Life Hack: Stop Watching the News
We usually overlook the negative effect of news and the addiction it creates
News has been the solid anchor of the publishing business for years, entire companies were built on collecting, filtering, and publishing news to the masses. In our past, before the information age, information flow was difficult and slow, having a widely distributed network capable of delivering news to every single individual was a necessity to keep the society working. The news was something you must care about, and this gave power to the publishers and to people who could control the information flow. Even on the TV platform the prime time (the most valuable slot) has always been dedicated to news, news still drives the majority of viewers and the advertising business feeds steadily on news popularity.
News is a product and they need to be sold
I argue that news became, over time, less about news and more about delivering a compelling communication product: articles (both on paper and TV) are carefully chosen and placed so that they can keep the highest attention span and attract the most viewers. Stop a moment and think about it, why should you have sport and celebrity news on a 30 min news program when you would have SO MANY things to narrate about international politics, science discoveries, local news… the reason is that News quickly morphed from an information service to a publishing product that drives ADV revenues. Those articles are there because you enjoy them, not because you need them. News must tell you what makes you watch them day after day, it’s not just a service to keep you informed, it’s a drug dose to keep you hooked.
It is a known fact that the news that is broadcasted through the traditional papers (regardless of being on papers, TV, radio, or The Internet) is not just tailored to what you need to know, but also on what the “mass” wants to know. They (publishers) have to aim to please because let us be honest here: you do not want to spend time being forced to ingest information that you don’t want to know, even if it would be good for you.
Is this the reason why I think you should not spend your time on the news? No, but we are getting there.
Information in 2020 and the confirmation bias
We are not living in newspaper times anymore, we are widely connected to several information networks and we have a choice, we can select which information streams and which information pieces we read. This freedom sounds like the perfect recipe to avoid consuming news that is biased by publishers choosing what we need to know and be in charge of our fate. Well, it turns out this is not the case because no one likes to admit they are wrong: when given freedom, people will always seek news that confirms their beliefs, this phenomenon is called confirmation bias.
This means that we went from a situation where news was decided by a handful of (supposedly) qualified persons to an information jungle where everyone is their own “producer” that filters what should be read and, most important, what is considered to be true. The issue with this much freedom of information on the Internet is that it both ease the distribution of good information as well as bad information, up to straight lies or fake news. 5G radiation effects, Flat earth, vaccines causing autism are just the latest most common examples of the damage misinformation can create on a wide scale. The big issue today is that there is NO way to tell the difference between what is true and what is not. If you think about it, it was always like this but in the past, we blindly relied on the “goodwill” of publishers to ensure we are fed with the correct information. Today news and information are not just authored by journalists or scientists but everyone can publish information or blogs, social networks, and private websites. Consider this article, who am I to tell you that news is not worth your time? What are my credentials? Am I reliable? You cannot know.
A long-lasting experiment: stop watching the news
Many years ago, while I was living in Italy, I discovered a newsletter (was called CaCaO, unfortunately not available anymore) that only distributed good news. It was amazing, several articles on that newsletter were about crazy-good stuff and none of it was ever mentioned on the traditional channels. I started questioning myself about what was the real reason why I was watching the news… why was I spending more than 1 hour of my time, each day listening to a selection of news that I was supposed to care about? Did I care about them?
I was consuming news out of the fear of missing important events that I needed to live my life, I perceived the news as a survival need.
I know it sounds crazy, but be honest, is it any different for you? So I ran an experiment for a long time because I was curious about what would change on my daily life if I would just stop consuming news (especially on TV, Radio, and Paper), how much would this change disconnect me from the reality surrounding me? Would I know about strikes, about pandemics, about politics if I did not watch the news? So I stopped watching and reading news entirely.
As of today, I’ve been not consuming news products for about 10 years and I will never go back.
The biggest fear I had was about missing important facts: how would I know about very important things if I was not watching the news or buying newspapers or listening to radio broadcasts? It turns out this fear is unfounded: unless you live alone, completely detached by society, you will not be shielded from events. The important facts always creep into your life through social networks, through advertising, through mobile apps, through colleagues, family, friends… in the last 10 years, there has never been an important event I’ve missed because everything always came up either at work, in the family, or when meeting with friends. I stress one important thing here: I am referring to important events, those things that you must know to live your life in the society, such as pandemics, major political events, tax changes, elections, etc.
News quality, is it important?
I bet some of you are thinking that the news I receive in this way is worse than the ones I could get by an NYTimes subscription or by listening to radio news every morning while commuting to work. And it might be, but it doesn’t matter: the news I need to survive will reach me anyway. All the other news? Why should I even care? None of us can verify most of the news, we know for a fact that they are a vehicle to sell advertising or subscription in exchange for your attention, and be honest here: what do I need to know to live the fullest life? I think it is much better to spend my time reading books and to increase my knowledge by going deep on the topics I consider important more than watching a TV news report.
Stopping to consume news sounds easier said than done: news is like a drug, it’s hard to quit and it takes few months to get used to the lack of them, but it is worth it.
How not watching news changed my life
The first evident impact is about how much happier I got after I’ve stopped bombarding myself with bad news every single day. After a while, I became much happier, more peaceful and I was in charge of reading bad news when I was prepared to, instead of drinking them from the hose when the broadcast starts.
I think most people underestimate the power bad news have on your happiness and your mental balance, being constantly fed a stream of bad news made me perceive my reality worse than it is, I think it makes you easily lose track of the good things that surround you and to pay attention to things you cannot change instead of focusing on the priorities of your life, and the actions you can take to improve it.
I also noticed I became less inclined to believe information just because it came from a known source: I believe this made me stronger and made me give less relevance to a lot of useless things.
I am not alone in thinking this, so I’ve decided to share my view about news and I encourage you to try for a couple of months and see how it makes you feel. Exercise your right to be free of pre-packaged bad or useless news, get back several hours of your life each week… that time could be spent much better than knowing the latest facts about the Kardashians or the elections in a minor country. Big news such as Brexit, wars, or other major events will be thrown at you anyway.
