Even now, it's amazing how different the experience of reading a print newspaper is, in my opinion. I love that I find some interesting things I wasn't looking for. Despite the vastness of the internet, it happens a lot less online.
I have not watched TV news since the election, and only sparingly gotten my new from print since then. I definitely feel better. But I also worry about becoming an uninformed citizen. I'm struggling with what I have control over (in the news) and what my responsibility is, as a citizen.
Absolutely, Heather, I feel that exact same tension. That's one reason while I do vacations and not eternal news banishment! When I come back from these vacations, the main change seems to be that I don't get sucked into doomscrolling news and news reactions as readily. Over time, I start to get sucked in again, and then each vacation is sort of like a reset.
I'm going to take some of these recs too;) ...Not really dystopian, but I really enjoyed Jade City (the first in the Green Bone Saga), in case that appeals.
Well said David, I appreciate the reminder. I also think the experience of getting the news 24-7 in social, family, and work settings etc is not only distracting but disorienting. Regretfully, most of the time we are receiving it alone versus as part of a community. Good luck with final stages of your book!
I've been doing more book reading recently and feel a lot better. I love history and find that everything we see nowadays has some parallel in the past, just with different names (and different technology).
Chris, I'm with you. I wasn't a big history reader until somewhat more recently...probably a bit before my last book, and now I can't get enough. And I agree, I'm constantly struck by how familiar at least the structure of various challenges and innovations feels.
I've been reading the Calendar of Wisdom this year! I think I found out about it here. While I'll disagree with Tolstoy about which of his contributions was greatest (I think Anna Karenina, in my opinion), I have found a few of the entries powerful and timely.
Paul, I'm always extremely happy to hear when someone ends up reading anything I mentioned and enjoy. I also disagree with Tolstoy...and [gasp] I haven't even read Anna Karenina. I have one staring daggers at me from my bookshelf, though, and it's on the shortlist for as soon as I turn in my book draft.
Dave! Thank you for including my thing! It was so fascinating to learn about the history of the news vacation, especially that it was helpful to people even in a time long before the "24/7 feeds of catastrophe."
I've never been a devotee of the news by any means, but there are two key points in my timeline where I think if data had been gathered there would have been a sharp decline.
First was when my daughter became aware of tv/radio - I can't remember exactly what age but I realised she was listening to them as opposed to them being on in the background and I didn't want her to be exposed to it.
Second was during pretty early days of the covid pandemic - here in Aotearoa New Zealand we had to respond hard and fast because we were going into winter and have a particularly vulnerable population of elderly and pacific island people to protect. The global response and subsequent infinite reactions and hot takes were chaotic and overwhelming. I now follow The Spinoff (a local online newspaper) and a couple of podcasts that I trust and thats my entire news diet. As a result I notice when the people around me are becoming overwhelmed by the news they are consuming, the vibe is as strong as the scent when a smoker walks into the room, and I'm so relieved to not be stuck in that cycle.
Estelle, thanks so much for this detailed account! I love when people share in these comments, in detail, a slice of life I wouldn't otherwise have insight into. The "stuck in that cycle" really gets at the feeling I was thinking of. I do wonder if everyone found a local source to turn to, if the national and global stuff might not be as attractive and constantly overwhelming. Not that some of it isn't extremely important, but, to steal an adage from toxicologists, "dose makes the poison," and I think we're way overdosed.
German literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) had an agonizingly ambivalent relationship to news which seems similar to our news addiction and doomscrolling today: he was an avid reader of the two contemporary magazines / newspapers Le Globe and Le Temps, and at the same time they bogged him down and hindered his writing. Thus, in the process of writing his magnum drama opus, Faust, he put a ban on himself and stopped reading them. "Since I have stopped reading the newspapers, I have a much freer mind", he wrote in a letter in 1830.
And, at another time in another place, "When you have stopped reading the newspapers for a few months and then come back and read them all in one go, you realize how much of your time they ruin."
And, following this, an absolute preshadowing of our current filter bubbles on social media and the internet: "The world has always been divided into factions, especially today, and during each doubtful condition the news writer more or less woos one or the other party and feeds one's inner inclination or disinclination day by day until at last a decision occurs and what has happened is stared at in wonder as a deity."
I think our current news practices do not serve us well in the global condition the world is in today, in what many call a polycrisis or metacrisis. Negative news are broadcast everywhere and on every channel, good news much more seldom - "bad news are good news" in our monetised society, also because we are evolutionary wired for remembering catastrophes rather than good times.
You once wrote about feedback loops in organisations, David. News are one kind of a feedback loop, I think, and we could really make do with a new sort of news to help us get out of our current troubles, individually and collectively. Not almost exclusively broadcast local and global catastrophes and bad news, but also, and probably in equal amount, local and global good news. If all that we see and read on the news is bad news and catastrophes, we gradually lose our capacity and drive for problem solving and crisis management and can't share the multitude of best practices already in use and being developed in manifold locales on the planet. And if most of our news is global - locally untethered, so to speak - we also lose our sense of community, which weakens us so much more in tackling current challenges.
