Personal Media · 9 November 2011 ·
No News For Me
I’m what you would probably consider a news junkie. Everyday I spend around two-three hours reading the news, coming in through various channels: Blogs, Twitter, the websites of the Guardian, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Heise and so on. From political commentary, election results, campaigns, protests, climate change, copyright legislation, immigration, the NHS, etc.—I read it all. I would usually be up-to-date and well informed. This has got to change…
After doing this for a few years now, there is little left to surprise me: A new news item on the Guardian? I can guess what it says. Apple releases new hardware? Sure they do. The new Linux kernel brings new hardware drivers? Interesting. NHS reform? Tell me something new. Homoeopathy doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to? Well, neither does Reiki. Climate change is a fact? I’ve seen the evidence. HTML5 might lose the <time> element? Nope, luckily <time> is back. Financial Markets in turmoil? Oh sure, even Berlusconi resigns. The current economic system is inherently unfair? Yep, and that’s not even going into gender aspects. This is how you become a street photographer. This is the law. Apple sues Samsung and Samsung sues Apple? Who cares. But did you know that soon you can talk to dolphins? Disregarding the quality of most science reporting, which is sometimes utterly appalling. But I even read about about pretty pylons and ugly graphs
I devour the content, side with issues, applaud authors who write good analyses and get annoyed with those who—in my view—miss the point. Some stories just make me sad, some make me laugh—good satires usually do both at the same time.
Most of the things I have read, I have already forgotten. Some I keep in my del.icio.us, and from the ones I remember and those I keep there, most of them are irrelevant. But occasionally they covered my back in exams and discussions, and I was able to provide arguments I otherwise couldn’t. Thus, this habit was incredibly useful at times.
But it’s getting too much, too dull and too repetitive, in particular with anything political. Don’t get me wrong, I love politics. But when you scroll through your Twitter feed or the news stream, you can pretty much predict what you’re going to read when you click on an article, and I am getting tired of it. Instead of the Guardian, I would be better off reading Pettit, Popper or Plato. I feel that there’s more to be discovered in there than the daily iterations of the papers. It’s a little bit like zooming out, from the nitty gritty daily politics to a wider picture. But there is another aspect to it: There’s not much I can do about most of the news. Whether I read them or not, not much will change (other than my emotional state after reading a particularly aggravating text). Also, I could also spend the time reading literature and actually taking my mind off things, too.
Enough is enough: For one month I won’t be reading any news. No Guardian, BBC, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Heise, Macrumors, no blogs, I will still be on Twitter but I will disregard any news-like content there. I will make an exception for articles on statistics, evolution and psychology. After all, this is what I study. Oh, and XKCD. One must read XKCD.
Let’s see how it goes.
If the world suddenly comes to an end, please do let me know.
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