Lessons I’ve Learned by Turning Off News Media

About 6 months ago, I did something I have not done since I was young.  I actively and purposely turned off the news.  That’s a lot harder today than it was a few years ago.  You know, now we have 50 million 24-hour news networks, 100 billion news outlets (real and fake), and all of that can collide on your phone through apps.  I can’t tell you how much happier I am from doing this!  I mean, it is so freeing to be okay not knowing everything, jot, and tittle,  thought, or intention of every aspect of our lives.

We live in an era where you can find a news editorial that fits your point of view.  Real or fake you can find your own news with its own editorial.  It’s pretty easy to tell too, ask your, conservative friends

I got sick of hearing the negativity.  I got sick of having my news delivered to me filtered by the 6 white guys that own the media.  I deleted many of the news apps on my phone, and if I didn’t delete them, I turned off the notifications.  I also unfollowed a lot of them on Facebook, which, by the way, has made significant changes to their algorithm because of new fatigue and fake news.

This is the era of the downfall of journalistic integrity.  This past election cycle exposed a lot of the corruption in the media.  Yes, we all knew it was there, but now through some leaked documents, we saw it firsthand.

I know what you’re thinking, I’ve just put on rose-colored glasses and everything is perfect.  No.  I am actually talking to the media “villains,” to see what’s really going on.  Villians?  You know whichever group people are hating on this month.  DACA, immigrants, refugees, people in poverty, millennials, and the like.

Now, in full disclosure, I do watch news.  Every morning for about 30 minutes to get headlines locally, and nationally.  But, that’s pretty much it.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned in this much-needed journey.

Lesson 1

I found out that people are people.  They aren’t percentages.  It’s easy when you hear that a group is put into a percentage, but it’s just numbers.  When you start looking at the people behind the numbers, it becomes clear that we use numbers because it’s easier.  News has this uncanny ability to make you think of things outside of a human perspective.  I don’t like that.

Lesson 2

I like my life much more not knowing every little thing that happens in this world.  The 24-hour news cycle has to be filled (thanks, Ted Turner).  Small remote regional issues become fodder for the vacuum that has to be filled.  The most salacious and crazy stories will pick up steam, and demand our attention like a gnat.   This is predicated on fear, and the news cycle sells us on fear.  I have found that I don’t fear my neighbor, that I am actually very much like them.  It’s crazy.

Lesson 3

Conservative news put out a crazy headline (clickbait) on Facebook, everyone clicks to read the salacious story…. #BOOM conservative news site gets ad revenue.  Liberal News does the same thing for the same reason, and local news, and…. well you get it.  So, we should stop the digital ads and could squelch the fire! The next day it takes something even greater and crazier to get you to click…. and so on.  Stop it.  All of us, just stop clicking.  News media stop this practice.  But perhaps the worst is the death of newspapers.  You know they used to be the powerhouse of journalistic integrity, but now they are selling sensationalism like a Kardashian sells their first child.  They are scraping as much revenue off the cleft of the hole they are falling into as a medium.

Lesson 4

Yes, I binged watched the Las Vegas massacre.  I stood horrified as the images began to emerge, and yet I think the 24-hour news cycle created this monster.  Yes, the cycle makes the shooter a hero while they prop up every single detail of his life.  He was a monster, that’s the end of the story, but no, when you do this in America you get special graphics on all the network news and anchors are live on the scene, and “Tragedy in ______” is on the cycle for the next week or so.  Then something else happens…. camera move and the animal repeats.  This is the tragedy that, since I had been so separated from the media, that I saw what was really going on.

Turn it off folks, you don’t have to care what 6 white guys who control the animal think is important.  Go out.  See people.  Sit with those whom you disagree.  Talk to people who aren’t like you.  Find out that you have more in common than you thought.

(also, and HUGE thank you to Josh Raef who is the one that inspired me to turn it off)