@neil On second thought - not reading the news is probably the right move.

See the circled bit at the bottom of this pic.

Via https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christianvozar_accidentally-leaving-some-of-your-chatgpt-activity-7394351515743932416-WtvP (via Twitter)

#LLM #AI #Dawn #News #Media

@neil I’ve not read / watched / heard any mainstream news now for probably the last 18 months.

I sometimes get snippets if the radio is on and the news comes on, or if someone posts something here (and I haven’t muted it).

Only news I see otherwise is from stuff I subscribe to on RSS or fedi 🤷🏻‍♂️

@neil I stopped about 4 years ago. The anxiety was making me physically unwell. It took a while for people in my circle to accept that - no - I did not “hear about”… anything? But you quickly find other things to talk about that are ultimately more productive and less depressing.

Do it. The news exists to scare you into buying things and distract you from the real (admittedly small) changes you can make.

@neil Recently, I've been analysing my own mood.

Reading the news is one of the things that I picked up during that - in the morning, I tend to read the news on my phone for 10 mins before getting up.

Sometimes that's beneficial - allows me to wake up a bit more before emerging into the world.

Sometimes, though, it's really not because the news is full of doom (and AI and... and...) - those days, unsurprisingly, go worse for me than the others

So, I too have been considering just not reading

@neil
I read this earlier and pondered a thought because I've been thinking about the same for a while.

The problem that keeps coming up to me is that ignorance of the law is no defense. How are we meant to keep up with laws if we don't read the news? Is there a way of keeping up with our legal obligations without having to scroll through the rest of the anxiety inducing news bullshit?

@neil

That is definitely a tricky problem.

On the one hand, I feel most news is merely 'entertainment' and doesn't contain any information that helps inform a meaningful decision. Therefore, most of it isn't worth paying for.

On the other, if there is a chance that my reading and posting a link to some news can help sway the minds of people to take action on the issues I read about - isn't it worth it?

I'm one of those who post / boost too much news. I try to be diligent about writing easily filterable posts, though. Even so, it might be better for everyone, if I scale it down.

As for sources? Most of it is deliberately sensationalism, and the slowest, most boring news site is Wikipedia's News page. But that might also be the most reliable news too.

@neil I did the same, deliberately, for something approaching a year in the early 2000s (I never recorded this, so it may well be inaccurate).

My life was not worse, at all. Everything I needed to know I found out anyway. If anything, I suspect my outlook was improved.

I didn't manage to maintain the blackout, because there was a constant "Oh I wonder if..." feeling that eventually drew me back in.

@neil i stop reading social media and *any* news/current affairs (inc. tech news) in january each year for a minimum of 21 days (its harder than it sounds). i return to socials after that but with a fresh pair of eyes. i then allow myself on sports news but stay off politics for as long as i can, but without the strictness that i apply in the 21 day period.

@neil

I've stopped looking at news websites, but I still read a selection of newspapers (including my local) on pressreader.com with my library account.

@neil
The problem for me is the mainstream news definition of 'important' differs greatly to me. Do I care about some internal Westminster bust-up? Not in the slightest, but it is the top headline for 2 days. Things that I care about.. Gaza, Trans rights.. crickets..

Years ago I'd have had News24 playing on the TV a lot of the time. Now I glance at what they're on about today and get on with my day. Fedi will fill me in on the important stuff.

@neil I feel similar - I dislike checking the news because it is so awful, although I still read The Economist and listen to a politics podcast.

I have been tempted by an FT subscription, as their reporting tends to be better (and doesn't generally include sport, celebrities etc.), but it would still include 'the world is literally on fire' items.

@neil I stopped a while ago. I don't feel like I've missed out on any signal, only noise.