‘News Is Bad for You – And Giving up Reading it Will Make You Happier’
April 15th, 2013“I hear from people who had read Cryptogon for years, and report to me how their quality of life improved dramatically since shutting out this type of information.”
Via: Guardian:
News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether.
I grew up as an Economics & Politics student, and from the age of 12 onwards, homework was to watch the news and any other politics or current affairs media. It became a deeply ingrained habit that I did not break.
Until famously (at least among my friends & work colleagues at the time) I gave up television for 9 months as an experiment during 2001, after a friend dared me. The only exception to this was when our entire company were summoned to the Rec Room on Sept 11th to watch events unfold, as our boss was convinced that we were going to war.
A while later one of our artists was showing me a tunnel complex he had designed for our game. “It’s just like Tora Bora,” he chuckled. I had no idea what he was on about. Years later I discovered much more that I had simply not seen or heard about.
I soon realised that my life had carried peacefully on while everyone around me was biting their nails about the daily global news situation.
I was calm, serene, and enjoyed my life so well during those 9 months, that I now avoid most TV news and as a reward I get to notice just how stressed out people become when they watch it. My parents especially get really up tight about different events, and don’t know how to deal with the powerless feelings that they are left with after watching.
Strangely, I find that I can read the newspaper and listen to the radio news, and not be affected by it. It seems to be just the visual medium of television (and of course, visual news online with streaming video etc.) that causes the really bad reactions in people. I guess we put those images into our heads and we never, ever get them out again.
My experience is that TV “journalism” is perverse entertainment. I haven’t watched it since 9-11. However, I am a rabid consumer of alternative news from many sources and have learned to spot fact from fiction in an instant. It is calming to me overall to have the truth, yet I will admit that the stupidity of sheeple irritates me.
Scripture says, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” It doesn’t make one popular with those who are addicted to lies though.
Kevin – from your 2011 piece on i-Censorship…
(Can you hear that sickening sound? That’s Cheney squealing with joy over this as he rolls in his own slop.)
GOLD !!