I have never been a fan of, "the news", so to speak, and I have never liked the ever growing trend of news people giving their opinion on any topic. I prefer to hear the news reported as known facts and form my own opinions. That being the case, I have rarely paid attention to news and/or politics, always preferring to get information from books. I know I am an "n" of one, but I have found this to make me a happier and more positive person on the whole, and in general find that the daily news and politics have no effect on my daily life at all.
Hi Christopher, thanks for this comment, and you're obviously in good company with Tolstoy and Jefferson! Also reminds me of a "What war?" joke that James Joyce supposedly made, referring to the fact that he was focused on writing Ulysses during World War I.
I also reduced my news consumption (especially national news) starting early this year, and it has been for the better.
This bit you quoted from Tolstoy made me think: “All our education should be directed to the accumulation of the cultural heritage of our ancestors, the best thinkers in the world.”
It’s like our best thoughts, writing, art, that stands the test of time, versus the news, is like comparing “evergreen” content against “trending” content.
And it’s definitely not good for us to only be taking in trending content.
William, that "especially national news," is interesting, as I definitely find that local news doesn't have that same enervating effect on me. It also isn't the same constant onslaught, I don't think. In any case, I love how you framed that: evergreen versus trending content.
Yeah the national news feels like a lot more of it is froth designed to try to keep attention or rile people up. Lots of things that people get angry about that they’ve never actually come in contact with personally.
Completely. In really life, I only rarely come upon something I find extremely enraging or morally reprehensible at the highest level, etc., but if I'm following a lot of national news it's a constant barrage. I feel like we're not built for that. At least I'm not!
Yes new book! Coming out.... well, coming out I have no idea when until my editor tells me if it's good or a complete mess;) The topic, very broadly speaking, is how constraints can be useful rather than only limiting.
I so miss the days of just the morning paper and the evening news, which had primarily local and some global items.
The constant barrage of consumable 'news' and readers' reactions is definitely not human progress.
Even now, it's amazing how different the experience of reading a print newspaper is, in my opinion. I love that I find some interesting things I wasn't looking for. Despite the vastness of the internet, it happens a lot less online.
YES - totally agree...it's such a different experience!
I have not watched TV news since the election, and only sparingly gotten my new from print since then. I definitely feel better. But I also worry about becoming an uninformed citizen. I'm struggling with what I have control over (in the news) and what my responsibility is, as a citizen.
Absolutely, Heather, I feel that exact same tension. That's one reason while I do vacations and not eternal news banishment! When I come back from these vacations, the main change seems to be that I don't get sucked into doomscrolling news and news reactions as readily. Over time, I start to get sucked in again, and then each vacation is sort of like a reset.
Life Hack: replace news scrolling with video games. On a dedicated console.
It’s like reading a book but fulfills screen urges too.
I bought a kindle and am reading a lot of dystopian fiction which is more entertaining than dystopian reality….. ;)
Any good recommends? The Hunger Games and Divergent were my staples in 2019. The Giver. Matched. This year I read The Book of Koli.
I really liked The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, the Silo series by Hugh Howey, which then led me to the YA Bern Saga by Howey.
I'm going to take some of these recs too;) ...Not really dystopian, but I really enjoyed Jade City (the first in the Green Bone Saga), in case that appeals.
I’m so happy when things are available in kindle unlimited! I’ve added and look forward to reading.
Thanks! I remembered one more that a friend told me to read without finding anything about it in advance: M.R. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts
Just got it from my library, thanks for the rec.
Ha, love this idea. I may try this in 2025
If you need any video game recommendations 😉😉😉
Waddya' got??
Well said David, I appreciate the reminder. I also think the experience of getting the news 24-7 in social, family, and work settings etc is not only distracting but disorienting. Regretfully, most of the time we are receiving it alone versus as part of a community. Good luck with final stages of your book!
That's a great point, Eoin. The thought of each of us in our own overlapping but algorithmically tailored world of nonstop news makes me dizzy.
I've been doing more book reading recently and feel a lot better. I love history and find that everything we see nowadays has some parallel in the past, just with different names (and different technology).
Chris, I'm with you. I wasn't a big history reader until somewhat more recently...probably a bit before my last book, and now I can't get enough. And I agree, I'm constantly struck by how familiar at least the structure of various challenges and innovations feels.
I've been reading the Calendar of Wisdom this year! I think I found out about it here. While I'll disagree with Tolstoy about which of his contributions was greatest (I think Anna Karenina, in my opinion), I have found a few of the entries powerful and timely.
Paul, I'm always extremely happy to hear when someone ends up reading anything I mentioned and enjoy. I also disagree with Tolstoy...and [gasp] I haven't even read Anna Karenina. I have one staring daggers at me from my bookshelf, though, and it's on the shortlist for as soon as I turn in my book draft.
This post spoke to me David. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words, Peter!
Dave! Thank you for including my thing! It was so fascinating to learn about the history of the news vacation, especially that it was helpful to people even in a time long before the "24/7 feeds of catastrophe."
Aha, the star of this post checks in;) Really enjoyed your piece!
