I am tempted to stop watching most TV (except for only the occasional program or sports event). I am also tempted to delete my CNN.com bookmark, because like TV, reading online news seems to be too much wandering for something worthwhile, which is really cost-inneffective and a serious waste of time spending on something which could be better spent on something that I consider more worthwhile.

Do I really need to stay current with news/pop culture, or can I simply focus on what I enjoy individually?

In other words, can I treat the "News" as an outdated tradition.

Good. I don't watch TV either. Haven't for years.

If there's ever a show I want to watch, I'll find a place on the net that streams it.

I've got a 37in HDTV, but not channels with it. It's strictly for PS3/Wii gaming. Though I could run my computer to it, but it would mean killing one of my monitors to do so.

Bah, point in case... yeah, I think it's outdated as well.

The news gives me night mares. Always talk about terrorists, and people getting hurt and killed. I have enough
negativity in my life. I don't need to add more by thinking about how news crap may or may not affect me.

I say go with shows that make you smile.

^I agree with KittyKicker, the news is all bad and I despise reality shows!

News channels don't interest me.
I still watch a lot of shows on t.v. So I'm not tired with it yet,

I just don't care for live action TV shows anymore... and the news has never interested me. Maybe if the news wasn't so bias about... everything?

That is defintely part of why I am getting sick of the news. It is very biased. Not only is it biased toward liberal/conservative, it is biased toward celebrities, violence, and consumerism. That's three things right there that I don't like.

ah, man, dumbing down and the UK news broadcasts, don't even get me started >___<;;

i'm terrible, i'll complain at the TV half of the time.

Dudes. Seriously.

I admit I have no idea how the news outside my country are, but based on what I know of the US mentality, they must be indeed very biased over there.

I don't watch TV either, but to stop watching or reading the news has never crossed my mind... it is just unthinkable. If you don't read newspapers (which I believe must also be biased over there, meaning you don't read it either), then stop watching the news just makes you alienated.

The feeling I get is that there is this counter-culture mentality in the US, one that tells everyone in the back of their minds that everything mainstream is bad. "Reject the values this terrible society is imposing on us all!" Blah blah. Conspiracy theories. US breeds 30 of them every minute. I can't help to think of someone who stopped watching the news because they are biased just like I think of someone who believes George W. Bush is a reptilian alien trying to conquer the world.

My point is that you have to know what's going on around the world and in your country and near where you live. I see absolutely no point in getting alienated. Sure, you may think you can get the news from the world from another source, like friends, but nothing will give you more complete reports than the actual news.

What you gotta do is filter. You must learn to separate what interests you and what doesn't in the news, and then separate what's important from what's not. Excess of information generates ignorance. So you gotta sort well what information you'll pass on to yourself. That way you can really overcome the fact that the news are biased. Yes, they're biased, so what? Reading the news and deciding what to think of it is kinda like reading philosophy and deciding which aspects of it you'll keep with you and which you'll discard. It's a simple matter of filtering. And that's something you must learn how to do because whether you reject the news or not, you'll be bombarded daily with a myriad of situations in which you'll have to filter your way through.

And @ KK: You say you don't like the news because they are too negative. Again, filtering. You have to learn to know when the negativity is produced to create a romantic, dramatic effect and when it's real.
And when it's real, there is no point in rejecting it. Sure, you can try to ignore all the negative aspects of the world and enclose yourself in a pink shiny bubble of happiness, but that is, IMHO, a rather disgusting form of escapism. Reality has a habit of knocking harder on the doors of the ones who try to ignore it. Life doesn't happen like in movies or books, it is sad, depressing and other so-called 'negative aspects'. You can try to ignore them (which is kinda impossible, because you can only ignore so much something that actually exists), or try to adapt to them. And live with them. And understand that there's no life without negativity. And if there was, what would the fun be?


Uhm, sorry for the long post. I just felt kinda outraged by so many people saying "News suck. Don't watch them" as if news was just an entertainment device like a book or a movie. I don't agree with that at all.
Let me make it clear, that outragedness isn't directed at the people who don't watch the news but read them, neither at the ones who reject some of the indeed terrible shows TV has to offer. All that gargantuan post up there was against those who think news is just a disposable part of their life.

Peace, hommies.

@The Gnasher

Wow. I'm glad that my topic inspired such energy.

The thing that my topic was meant to address, which is exactly what you are talking about is filtering.

But isn't filtering toward your own interests a way of biasing and escaping?

And if it is acceptable bias or escapism, then what I am maybe considering filtering out (my topic is an attempt to find out) are pop culture and current events.

Why not better spend my time and myself with other culture than pop culture and if a current event is significant enough, can't I find out by friends, the occasional headline at the newstand, etc.

What is the point of staying immersed in what is 'new' if so much of what is not 'new' is so much more INTERESTING. Shouldn't I be filtering toward those interests?

Short answer: no

I'd say it's worth bothering with. Maybe you're watching the wrong news? *shrug*
there's plenty of independant internet sites going, and it's easy to get foreign news over the net too. a guy i know (middle age, kinda crazy, has a weapon fixation, but he's smart enough) watches british news and swears by it basically. (i'm not suggesting you do that -_____-)
even if the news became all lies at least you'd know what people are trying to feed you. *shrug* creates perspective?

on what gnasher said - news is information (which may be right wrong, biased, totally faked) which you need to create your own perspective on. if nothign else it keeps your brain cells going to watch news ^_____^ better than being totally ignorant. (ZOMG optimism)

i watch british news and swear at it.

the BBC website kicks all kinds of ass, though.

the brain cells thing is, imo, totally true, though. ^_^

[quote=]But isn't filtering toward your own interests a way of biasing and escaping?[/quote]
It'd be if you also filtered the important news out. But you gotta have a second filter that tells you what matters — whether or not it interests you. That usually involves politics and economics. Ignoring them is indeed a way of escaping. You have to create a distinction between what is interesting and what is important.



