Why I don’t read the news – BREAKING NEWS: A 6.5 earthquake reported just a few hours ago in India. Man finally caught after keeping 3 girls in his secret basement at home. Huge forest fire in Sydney, Australia. Jennifer Lopez splits from Alex Rodriguez after 4 years. Highest unemployment rates recorded in Philippine history. 38 people dead in mass gunfire shooting in Ohio. Somalia President resigns from position amid rumors of corruption. New world record for holding breath underwater.
Big news, right? So alarming. So informative.
Do you need to know all these things every single day? Ok, so some of these news I just made up, but some could be true. The point here is, this is the typical news you see everyday your entire life. How has this helped your daily productivity throughout your life on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest? If you scored a solid 8 to 10, you seriously need help.
For the rest of us 7 and below, we’re absurdly too well informed yet why do we know so little really? About two centuries have passed since humans created the most toxic type of knowledge called “THE NEWS”. Compare news to the mind what sugar does to our body. Very invigorating to the taste, easy to eat, but highly destructive in the long run.
A little over 2 years ago, I started a simple test. I unsubscribed to all reading, listening and viewing type of news, especially on Social Media.
Then, I removed all bookmarks to news sites regardless of the genre: Politics, Business, Sports, Entertainment and everything else.
Furthermore, I stopped watching the news on TV and stopped listening on any audio source. I deleted these apps on my phone, from CNN to ESPN.
I stopped touching any type of newspaper, free or paid.
In short, I don’t read the news anymore.
It was difficult for the first few weeks. Very difficult. I felt like I was missing out on what was happening to the world, especially in sports, where I loved watching the NBA. But eventually, after some time, doing this exercise completely changed my outlook in life.
The results?
I now have more valuable insights. I make better decisions more than ever. My thoughts are a lot clearer. I get to filter the junk through my friends. The best part? I don’t feel like I have missed anything important whatsoever.
My real life social network (not social media), despite the pandemic, the one that comes from the real world coming from real people I talk to like friends, family or acquaintances. They all work as my news filter and they keep me in the loop of what’s really important. An earthquake in our province in Batangas City, my cousins who live there will text me about it. A big trade in the NBA trade deadline? My High School classmate will tell me about it via our group chat on Whatsapp. Another lockdown happening by Monday? My wife will tell me the details about it. It’s people who tell me what is happening in the real world. Not some writer I don’t really know but I’m sure is credible.
Our minds react inappropriately to different types of information. Shocking, scandalous, human-based, noisy, quick changing details tend to stimulate us. Compared to complex, abstract and unprocessed information that sedates our thoughts. Another reason why not to read the news.
News producers capitalize on these scenarios. Images that are obtrusively bright, gripping story headlines and sensationalized facts all capture our attention. Here’s how the news money making business model works.
Advertisers buy space and they finance the news that revolves around. This is with the condition that their ads can be seen in between these articles or news. What happens next? Whatever is simple, complete, abstract and profound needs to be filtered out. Even though these stories are more relevant to our lives and to how we understand the world.
We walk around with a distortedly unorganized mental map of the risks and the various threats we face out in the real world. This is the result of the news consumption that we take upon every day.
News Flash: NEWS IS NOT RELEVANT. In the next 365 days of your life, you would have between 5,000 to 15,000 various types of news or about 25-40 types of news every single day. This is why I don’t read the news. It consumes too much of my time for more relevant things in my life.
Here’s a test. Name one news that’s recent that has helped you make a good decision for your life, your business or your career. Then compare that to not having that piece of news. Chances are, you won’t be able to name more than two or three news stories out of that 15,000. That’s a horrible percentage, right?
News sources make sure that their information gives you that “competitive edge”. Millions of people fall for this. The truth is, news consumption represents a real competitive disadvantage. If the news that we read helped people get ahead, these journalists would be on the very top of the income pyramid. But in reality, it’s the other way around.
The most important reason why I don’t read the news? It’s such a waste of my time. An average human will spend 4 to 8 hours in a day every week reading or watching the current news affairs. Globally, this is a huge loss of productivity.
Use any recent terrorist attacks anywhere in the world that killed 50 to 200 people. One billion people spent an hour of their time to following the aftermath of that awfully devastating incident. Everyone spent their time on minute by minute updates and listened to these “experts” and “commentators”. This comes out as a logical guess or an estimate. A billion people with a billion hours that was spent on news instead of working. Staggering.