I've never been a devotee of the news by any means, but there are two key points in my timeline where I think if data had been gathered there would have been a sharp decline.
First was when my daughter became aware of tv/radio - I can't remember exactly what age but I realised she was listening to them as opposed to them being on in the background and I didn't want her to be exposed to it.
Second was during pretty early days of the covid pandemic - here in Aotearoa New Zealand we had to respond hard and fast because we were going into winter and have a particularly vulnerable population of elderly and pacific island people to protect. The global response and subsequent infinite reactions and hot takes were chaotic and overwhelming. I now follow The Spinoff (a local online newspaper) and a couple of podcasts that I trust and thats my entire news diet. As a result I notice when the people around me are becoming overwhelmed by the news they are consuming, the vibe is as strong as the scent when a smoker walks into the room, and I'm so relieved to not be stuck in that cycle.
Estelle, thanks so much for this detailed account! I love when people share in these comments, in detail, a slice of life I wouldn't otherwise have insight into. The "stuck in that cycle" really gets at the feeling I was thinking of. I do wonder if everyone found a local source to turn to, if the national and global stuff might not be as attractive and constantly overwhelming. Not that some of it isn't extremely important, but, to steal an adage from toxicologists, "dose makes the poison," and I think we're way overdosed.
Such a useful piece. Thank you.
Thanks for reading, Brad.
Amen to this!!!
Thanks for reading, Terrell!
You’re welcome! I’m a big fan of ‘Range,’ by the way! Excited to hear more about your next book.
German literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) had an agonizingly ambivalent relationship to news which seems similar to our news addiction and doomscrolling today: he was an avid reader of the two contemporary magazines / newspapers Le Globe and Le Temps, and at the same time they bogged him down and hindered his writing. Thus, in the process of writing his magnum drama opus, Faust, he put a ban on himself and stopped reading them. "Since I have stopped reading the newspapers, I have a much freer mind", he wrote in a letter in 1830.
And, at another time in another place, "When you have stopped reading the newspapers for a few months and then come back and read them all in one go, you realize how much of your time they ruin."
And, following this, an absolute preshadowing of our current filter bubbles on social media and the internet: "The world has always been divided into factions, especially today, and during each doubtful condition the news writer more or less woos one or the other party and feeds one's inner inclination or disinclination day by day until at last a decision occurs and what has happened is stared at in wonder as a deity."
I think our current news practices do not serve us well in the global condition the world is in today, in what many call a polycrisis or metacrisis. Negative news are broadcast everywhere and on every channel, good news much more seldom - "bad news are good news" in our monetised society, also because we are evolutionary wired for remembering catastrophes rather than good times.
You once wrote about feedback loops in organisations, David. News are one kind of a feedback loop, I think, and we could really make do with a new sort of news to help us get out of our current troubles, individually and collectively. Not almost exclusively broadcast local and global catastrophes and bad news, but also, and probably in equal amount, local and global good news. If all that we see and read on the news is bad news and catastrophes, we gradually lose our capacity and drive for problem solving and crisis management and can't share the multitude of best practices already in use and being developed in manifold locales on the planet. And if most of our news is global - locally untethered, so to speak - we also lose our sense of community, which weakens us so much more in tackling current challenges.
I have never been a fan of, "the news", so to speak, and I have never liked the ever growing trend of news people giving their opinion on any topic. I prefer to hear the news reported as known facts and form my own opinions. That being the case, I have rarely paid attention to news and/or politics, always preferring to get information from books. I know I am an "n" of one, but I have found this to make me a happier and more positive person on the whole, and in general find that the daily news and politics have no effect on my daily life at all.
Hi Christopher, thanks for this comment, and you're obviously in good company with Tolstoy and Jefferson! Also reminds me of a "What war?" joke that James Joyce supposedly made, referring to the fact that he was focused on writing Ulysses during World War I.
I also reduced my news consumption (especially national news) starting early this year, and it has been for the better.
This bit you quoted from Tolstoy made me think: “All our education should be directed to the accumulation of the cultural heritage of our ancestors, the best thinkers in the world.”
It’s like our best thoughts, writing, art, that stands the test of time, versus the news, is like comparing “evergreen” content against “trending” content.
And it’s definitely not good for us to only be taking in trending content.
William, that "especially national news," is interesting, as I definitely find that local news doesn't have that same enervating effect on me. It also isn't the same constant onslaught, I don't think. In any case, I love how you framed that: evergreen versus trending content.
Yeah the national news feels like a lot more of it is froth designed to try to keep attention or rile people up. Lots of things that people get angry about that they’ve never actually come in contact with personally.
Completely. In really life, I only rarely come upon something I find extremely enraging or morally reprehensible at the highest level, etc., but if I'm following a lot of national news it's a constant barrage. I feel like we're not built for that. At least I'm not!
Getting your news should be more like going to the gas station and less like a movie theater.
As a great lover of analogies, I really appreciate this comment
Love this - but new book??!!!
Yes new book! Coming out.... well, coming out I have no idea when until my editor tells me if it's good or a complete mess;) The topic, very broadly speaking, is how constraints can be useful rather than only limiting.
Interesting - look forward to it!