The last few years I was in Italy I stopped reading the news: the bullshit around Berlusconi and his entourage, the sad state of the politics there, the obsession with kidnapping or raping or murder or disasters. I was happy being ignorant, I stopped caring about things one should but can't really do anything about it. I felt a little out of the loop when somebody asked me "hey did you hear about the disaster in XXX?" and I had to play catch up.
Unfortunately now my morning routine consists in reading HN and The Guardian, I spend a lot of time reading about stuff that just feels like wasted time. In one hour of news reading there's probably a minute or two of stuff that interests me. I really want to stop that.
Aside: sometimes I catch up on news from Italian newspapers and it's incredible how depressing the tone of the articles are compared to e.g. The Guardian. The topic may be the same, but the British site has a much rosier approach to events. I'm positive that the modern news has the same effect of living with a slightly depressed housemate: he seems OK at first glance but slowly brings you down with his unhappiness and gray view of the world.
A girl from China joined my class in England, when we were 16¹. She mentioned that she didn't like British newspapers, since they were always so negative (we had to read and analyse them in class sometimes). Chinese news was much more positive.
It took a while for her to realise why this might be the case. I think it helped that the physics teacher regularly said things like "That bloody Tony Blair…".
¹ It was a private school, so her parents were paying the full cost.
Unfortunately now my morning routine consists in reading HN and The Guardian, I spend a lot of time reading about stuff that just feels like wasted time. In one hour of news reading there's probably a minute or two of stuff that interests me. I really want to stop that.
Aside: sometimes I catch up on news from Italian newspapers and it's incredible how depressing the tone of the articles are compared to e.g. The Guardian. The topic may be the same, but the British site has a much rosier approach to events. I'm positive that the modern news has the same effect of living with a slightly depressed housemate: he seems OK at first glance but slowly brings you down with his unhappiness and gray view of the world.