17 ms·

For me, it has now been 2.5 years since having watched any local, national or cable news. The stuff is poison. I also deleted Facebook around the same time to

by dpcan 3y ago

For me, it has now been 2.5 years since having watched any local, national or cable news. The stuff is poison. I also deleted Facebook around the same time to stay away from it through 3rd parties. It is true that it has made me happier. I am free of the nonsense. It turns out, every “big deal” only lasts a couple weeks - in terms of those of us who have no control over anything. I still hear people talk about stuff that’s happening in the news, and chuckle when they are on to some new terrifying thing that’s happening after about a week since the last terrifying thing they were freaking out about.

zorlack 3y ago
> I still hear people talk about stuff that’s happening in the news Well phew! Thankfully someone's still paying attention.
beardedwizard 3y ago
Ah so you don't count hackernews as news - an interesting choice. You mention tv news, but I suspect online news is what most people consume, streaming killed tv news many years ago.
- kodah 3y ago
  I think "news" here correlates to organizations deep in the "news cycle" whereby some organization decides some goings-on of local people is a worthy national topic. HN is one or two layers removed from this; quite literally there's a crowd deciding what you see at a given moment is relative or not for consumption. This is the same effect of hearing about important events from other people and choosing to look into them further or looking into them after the topic is more settled. The real problem these users are describing is separation from the news cycle where most elements in the cycle are overstated or irrelevant to most users but are put in front of them anyway with very "this is important" language.
- dandellion 3y ago
  Despite the name I think only about half the posts on the site are actual news. And of those many are not current news, there are many links that are months or even years old.
- whstl 3y ago
  I think it's easy enough to "miss" this kind of news in HN. The threads often get flagged quite quickly, lead to to more comments than upvotes, which brings it to the second page, etc.
Dudester230602 3y ago
How will you know what your opinion is expected to be by society to avoid getting into trouble at work or in public? You cannot simply say "Go current good thing! End the current bad thing!" as people will think you are being sarcastic.
- presidentender 3y ago
  Usually if you don't track the news you don't have opinions on the news. If somehow you develop an opinion it's pretty easy not to express it.
- andyjohnson0 3y ago
  For a while now I've tried to cultivate the habit of not trying to have opinions about everything. It's quite liberating to say: sorry, <thing> may be important, but I just don't have an opinion about it at the moment.
  - suslik 3y ago
    I often find that saying "I am not up to date with the literature on this" helps.
  - cybersandwich 3y ago
    There is something freeing about acknowledging you don't need to have an opinion and something enlightening about knowing you shouldn't have an opinion--especially on a topic that you aren't truly informed about.
    - EarthLaunch 3y ago
      My favorite meme on the subject: "Marcus Aurelius has already released you from the obligation to have a take": > 52. You are not compelled to form any opinion about this matter before you, nor to disturb your peace of mind at all. Things in themselves have no power to extort a verdict from you.
- InitialLastName 3y ago

by dpcan 3y ago

zorlack 3y ago

> I still hear people talk about stuff that’s happening in the news Well phew! Thankfully someone's still paying attention.

beardedwizard 3y ago

Ah so you don't count hackernews as news - an interesting choice. You mention tv news, but I suspect online news is what most people consume, streaming killed tv news many years ago.

kodah 3y ago
I think "news" here correlates to organizations deep in the "news cycle" whereby some organization decides some goings-on of local people is a worthy national topic. HN is one or two layers removed from this; quite literally there's a crowd deciding what you see at a given moment is relative or not for consumption. This is the same effect of hearing about important events from other people and choosing to look into them further or looking into them after the topic is more settled. The real problem these users are describing is separation from the news cycle where most elements in the cycle are overstated or irrelevant to most users but are put in front of them anyway with very "this is important" language.
dandellion 3y ago
Despite the name I think only about half the posts on the site are actual news. And of those many are not current news, there are many links that are months or even years old.
whstl 3y ago
I think it's easy enough to "miss" this kind of news in HN. The threads often get flagged quite quickly, lead to to more comments than upvotes, which brings it to the second page, etc.

Dudester230602 3y ago

How will you know what your opinion is expected to be by society to avoid getting into trouble at work or in public? You cannot simply say "Go current good thing! End the current bad thing!" as people will think you are being sarcastic.

presidentender 3y ago
Usually if you don't track the news you don't have opinions on the news. If somehow you develop an opinion it's pretty easy not to express it.
andyjohnson0 3y ago
For a while now I've tried to cultivate the habit of not trying to have opinions about everything. It's quite liberating to say: sorry, <thing> may be important, but I just don't have an opinion about it at the moment.
- suslik 3y ago
  I often find that saying "I am not up to date with the literature on this" helps.
- cybersandwich 3y ago
  There is something freeing about acknowledging you don't need to have an opinion and something enlightening about knowing you shouldn't have an opinion--especially on a topic that you aren't truly informed about.
  - EarthLaunch 3y ago
    My favorite meme on the subject: "Marcus Aurelius has already released you from the obligation to have a take": > 52. You are not compelled to form any opinion about this matter before you, nor to disturb your peace of mind at all. Things in themselves have no power to extort a verdict from you.
InitialLastName 3y ago