Why not do both? Really, checking the news takes so little time that you can do it and then check out other things later. Besides, you don't have to 'stay immersed' in the news. You just have to have an idea of what's going on.
Most of pop culture doesn't qualify for the Importance filter, but for the Interest one. Which means, IMO, that it is quite optional. I don't see anything wrong in filtering unimportant pop culture that doesn't interest you.
Of course you can find out anything by friends, the occasional headline at the newstand, etc. But that is by no means a failproof method and you'll always know about it later than you would have if you actually learned about it in the news. Yeah, you can do that, but it'll leave you with a bitter taste of slight alienation.


@Sumi - heh, you got it. I totally agree with you. ^^

Someone who spends 11AM-11:30AM reading news, is spending 11AM-11:30 AM being ignorant of non-new, but personally interesting science, history, philosophy, music, art, (not to mention the equally important but less respected sports, gaming, etc.).

So yes I can spend other time of the day doing these things, but really why bother giving up 11AM-11:30. What is so important about what is new that it is worth more than what is not-new but personally interesting?

Would I be more respectable or benefit more by knowing about the fire in California or the missing girl in whatever state it is this week than by knowing more about particle physics, the civil rights movement, normative ethics, Bach, Durer, the Red Sox, or Halo 3?

In other words, while I am sympathetic to that which is actually occurring presently, I also have an understanding that essentially, there is nothing new under the sun. As such, to me, news seems to be 'details' that have a low probability of providing me with a greater understanding of my world than exploring all the other subjects that I addressed above.

The problem is that I don't know what news to follow. Not what news source, but what actual news.

Also even simply looking at headlines on a web page is going to likely take more time the more that I find a story relatively interesting. By 'relatively' I mean relative to other news stories, not relative to all the other knowledge that is out there.

EDIT: So to rephrase, trust that I will find the appropriate news source and that I am going to filter out whatever I do not find interesting. In this case what news would I benefit from knowing, would society benefit from if I knew or do I have a responsibility to myself or others to seek?

I don't know about you, but...

... I like to check the price raise on supermarket products and conclude that inflation is behind it.
... I like to find out that the football game I didn't finish watching last night ended in an awesome 5x0 victory by Brasil over Ecuador.
... I like to know that the current chaos in airport and flying in the country is because the flight controllers are too overwhelmed and are protesting for better salaries.
... I liked to know, when buying plane tickets for my last trip, which airports were in a total chaotic state and should be avoided.
... I like to see the whole state have a minute of silence of respect and relating it to the case of the dead 6-year old boy who was dragged for 2 kilometers while hanging from the door of a just-hijacked car.
... I like to know that the world's largest plane to date, the A380, is already flying.
... I like to see manifestations on the street for ethics in the senate and understand it's because that bastard Renan Calheiros wouldn't give up his chair.
... I like knowing the date and location of my favorite bands' shows.
... I like to know that the shots I heard from school the other day was a police operation to invade a slum nearby, and that they had found one ton of marijuana and thousands of illegal weapons by the end of the day.
... I like to know what food brands have been found to be using bad ingredients in their food, so I can avoid buying them.
... I like to know people still haven't given up investigating Lady Diana's death, and probably won't stop until they come up with another conspiracy theory.
... I liked, a lot, to see a kangaroo running right in the middle of a stock car race in Australia.
... I like to know that there's more war going on in the slums of Rio de Janeiro every day than Iraq can ever dream of.
... I like to know that there's more war going on in Africa than Iraq and the slums of Rio de Janeiro together can ever dream of.
... and I like to know that all these examples are real, and that there are a lot more.

Honestly, I can't give you debatical arguments or a thesis that'll answer all your inquires. All I can say is that it's really a matter of personal choice.
I can't see a way to be a part of real world society without knowing what happens in the world. Really, I can't. If you are completely cut off from the world, you're not being a part of the society. For me, knowing only about your own interests does not count as not being cut off from the world. Ignorant people are plenty already. The last thing we want are ignorant people who are also alienated. I can't even think of a profession that's related to social interaction that doesn't require one to be updated.

Hell, I must watch the news because the test I'll have to take to enter college requires you to know everything that is going on in the world.

I guess it's really a matter of choosing where you want to live, in the end. Inside your own head or on Earth.
Of course I'm talking in extremes, but you get my drift.

^_^

@The Gnasher

By consuming this much of what other people tell you is important, how much of what is in your own head is actually your own?

EDIT: Let me just say that I do get your drift, and I think that it is important for people reognize the Earth too.

Unless the news is ONLY talking about "landing on mars, sports or the mating of the Panda's." I think those are the only nice things I hear anymore.

Everything else is Hate, pain and money. Who wants to think about those things? I don't.

I have to interject right here and say that everything that goes into your head becomes your own. After it's in your heads it's yours no matter how it got there. It's always your choice what to do with it after it gets in there. Anyways... Go ahead, that's all I had to say.

I agree.

I am saying that I would prefer more to watch what I mentally 'eat'. It seems like news are the trendy restaurants that either will open me up to a new world OR prey on my sense of being hip, current, fashionable, or subject to peer pressure and drain my time and my mental 'wallet' for something that really wasn't worth it, whereas I rather consume my daily regiment of home cooking or proven fine dining, along with the specific fast food that I know I like.

It doesn't seem like news is for everyone just as trendy restaurants are not for everyone.