Giving Up the News

Do you have an unhealthy relationship with the 24/7 news cycle? Maybe it's time to change that.

Photo courtesy of: mikoto.raw Photographer: https://www.pexels.com/

It was late January 2017, and I was still suffering from the results of the presidential election in the United States. Earlier in the month, I had awoken to the news that Donald Trump had won after an election campaign that I can only describe as distasteful, at best. I'd started crying at various times during the day. Not just because I hadn’t voted for Trump and didn't care for him personally, but also because I began to see America, possibly for the first time in my life, with different eyes. Perhaps we were a vicious people, divided, racist, addicted to consumption and profit. Not just the kind of country you didn’t want next door but the kind of country you probably didn’t want on your block.

As we sat down to dinner one evening and began to talk about the day I felt the tears welling up again. It was then my husband offered some life-changing advice. “Maybe,” he said. “It’s time to stop watching the news for awhile.”

Stop. Watching. The. News. For. Awhile.

Now, maybe you have a different relationship with the news media than I do, but as someone who grew up in the 1980’s, I feel obligated to be well informed; to know what's going on. The 'news' – which I define as journalism delivered by television, newspapers, news magazines, and news websites – is how I learn about issues that I should be concerned about. In university, I considered majoring in journalism. A free press, in my opinion, is one of the pillars of all we hold dear. I believed my role was to know what was going on in my neighbourhood, country, and Uruguay and Somalia. This was my duty as a citizen. This made me a better person.

The advice that I rethink my relationship with the news was akin to encouraging me to 'go become stupid for a while.' I instantly came up with a list of reasons why this was a horrible idea, not the least of which being the fact that my day work required me to be aware of current events.

But I needed to get through the day without feeling hopeless, angry, exhausted, or on the verge of tears, so I decided to give it a shot. Cold turkey. No news.

I took the BBC off my home page. I stopped checking CNN and the Economist. If Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, who said, “"I don't read the newspapers, I don't watch the news. I figure, if something important happens, someone will tell me,” could make it work for him then I could probably make it work for me.

As someone addicted to the news, I feel like my first confession should be that going cold turkey made me jittery or anxious about what I was missing, but that was not my experience. After giving up the news I felt – almost instantly - much better. That was six years ago, and I haven't looked back since.

I rapidly realised a few things about the 24-hour news cycle we live in.

First, is that, in the 24-hour news cycle, we consume very little actual news. News being defined as events occurring and the details of their occurrence being relayed to those of us who weren’t there. Sure, that forms a small amount of the news but mostly it’s people giving their (very strong) opinions about an event or speculating on what it all means or what will happen next. As Jenny Odell comments in her book on the attention economy, How to Do Nothing,

"...scrolling through the feed, I can't help but wonder: What am I supposed to think of all this? How am I supposed to think of all this? I imagine different parts of my brain lighting up in a pattern that doesn't make any sense, that forecloses any possible understanding. Many things in there seem important, but the sum total is nonsense, and it produces not understanding but a dull and stupefying dread."

Second, very little of what is reported has any impact on my life nor is there anything that I can do anything about. A toddler drown a nearby city. There was a massive car accident on the M4. A coup occurred in Burkina Faso. Are these things all important? Yes. Are they tragic? Yes. Can I do anything about them? No. How do they make me feel? Hopeless, sad, impotent. And on that note, I would normally start my day.

Second, very little of what is reported has any bearing on my life, nor is there anything I can do about it. In a neighbouring city, a toddler drowned. On the M4, there was a major vehicle accident. Burkina Faso experienced a coup. Are all of these things important? Yes. Are they often tragic? Yes. Is there anything I can do about it? No. What effect do they have on me? I feel sad, outraged, hopeless, or powerless. Not a great way to head into the day!

Third, being well informed is achievable without reading or watching the news. How? Curate what you give your attention to. Work in your neighbourhood, talk to people, find interesting podcasts and read books about topics that interest you. And, here’s the kicker, if someone asks you about some news item you haven’t heard of admit you don’t know and let them tell you about it. We need to redefine what it means to be well-informed. I used to believe that it was simply a matter of gathering enough information about events to be able to comment on or create an opinion about them. Now, I'm starting to believe that being well-informed entails curating your own attention and focusing it on topics that matter to you.

So, have I ever returned to the news? Yes. Was 2017 the last time I've read a news story? No. During the 2020 presidential election in the United States, I resumed reading the news. I resumed reading the news when Ukraine was invaded and Putin launched his awful and senseless war. But the way I use the news is completely different. I don't click on every headline that comes up in front of me anymore. Rather than reading what a single media channel provides, I will look for news in other places. In other words, I curate my attention and, as a result, my consumption. Before I click on a story, I think about if the information or incident is something I need to know about and why. Rather than having my attention dragged around a swamp for the benefit of media firms generating money, I feel like a responsible consumer of news.

So, if you believe your relationship with the news (or social media) is ready for a change, I recommend that you consider what you want it to be and why, and then work to transform it into one that is good for you. And if you're concerned about not being well-informed, I'll let you in on a secret you’re the one who gets to define what ‘well-informed’ is.