If that's your level of understanding, I would say you don't really need to be paying more attention. You should just understand your specific level of ignorance and recognize that you'll need to defer to the opinions of experts on whatever topic you hear about in the future.
If you refuse to learn about current events, and more importantly the context of those events in history and so on, then you have no choice but to trust experts that know more than you. In this context, expert means people that study/work in a field their entire life and are backed by the larger community of experts - that is to say, they're not at risk of losing their license or being removed from their employer/academic institution.
You don't have to keep up with all the news. Your mental health is more important. The most important news will be impossibe to avoid anyways. There will be memes about it and it will be on home pages of search and email sites, etc..
I find that it is better to consume more longform news over shorter term "breaking news".
First one, then the other. Keep semi-regular contact, but don't spend every waking moment on the news or social media, as you aren't gaining much additional actionable information that way.
Nah. Nothing good is happening and you can't do anything about any of it.
Of that's your level of understanding, I would say you don't really need to pay more attention. You should just understand your ignorance and recognize that you'll need to defer to the opinions of experts on whatever topic you hear about in the future.
If you refuse to learn about current events, and more importantly the context of those events in history and so on, then you have no choice but to trust experts that know more than you. In this context, expert means people that study/work in a field their entire life and are backed by the larger community of experts - that is to say, they're not at risk of losing their license or being removed from their employer/academic institution.
Get a weekly newspaper on physical paper. All of the news, none of the day to day hype.
Media feed you don't control, is made to steer you in a certain direction. Unless you have an active interest in improving something and trying to filter through lies, its just noise that won't affect you much.
Focus on yourself, join powerful groups to organize. The wolf hunts the lone sheep. And we are the sheep.
My thinking here is that I don't need to pay attention to the news. When something happens that I should know of it'll find its way into my awareness one way or another. I don't need to go looking for it. If by ignoring the news I manage to avoid hearing about something entirely then it wasn't important to begin with.
Personally I only go to one news site few times a day and I just scroll past most of it. On social media I block almost all of it, especially relating to politics. I'm still able to discuss current events with people and the topics that I cant, for example what some individual politican has said or did I'm not interested to discuss anyway.
I don't often comment my opinions but I'm curious to hear the arguments for my rationale:
Call it what you want; ignorance, childish, stupid, etc. I don't pay attention to the news (haven't for many years now) and I firmly believe it's okay that I don't.
So much of what's presented by the media doesn't impact my day-to-day life in the slightest. Ex. War in a foreign country is kicking off...what can I do about that? Gas prices go up...am I going to stop getting gas?
When hanging out with friends and family, the larger topics tend to be brought up and that's how I learn what is going on currently (especially when this happens with different groups of people) without trying.
I also don't vote because, at this point, I'd consider myself the definition of an uninformed voter.
I don't pay attention to the news (haven't for many years now) and I firmly believe it's okay that I don't.
I also don't vote because, at this point, I'd consider myself the definition of an uninformed voter.
You're essentially keeping yourself ignorant, and then saying you're too ignorant to take action. Just ridiculous.
So much of what's presented by the media doesn't impact my day-to-day life in the slightest.
Trump was elected and as a direct result: Roe was overturned, pregnant women are having their lives risked over non-viable pregnancies, others are forced to have children they don't want, gun control has been struck down, Christian Nationalism is heavily asserting itself at a time when fewer and fewer people are religious, the pandemic was bungled leading to thousands and thousands of unnecessary deaths, $2t was given away to the uber-wealthy, air and water quality standards were rolled back, ultra-conservative judges have been instituting national bans from the 5th circuit, gay and trans rights have been rolled back...and on and on...and that's without getting to all the states banning books and destroying the social safety net.
I guess you could not be a woman, not know a woman, not care about getting shot, or know anyone who you don't want to see get shot, like oppressive religious tenets foisted upon you, not worry about dying of communicable disease, or know anyone that you wouldn't want to see die of communicable disease, be ok with your tax dollars being given to the rich, and not be gay or trans or care about anyone who is....but you must at least breath air and drink water, right?
It all affects you, you're just too ignorant to realize how. Your apathy and indifference are what allows shitty people to hurt others. But if you don't care about that, no one can force you.
For a lot of people, elections (particularly national elections) don't impact their day to day life. For some, though, the outcome of those national elections are very important. If you are, for example, trans, national elections around this time could alter the course of the trans civil rights movement. The president with their power to veto may be the only one capable of halting anti-trans bills if conservatives have a slim majority in the Senate and House. That's why many trans people must concern themselves with politics and current events, must know what platforms candidates are running on and how the public is responding, must know what to expect and plan for the worst. Likewise with state and local elections, which may radically alter the life plans of a trans person. Thus, a trans person must know what's happening now, what will happen next, and what they can expect for the future
The same applies to the right to abortion, or access to Healthcare for those dealing with long-term illness, or those attempting to unionize for better working conditions. When these things affect you directly, and when candidates are running on taking away the protections you need, you can't afford to live in blissful ignorance.
So please, if you care about any of these groups, do spend a little time getting up to speed and drawing your own conclusions so you can vote in a way that you believe will improve the lives of your fellow citizens
Friends of mine who are not news watchers asked me about this when Trump was first elected -- their question was more or less: People seem like they're freaking out about this. Is this actually a big deal? Is this actually going to impact my life in any way?
I thought about it a little bit, and said that I thought there was about a 30% chance that Trump was going to fuck something up in such a dramatic fashion that it would actually impact their lives in an unavoidable way. I mean, the 70% doesn't mean he has no impact (someone getting a job or not, or the pay for the job, or the rent they pay, can be impacted very substantially by this indirect process that actually does root back to "the government" -- but it takes a while, and there are a lot of local and personal factors too, and "the government" is a lot bigger and more complex than just who is president, etc). But you can kind of ignore all of that and continue with your life, and the amount of time and energy it would take to get involved (as opposed to just taking what comes) is maybe pretty significant.
In retrospect I think the 30% was a pretty good prediction. For all the impact he may have had on people somewhere else in the world, he made it about 70% of the way through his term before Covid hit, and then the way he fucked up the response definitely impacted our lives on an individual level. I know people whose family members died. It's hard to say that they wouldn't have if Trump hadn't been in office, but his "let's all keep going to work, it'll probably blow over, feel free to punch anyone who wants you to wear a mask" response definitely increased the death toll significantly.
I think the chance this time around that Trump would have no individual-level impact is close to 0%. I know someone who's deep in the conservative rabbit hole, get all his news and picture of the world from TikTok, who's deeply confused about what's going on in the country and real angry about the picture that all the little video reels have created in his mind. He's bought himself a handgun now.
Consider that what we read online as news is becoming close to 50% generated or created by bots. Dipping in now and then, but mostly avoiding doesn't seem an unreasonable approach, and breaks the dopamine machine.