News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
www.theguardian.com
News is bad for you. It leads to fear and aggression. It hinders your creativity and makes you sick. We should stop consuming it, says Rolf Dobelli, who's abstained for years

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/12894133

I read this article recently and I was just thinking about my news consumption and how much I want to be affected by it.

I feel like it is important because shit is going on in the world however I usually don’t change my habits much over it.

I also think that there should be a middle ground somewhere but I can’t think of it so if anyone of you have ideas please share them.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    10 months ago

    I think capping your consumption to a certain modest level is a good compromise. Reading none of it is probably the best for your individual health, but also deprives you of the information you need to be an engaged citizen in a democratic society.

    Reading too much of it will just harm you, by negatively impacting your emotional well-being and potentially overwhelming your ability to process daily information, both news-based, and in your day-to-day life.

    So, responsible consumption in moderation is the best compromise imo. Personally I get a lot of mine right here on Lemmy, which has largely replaced my “morning paper” experience, and rely on a handful of global sources to make sure I’m not missing anything important that doesn’t make it onto here. Ground News is particularly good for that.

    Then I also personally like to stay abreast of how specific factions spin things, but that’s more due to a personal interest in how propaganda affects society, and I honestly don’t really recommend it if you value your sanity.

  • Varyk
    3·
    10 months ago

    Maybe figure out why you think it’s important to read the news first, and then you can figure out how much you want to consume?

    I think a simple newsletter of daily news is enough, I truly don’t think there’s enough world shattering news to keep up with, everything else is an opinion piece or a meme.

    This is the newsletter I’m subscribed to, seems pretty objective and provides actual relevant world news, maybe 10 minutes of reading per day to stay on top of everything of global and national significance everyone is talking about:

    join1440.com

    • Skunk@jlai.lu
      1·
      10 months ago

      Ah nice thanks for the link.

      On a not newsletter format there is ground.news

      I’m testing it from time to time without an account and as contrary to a newsletter, I get the information when I want to look for it and not when I receive it (but honestly if you are a zero phone notification lover, that does not change anything).

      • Varyk
        1·
        10 months ago

        Looks pretty cool, I’d just be worried because my addiction is with scrolling. I do like that you have to choose more stories to keep scrolling though.

        I really like the media bias bar on the bottom left, thanks for sharing.

        The nice thing about 1440 is you read for 10 minutes and you pretty much got what’s going on for the day, if you’re worried about spending too much time online. But I’ll definitely try this out for a while, I like the simple, informative layout.

        • Skunk@jlai.lu
          1·
          10 months ago

          I like the same idea about 1440, I am just looking for the same thing with more local and native language news, but I guess that would be setting my own RSS feed…

          But you are right, having just a short list of relevant news is perfect, and if you want to go deeper you can then move to a site like ground news or something else.

          I’ll try 1440 as I already have a catch-all email with a specific “newsletter@” filter.

          [EDIT]Or not: Subscription failed. Email address could not be verified. Please contact us to sign up.

          • Varyk
            1·
            10 months ago

            Ah, sorry to hear that.

            No idea, I signed up a few years ago now, and that’s as far into the actual site as I ever got.