Convert this and we learn that news consumption wasted at least 3,000 to 4,000 lives. Multiple times more than the terrorist attacks. Sarcastic? A little. Accurate observation? A lot.
I can guarantee you this. Removing yourself from the news will benefit you so much more than anything else. If this hasn’t convinced you to curb that junk habit, I don’t know what will. Spend that free time you will get instead to read books and old articles on improving your health, wealth or mindset. Books are so underrated in understanding how our world really works.
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March 30, 2021 Author Nico
Reading newspaper makes a good habit and it is already part of the modern life. This habit will widen your outlook and will enrich your knowledge.
March 30, 2021 Author Nico
Reading newspapers will improve your knowledge in general and it will be easy for you to relate to other people who often talks about current events and politics.
March 30, 2021 Author Nico
Newspapers provide information and general knowledge. Reading it daily will widen the scope of your knowledge which is an integral part of education and very useful especially for student. Not only are the news itself that are beneficial for students, but it also develop their language skills and increases their word vocabulary.
March 30, 2021 Author Edward
Is it worth informing yourself of the world you live in and being educated on the events that could affect your life? Yes very much so.
Personally I read at least 2 news outlets in the morning and then keep in touch with it throughout the day. I prefer National and World news as opposed to local and state news. My preference is to know what is going on in the world at large, but I do touch in on an overview of State news at least once a week because it more directly affects my life. Local news to me, being from a small town, is something that I get more by word of mouth than actually investing a ton of time reading about it. But I also say this as someone that works at a local newspaper.
March 30, 2021 Author Edward
But, my personal preference aside, I do believe that it is incredibly important for everyone to educate themselves on the world in which they live. We are a global community now, like no other generation before us. It is imperative that we know what is going on the world to better inform our lives because nobody lives apart from the world. The things that happen on a global scale do, in some way, affect our lives.
March 30, 2021 Author James Santos
Reading is very essential in the mental buildup of every individual. It expands our scope of reasoning, and improve our vocabularies. It is very important for the development of every individual because it adds to what we know and gives us competitive advantages over nonreaders.
When we look at newspapers, they play a vital role in information dissemination around the world and enhances freedom of expression, though, and association. It is made possible by ingenuities of renowned men and women. They come from all works of life. Their passions are so diverse that, this pushes them to pour out themselves in their writings. They comprise of columnists, editors, cartoonists, motivational speakers, influencers and many many more. These groups of men and women play a vital role in getting these newspapers to the limelight and getting the messages across.
March 30, 2021 Author Genesis
Yes, reading newspapers is very impact filled. It enhances our insights in a wide range of issues. It gives us updates on political developments around the world. It shows vacancies for job employment. It gives us political will and education. It serves as a source of information so that we can have a view in politics. Newspapers give updates on businesses and opportunities for investments and flops in businesses and serve as a warning for us to be mindful of where and how to invest. Newspapers are very important to us because to dig for information which makes headlines and bring global attention to some acts of injustices across the world.
March 30, 2021 Author Nico
Reading newspapers helps us to know what happens around the world. It gives us updates on events outside our cultures and social classes. They serve as advocacy platforms for change in our society. All reading itself-investment and it pays off immensely.
March 30, 2021 Author Andrea
There are four things that shape human and society thought. The family, the religious institution, the school, and the press media. And newspapers have a way of shaping the thought patterns of the society. Reading newspapers help to shape the thought patterns of the reader towards the realities of events, people and the society at large. Reading newspapers has the power to shape the thought patterns of the reader and place them at a certain stage and focus. Reading has the propensity to enlarge the coast of the reader and give them a better perspective of thinking. It opens up new trends of thinking and shapes new barriers.
March 31, 2021 Author Antonio Aguirre, Jr.
Read books instead.
March 30, 2021 Author Anton
Reading newspaper is a daily routine for almost every individual. However, most of the people read it without knowing its significance despite offering a great sense of educational value. Reading the newspaper also improves your vocabulary.
Further, a newspaper is a medium that contains knowledge about every topic that you want. For example, several sections of a newspaper include sports news, business news, national affairs, international affairs, general knowledge, commerce, politics news, entertainment news and many more. So, reading newspaper is like installing all sorts of general information to your brain.
March 31, 2021 Author Antonio Aguirre, Jr.
Read books instead if you just want to improve your vocabulary.