Do you keep up with news of any kind? If so, how? Don’t you have fear of missing out something important which you should act upon (both good news or bad news or not even news but simply information)? Not necessarily politics or general news of course.
News is a feed of exceptional events. Important news is called “history” and is impossible to ignore. Unimportant news is called “noise” and should be tuned out. Almost all news is a waste of time due to the Lindy effect alone.
Even worse, most news is subsidized by whoever wrote the press release, usually corporate or political interests. Have you ever read The Economist or Ars Technica and tried to guess what special interest group inserted each article into the publication? When these backers are corporations and political propaganda machines I find following the news makes me stupider because it draws my attention to the wrong things.
While surfing news is forbidden, I do allow myself to look up specific information if I have a question I want answered. For example, I have been following COVID-19 since 2019, long before it became big news in the West. I was way ahead of the mainstream news when it came to the single most important story this year. When this virus hit the USA I acted upon it immediately.
I decide for myself what information is important to follow and then I go look it up.
Not at all. I got early reports from my family. When I heard China was quarantining 10 million people in Wuhan it was obvious to me the disease could become a global pandemic.
I wouldn’t have been this nervous 5 years ago, but it seems to me that the world is socially evolving faster now, and I think it’s possible not to react fast enough on a historical event. But maybe I just have become more anxious? One other thing is: many times my life changed due to great fucking information I found while farting around the Internet, but at the same time this comes with all the drawbacks Isusr rightly identified. There is also the feeling that I have witnessed society and even art evolve by staying consistently online, and stopping feels like jumping out of a train. I’m not sure how I should act.
There haven’t been historical events that prompted me to react earlier than everyone else for now (not even covid, my city has never been the center of a big enough outbreak and I just abided to the lockdown rules. I can imagine that an earlier reaction could have been better if I lived in another country/city). The historical events that are important to react early to are probably the ones that would put me/my family/everyone else around in relatively sudden danger: war, political instability, coups, dangerous diseases, and probably other stuff. Things that happened just a handful of times in now developed countries during the twentieth century (maybe they won’t happen again, but...).
I’m inclined to think that if junk media (social media, news) were only useful for news, completely disregarding them would be probably the best action. Considering every other use though, I’m inclined to think the optimal is being able to reach a compromise of 20m per day maximum, although I’m not sure if it is possible without getting addicted. If it isn’t it just might be best to get away, but I’m unsure.
Do you keep up with news of any kind? If so, how? Don’t you have fear of missing out something important which you should act upon (both good news or bad news or not even news but simply information)? Not necessarily politics or general news of course.
News is a feed of exceptional events. Important news is called “history” and is impossible to ignore. Unimportant news is called “noise” and should be tuned out. Almost all news is a waste of time due to the Lindy effect alone.
Even worse, most news is subsidized by whoever wrote the press release, usually corporate or political interests. Have you ever read The Economist or Ars Technica and tried to guess what special interest group inserted each article into the publication? When these backers are corporations and political propaganda machines I find following the news makes me stupider because it draws my attention to the wrong things.
While surfing news is forbidden, I do allow myself to look up specific information if I have a question I want answered. For example, I have been following COVID-19 since 2019, long before it became big news in the West. I was way ahead of the mainstream news when it came to the single most important story this year. When this virus hit the USA I acted upon it immediately.
I decide for myself what information is important to follow and then I go look it up.
Did you discover COVID-19 earlier just due to keeping up with papers?
Not at all. I got early reports from my family. When I heard China was quarantining 10 million people in Wuhan it was obvious to me the disease could become a global pandemic.
Not OP, but I’d be curious what important thing he should act on but miss because of this plan.
I wouldn’t have been this nervous 5 years ago, but it seems to me that the world is socially evolving faster now, and I think it’s possible not to react fast enough on a historical event. But maybe I just have become more anxious? One other thing is: many times my life changed due to great fucking information I found while farting around the Internet, but at the same time this comes with all the drawbacks Isusr rightly identified. There is also the feeling that I have witnessed society and even art evolve by staying consistently online, and stopping feels like jumping out of a train. I’m not sure how I should act.
Can you tell me how you identify what is are historical events vs just noise?
How did you react to them and what would have been different if you reacted to said historical event a few days later?
It looks like you might be replying to this comment.
A historical event is something that will still matter long into the future. Exceptional events with few long-term consequences constitute noise.
We were first to market. It took 8 days to launch. If someone else had launched first they might have taken all the media coverage.
There haven’t been historical events that prompted me to react earlier than everyone else for now (not even covid, my city has never been the center of a big enough outbreak and I just abided to the lockdown rules. I can imagine that an earlier reaction could have been better if I lived in another country/city). The historical events that are important to react early to are probably the ones that would put me/my family/everyone else around in relatively sudden danger: war, political instability, coups, dangerous diseases, and probably other stuff. Things that happened just a handful of times in now developed countries during the twentieth century (maybe they won’t happen again, but...).
So you can’t step away from media because you might miss some historical event that you have to react quickly too, but that’s never happened?
Do you think that you would find out about war, political instability, coups, dangerous diseases even if you didn’t have access to any kind of media?
Yes, I would find out, but later.
I’m inclined to think that if junk media (social media, news) were only useful for news, completely disregarding them would be probably the best action. Considering every other use though, I’m inclined to think the optimal is being able to reach a compromise of 20m per day maximum, although I’m not sure if it is possible without getting addicted. If it isn’t it just might be best to get away, but I’m unsure.