One thing I am doing to wrestle my depression is a news fast. I figure, F--- it all. No point in reading all about the problems of the world I cannot fix.
Thoughts?
One thing I am doing to wrestle my depression is a news fast. I figure, F--- it all. No point in reading all about the problems of the world I cannot fix.
Thoughts?
I only watch the evening news, and bbc. And not every day
cable news like CNN and FOX are opinion shows, with people shouting over each other and rudely interrupting bear little resemblance to real news. In a brief time you can separate them into two camps. Those who hate Trump and those who think he can do no wrong. Very little news that does not feed the ideas of whatever camp you are in. A bunch of fools masquerading as newscasters citing unnamed sources, theories and spreading rumors. Trump was a goldmine to them. His antics allow them to fill 24 hours of “breaking” news. They are in it to make money, not report factual news.
Cable news grows on you like cancer, spreading hate and discontent making you bitter and paranoid.
But you you can try to make a small difference every day and do some act of kindness. The large majority of people are kind and generous.
I don't think anyone is handing out prizes for being unaware of one's surroundings. Like it or not, news reports what's happening around us and we should know about (most of) it. A complete fast? I'm not sure it's possible (how do you judge the veracity of what you will hear?).
That said, if opening a bag of potato chips results in the entire bag disappearing before you know it, then keeping bags of chips around is a bad idea -- especially if you're trying to diet.
Maybe the compromise is a small bag of chips. Or a more healthful snack.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
I stopped watching the news during the OJ trial, i still know plenty about the world
I wish I could get away from the squawking box of radio in our house. i no longer read or even skim the newspaper (too bad because I miss a certain amount of local news) and I never watch tv news, I never have watched it.
But via radio I get actual national news in bits as well as scads of opinion-news.
For local news, DH clues me i when stuff happens and I will then read the specific article in our newspaper. Sometimes I skim headline news on the website of our local newspaper.
I just don't watch TV news or listen to radio stations that are news heavy. I get too overwhelmed with my delicate, sensitive nature, LOL. I subscribe to lists, read recommended articles on Facebook actually (my FB friends are way more diverse than my in life friends), read topics on this site since it also more diverse than real life and usually someone tells me about the big stuff. When I lived in Cali and worked in a bank the other employees make sure I was up to date all the time! There was the missing pregnant wife situation in the state then, I could have actually known less about it.
Everything has a bias to begin with, so if I watch Fox news I will get a different story than NPR. I look at the source, it is click-bait from FB or a reliable source. I read news on our local news station website for example. That is hard to tell these days! So I read things from people I disagree with as well as ones that support my general views.
I know that the way news is presented can cause a lot of distress, so TV news is waaaay too much for me. However reading the same content in an article can be fine. TV and video is somehow very different, I can also read horror stories but not see them as movies.
In an urgent local matter I have a parent who works for our 7 news channel, she will tell me at pick up!
Don't we all? None of us met Deep Throat in a garage during Watergate. We trusted the Washington Post to interpret it. Of course, there are many who wouldn't trust the Washington Post as a secondary or indirect news source, because of the real or perceived bias it brings.
Face it, snarky comments aside, don't you agree that we all get various shades of grey on the truth, no matter what source we use? Not all of us have the time to read and synthesize multiple interpretations of what's going on in the world, so, yes, we self-select our own version of credible sources.
I had a writing professor who advised us that the best thing we could do to improve our writing was to read the paper every day without fail. And if we don't have time to read the paper, we should focus on the OpEd pages. I would expand that by saying you'd probably have to read OpEd pages in the NYT, WSJ, Christian Scientist Monitor, Al-Jazeera, and BBC to even start getting at the truth.
I support a TV news fast wholeheartedly.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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