Don't let the news overwhelm you: <The Art of Living Without News>

Do you receive news every day? Are you the type of person who reads news headlines in the morning and listens to news broadcasts at night, and then takes time out of the day to check websites or apps to check for the latest news? Have you ever counted how much news you receive every day? How much time did you spend? Have you ever thought about how much of the various news you receive every day is useful to you, even if it just guides your thinking? Also, does watching the news affect your work, study, and even reading patterns?

In this era of information explosion, we are all accustomed to being surrounded by all kinds of news anytime, anywhere. By receiving news, we feel that we are closely connected with the whole world. What happens in any corner of the earth may cause We can all get news about the things we care about, which makes us feel good. In the book "The Art of Living in Rejecting News", author Rolf Dobelli tells you that being inundated with news for a long time is harmful, just Like an overnutrition or even a drug addiction, instead of getting a better understanding of the world by receiving the news, you are unknowingly enslaved and poisoned by the news.

The author conveys a central idea throughout the book, why do we need to "quit the news"? Here are a few points that I find important and inspiring:

• News consumption requires a lot of time. This includes not only the time you spend reading the news, listening to the news, watching the news on TV or browsing the news on electronic products, but also when you follow the news after work and study and then The time it takes to turn your attention back to what you're working on. Also, news content and images you've read may linger in your head for hours, distracting you from focus, so you'll have to spend more time to complete the task.
• News consumption affects our thinking patterns. Since most news is mainly short stories about events, and our brains prefer information that is quick and concise while also stimulating emotions, prolonged immersion in such an environment can make us The neural network of reading long articles and deep thinking is gradually shrinking. Those events that occupy the headlines are complex, and we need to know the historical background, the relationship between events, the feedback and effects at that time, and the subsequent impact, in order to truly understand Gradually understand the whole event and make a judgment. And consuming news gives us the illusion that we understand most of the world. As a result, you become shallow thinking and overconfident in yourself.
• News consumption can negatively affect our emotions and interfere with our judgment. First, news is either focused on those at the top of the hierarchy or on major events that we cannot interfere with, receiving a large amount of this type of information every day can make the We feel small and even depressed. Second, the news is filled with reports of violent crime, terrorist incidents, air crashes, etc., which can lead us to miscalculate the risks we need to face, while ignoring the truly noteworthy Under-reported but far-reaching things: overestimation of terrorism, underestimation of long-term stress; overestimation of plane crashes, underestimation of resistance to antibiotics; overestimation of shark attacks, underestimation of ocean acidification.
• In the Internet age, news consumption is driven by commercial or political interests to maximize attention. As a result, the high news torrent has brought about a low quality of news discourse, and news has been gradually brought to a downward trend. The competition is bad. News coverage is not about focusing on facts, not about in-depth analysis and follow-up, but about providing super short news flashes as much as possible to increase click-through rates and traffic. From this point of view, news consumers The vulgar requirements of the news promote the development of bad news, and the vulgarization of news further deteriorates the atmosphere of news consumption.

The author's claim in the book may be too extreme, namely "fasting the news completely" and focusing only on reading and learning about yourself or reading some long and insightful journals. For me, it still makes sense to read the news every day Yes. First of all, reading English reports such as WSJ, BBC and CBC is a very effective way to further improve English skills (personally I think it is more useful than watching English movies). Second, although many reports are not directly related to my life, I can't influence them What, but it doesn't mean it's pointless to accept this information, for example, if it weren't for the continued attention of CBC, etc., I would not have learned so much about the terrible past of Canadian aboriginal schools, and as a new immigrant to Canada, I know these things and this. The current attitude of the country helps me to know more about the country and strengthen my identity. Also, no matter what occasion is when I communicate with people around me, the latest news is always a good point of exchange to open up topics, even if Now that I work from Home, I usually chat with my colleagues on Team more or less about the latest news. Finally, sometimes watching the news is really just watching something unrelated to work and study in my spare time. If all the information I receive is Just to improve yourself, then this kind of life is too boring.

Finally, let me briefly say some of my suggestions: First of all, be sure to grasp the "degree" of consuming news, don't spend too much time and energy on those news alerts that have nothing to do with your life, let alone let them affect yours Emotion and judgment. Secondly, there are two types of news that are relatively more worth reading. One is investigative news that can reveal the truth and abuses, and the other is explanatory news that can describe the whole picture, convey background information and provide explanations. For example The previous Miami apartment collapse incident, I think a CBC report is very good. Starting from the accident, it analyzes the reasons for the collapse of the building, and the relevant regulations and problems of Florida on the periodic inspection of such apartment buildings, and then leads back to Canada. , analyzing the Canadian side's regular inspection requirements for apartment buildings and whether we will have similar problems, such news reports are more meaningful than simply releasing the accident pictures and the number of casualties. Finally, we should realize that , Accepting the news does not necessarily mean expressing an opinion. There are too many things in this world that we may never know the full picture, or that we will never be able to influence anything, we can only accept it. "You always have the option of having no opinion . There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone."