6 Reasons to Stop Wasting Time and Energy on the News
"If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." Mark Twain
Floods. Corruption. Olympic games. Global warming. New movie releases. Murders. Given that at any given minute, there are a billion different events taking place, where do I put my attention?
I am proud to say that I have barely read any news in over one year. I certainly haven’t opened a news website out of nowhere. The few times I have gone after a piece of news was when I already knew what was the event I wanted to know more about. It has been liberating to consciously choose first, and not be pushed and stolen of my attention.
Let’s face it, we are living in an attention economy. News vehicles’ job is to grab our attention over and over again — and there’s always something new to use as bait.
Here are the reasons why I have committed myself to not have a single news app or newsletter, and not engage with news overall.
Reason 1: Missing the forest for the trees
Many problems have the same underlying reasons. Lack of education, inequality, lack of emotional intelligence, lack of honesty and openness. How we choose short-term gains and power over sustainable development and wellbeing. The news brings specific events that occurred because of these reasons.
When we do something about these specific issues as they happen, we put down fires but never tackle the underlying reason. In this sense, the news is the utmost distraction tool. It makes us feel like “something is being done”, when deep down, no, it isn’t. It is distracting our attention.
"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." Ben Hecht
It is perfect for authorities to make sure our attention is going to one event and not towards big holes. Flying is the most relevant contributor to global warming, but the fact that the super-rich buys more and more private jets is not news.
Let’s engage in the campaign to stop using plastic straws but keep consuming endless plastic bottles and packages — while, by the way, fishing nets are the #1 plastic in oceans, and we don't talk about it. We get happy about news on the European parliament taking a stand on global warming. It is no news that cattle are a relevant contributor to our carbon footprint. Yet historically governments subside this industry and no discussion goes towards that. Coronavirus and other deadly pathogens emerge from the way we destroy natural habitat and badly integrate to it.
We can continue this list on and on and on. News is not about disclosing full pictures, but about isolated events and someone else choosing where we put our attention.
Reason 2: No full circle
If something big happens today, there won’t be much follow up after a few days. Following up on a problem does not take our attention as much as a yet new bigger problem. If it is not new, it is no news. In this way, it is not much different from an Instagram picture stream; it is another distraction tool. The focus of news is “what just happened”, and not “what is the problem and what can we do about it?”
"I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information." Christopher Hitchens
Reason 3: Escapism
Opening a news channel website is something that I did when I did not know what to do. It felt “smarter” than opening my social media stream. Yet, the effects were the same. I got all consumed by post after post of news, without taking action on anything. I was “well-informed” but couldn’t put all the pieces together.
What is the information good for? Only for my ego of thinking I am well-informed? It is another distraction preventing me from doing big work.
"If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature." Goethe
Reason 4: Reading out of fear and not out of joy
I realized I was not feeling happy when reading the news. Duh. It was not something I was doing out of joy, but out of the feeling I was to be informed. I was to know. That’s what we, good citizens, do.
If anything, reading the news made me anxious and upset. There's another word for that: masochism. Why do that to myself? I mean, the truth is I don’t have to ANYTHING. And I choose not to.
I believe we can be happy as fuck. That does not mean life has no problems and is perfect. We are to work on it. Reading the news was not positively contributing to that. Guess what, who is shouting “look at all this new stuff that is happening, and so much shit you have to know about” is a journalist after my click. It is not true. At the end of the day, I choose to live my life out of joy, and not out of fear.
"Nothing could be older than the daily news, nothing deader than yesterday’s newspaper." Edward Abbey
Reason 5: Egocentrism
Seriously, what are we going to do about reading the news besides: 1 feel like we are smart and up-to-date; 2 talk about it over the dinner table (which essentially is the same as feeling like a smart person) 3 not take action about it. The FOMO about being up to date is again a distraction of our egos. It feels good, but if it does not move us to do “the big work”, then why?
Ultimately, the question is: where do I choose to contribute?
Are we all intellectuals now discussing news on a bar somewhere, sitting in our safe chair where we don’t really need to get involved? Sounds to me like mental masturbation.
"A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier." H.L. Mencken
Reason 6: Will I do something about it?
By consuming the news, we increase our anxiety and stress and the feeling that something is not right. Instead of choosing something to focus on, to make a difference, we break our attention in 1,000 things we won’t remember about tomorrow.
There is a big difference engaging with problems that I can do something about and suffering for things I can’t do anything about. And surely I cannot act on everything. Then why subject me to all kinds of fucked up things? To feel like everything is shit? To feel lost in a vast world of possibilities?
If we are going to inflict so much stress on ourselves, then let’s do something about it. Otherwise, this is just masochism.
"If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." Malcolm X
The other side of the coin…
I have lived abroad for a decade now, and at times I don't talk much to my mother. In one period that we did not talk for over a month, I asked her “Weren’t you nervous? What if something bad had happened to me in this period?” Her answer: “I am sure I would know right away. Nothing travels as fast as really bad news.”
We live connected to other human beings and when something relevant happens, it does emerge in conversations (taken that we live in a country with freedom of speech, that is). I challenge you to not read the news and yet not know about the Coronavirus.
I am not saying we should not care. Reading the news is far from being the only way to care. Let's see the forest for the trees. Let's align with what makes our heart tick. Let's change how we behave. If the only thing that news is doing is giving us a topic of conversation, inflicting anxiety, or acting as escapism, then we are better off.
When there is an emergency, like Corona, and you want to keep yourself up to date, please go ahead. But then you decided what you were looking for. And there's a difference between checking news on it once or twice a day to keep yourself up to date, and obsessing about it.
As said, I might check news about specific things that I consciously care about. Not often, but it happens. I choose the topic. Again, we can’t possibly care about everything. We can’t possibly act on everything. We can’t possibly know everything. Ever. Our egos have to make peace with that. Not only on a mental level but on a full existence embodied level.
Personally, I care about self-awareness, honesty, emotional intelligence, global warming, ethics, animal rights, writing, feminism, tantra, and spirituality. I want to make a positive impact on these topics. I reflect on, write on, read on these topics. That is already a LOT of topics.
I can’t possibly keep up and contribute to more than that. I got no idea of what movies have been launched in the past year and have no idea about Oscars or any sports competition. I don’t live in the USA and am not following all the political stuff there.
It does not mean it is not relevant, but I can’t possibly know and contribute to everything. If anything, I think I need to reduce my topics so I can make a better contribution. I need to choose, because if I don’t, the media outlets will choose for me, and my contribution will be impacted by it.
Maybe your reading impacts your voting. Maybe it leads you to be empathetic and engage with people who hold different visions. Great, as long as we hold the discernment of when it is serving us and when it isn’t.
We need to be mindful of when we are consuming content to our own improvement and when we are doing it out of escapism. Keeping ourselves well informed is at times, playing safe and hiding. Sometimes we are scared of doing the work. Sometimes we are distracting ourselves because we are afraid to face we do not know our purpose. In such moments, we easily allow external sources to kidnap our attention and energy.
What is important is to be present, in charge of our attention span. Aligned with our areas of contribution, what is pressing to our hearts, what we live for. The role of the mind is to help the heart. To have discernment of what is relevant, and what isn’t, and not to be kidnapped. It is the discernment that if everything is vital, then nothing is.
Hi, I am Aline Ra M, spiritual guide, energy worker, and tea lover.
