I am convinced that reading the news is worse than not reading anything at all. There is no proof that it makes us wiser, better decision makers, better informed, better citizens; nothing — if anything, entirely the opposite.
If you are anything like me, you’ve already stopped consuming news without even making a conscious decision about it. Maybe you felt the optimism being sucked out of you with every news bit and just stayeds away or maybe without even noticing it, you found something better to do with your time and started replacing it. Or maybe you’ve never been a news person.
Whatever the reason — I bet you don’t miss it at all and you’ve probably realised you don’t really need it.
“The fortunate among us have recognized the hazards of living with an overabundance of food and have started to shift our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body.” -Rolf Dobelli
I wanted to write about this topic for some time now. Largely, because I got frustrated with that guy who thinks he is very cultured just because he reads the newspaper and knows what is going on in the world. And with that girl who knows everything about every celebrity and is very surprised to hear I don’t know about the leaked photos of Jenniffer Lawrence. But mostly, because I’ve benefited from it.
Since I unplugged from the news I feel more in control of my attention (I decide what thoughts I want wandering in my head), I have better reading habits (I seek and enjoy long, slow, thought-provoking reads), I have more time to gain meaningful insights elsewhere, and I’m definitely more optimistic.
So I decided to do some research about it and was blown away to find more than enough reasons to back up my gut instinct. I expected to find arguments on it being irrelevant, misleading, manipulative and time-costly — but toxic for our body? alters our brain structure? creativity killer? increases cognitive errors and inhibits thinking? Now those are significant statements.
And it’s not only the news media, these attention-grabbing techniques are almost everywhere, from government propaganda to corporate marketing. We see it all the time on facebook and twitter, each post screaming to get our attention, not so much asking but really tempting us for a click.
“Information is no longer a scarce commodity. But attention is. Why give it away so easily?” - Rolf Dobelli
In an era of paid-by-the-piece articles, of revenue-generating clicks, where luring headlines are more important than the actual content and where everybody can be a “journalist”, we should be careful about what we consume and we should specially be aware of the negative effects it has on ourselves and our society.
Today we know that the adult brain remains neuroplastic, this means it has the amazing ability to adapt and quite literally change its structure and functions as a result of experiences, environments and behaviours. So it is concerning that we are spending so much time on a daily basis, skimming through pictures, videos, headlines and text for relevant keywords; scrolling, clicking, linking. With so much information, our brain has to form shortcuts to deal with the overload and the distractions, because on top of that, we consume news while multitasking. We read the newspaper while having breakfast, we listen to the news while driving and thinking about our day ahead, we watch news bits on tv while scanning through the channels, we scroll through our twitter timeline during work.
We are quite......
Will come back soon!
我相信，没有什么比看到这条新闻更加糟糕的事情了，没有任何证据证明它使得我们更加聪明，做出更好的抉择，更加通情达理，更加公民化，一点点都没有——如果硬要说带来了什么影响，肯定全是相反的影响。
如果你有一点点喜欢我，你就应该已经停止新闻，在没有做出任何一丝下意识的决定之时。或许你能够感觉到相反的,仅仅只是逃离或者甚至于没有注意到它，你发现更好的方式来消磨你的时间，并且代替掉它。又或许。你不曾拥有过一个新闻人
不管是什么原因——我确信，你一点点都不想错过它，并且你很有可能已经意识到自己真的一点点都不需要它
幸运的是，我们中的一些人已经认识到。缺乏食物的生活是多么困难，并且已经开始转移我们的节食活动，但是大部分的我们仍然无法确信那条消息对于思想就像糖对于身体
我想确信的是，关于这个话题目前大部分时间的写作，奇怪的是，因为我预测那个人，应该会认为他是一个很有文化的人，仅仅因为他阅读报纸，并且知道即将在世界上发生些什么。关于那个女孩，她知道关于电的所有知识，并且很惊讶的听到我竟然不知道少了一张杰克的照片。但是，由于我已经确信
自从我为屏蔽了那种消息，我感觉我的关注收到了更多的约束，（我决定我思考的东西要质疑大脑）我有着更好的阅读习惯（我寻找并且享受漫长和令人深刻思考的阅读）我有更多的时间去获得更有意义的见解，我能更加客观。
所以，我决定去做一些研究，通过一些方式寻找更多理由。我希望寻找这种论点，无关的、误导的、耗时间的，但是对我们的身体有害的争论改变我们的大脑结构，变得更加有创造力，增加错误和思考习惯。这些就是如今独特的观点。
它不仅仅是新媒介，这些越发引人注意的科技几乎分布在每个地方。从政府宣传到合作市场。我们几乎总能在脸书和推特上看到它，每次能得到我们注意的呼唤，不是在问而是真正意义上在尝试着我们
消息不再是稀有的商品，而是注意力。为什么给予它的方式这么容易。
我们应该我们消费的东西和我们应该特别关心它对我们自身和我们所处社会产生的负面效果
如今的社会我们知道成年人的头脑仍然保持着，这意味着它已经能够改变它的结构和功能，由于经历、环境和行为。所以可以确信的是。我们花费这么长时间在每天基本的技能、游泳通过浏览图片、声音、头条、和文章中的关键文字。这么多的信息量，我们的大脑不得不形成剪裁形式，从而解决过量且分散的消息。鉴于以上的所有，我们消费新闻，我们吃早饭的时候阅读报纸。我们思考和开着我们每天的听新闻报道，我们在电视机上观看新闻，我们推送推特在工作时间
我们相当的。。。
很快就会回来。。。