How to manage the mental somersaults, avoiding brain damage and brain rewiring from reading news?

[Barrelhouse Solly]

The answer is Chickens! and a bit of growing food, flowers, herbs, whatever gets your hands in the dirt.
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For me it's cats but I do like most any birds and animals.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I read news for entertainment. I almost never get emotionally involved. I subscribe to , gasp, the Washington Post and listen to NPR regularly. I sincerely believe that humans are as good as they can be. Or in the words of the refrain to a song I heard in a Fleischer cartoon when I was a kid, "Our best is none too good."

 

[Ron Texas]

Either skip it or just stick to news sources which have your political orientation.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I've read a ton of fiction books and have never ever ever seen this word. Just WoW! A very powerful word. Thanks for the word powaH!

It was one of my mom's favorites.

 

[Snarfie]

No mention of actual news stories in the thread is the rule. This thread is only about recognition of the issue, self management, harm reduction, coping skills and knowing when to set the news articles aside and go to do stuff that is wholesome and positive thinking? Have you escaped the news for greener pastures, do you daily keep up to speed on the current events? Myself I reached the point that I need to escape for awhile and do something wholesome. I took a 1 month community course in mindfulness/meditation and the meditation part was OK but I learned better more effective skills in martial arts training that I studied some time ago. I read stuff that interfered with my sleep habits or I was not sleeping at all and it changed my entire view of humanity. After a couple of weeks of serious contemplation I have come to some level of closure, forgiveness and improved trust and faith but the brain damage has been done. What is your take on the matter?

After dinner listening in my mancave to music. Before i know it it is getting dark an time to go to bed. Listening to music i did avoid looking to TV or my mobile phone. But than i'm in bed listening to podcasts or re run TV programs

 

[Doodski]

Either skip it or just stick to news sources which have your political orientation.

Yes, I was reading the National Post and then I found I was getting into it too much...LoL. Too many comments that I agreed with in the commentary after the news stories.

 

[Ze Frog]

Either skip it or just stick to news sources which have your political orientation.

I agree skipping news altogether is the best way. However sticking to news if you choose to indulge in such ideally should incorporate various views and angles. I think that's actually a massive reason for decline in trust of media these days as a lop sided view, despite being what the individual might want to hear is effectively making people on multiple sides of the fence even dumber. I've always tried to seek all potential views as it's the only way to really find a balanced and informed perspective.

That's part of the main issue with media today I think, none feel like they are designed for educating people and just enforcing someone's beliefs through telling them what they want to hear or stoking dirision against those of different viewpoints which leads to a very polarised society and potentially a very dangerous situation in future as there is no point of grounded reference to which all sides can take any kind of reference from. Media should be devoid of polarization as mainstream news channels should be a common grounding point for society. I believe in future it's going to become a threat to national security in some scenarios as up and coming generations get pushed to information provided by nothing but attention seekers and in some case malicious actors. The decline in trust of once highly regarded institution's is a grave mistake, but self inflicted by a media resorting to shock, divide, and generally appealing to the ideal or group with the greatest perceived following. If I was a leader of a country I'd be doing my best to reverse this as quickly as possible, there needs to be sources of news that have credibility and the means to represent all. We all need to grow up and get back to before the days of internet being mainstream where we were stronger as societies and not so easily hurt or offended by views that differ to our own. We live in really strange times right now.

 

[amper42]

Either skip it or just stick to news sources which have your political orientation.

Oh my, this is the absolute worst thing to do. It's how Google and Facebook algorithms work. They take the readers bias and magnify it by feeding them more and more bias of the flavor the reader prefers. The fact that most of the streams are fabricated lies or half truths is never considered important. You are much better off reading nothing than be feed propaganda.

 

[DLS79]

I agree skipping news altogether is the best way. However sticking to news if you choose to indulge in such ideally should incorporate various views and angles. I think that's actually a massive reason for decline in trust of media these days as a lop sided view, despite being what the individual might want to hear is effectively making people on multiple sides of the fence even dumber. I've always tried to seek all potential views as it's the only way to really find a balanced and informed perspective.

I agree, you must avoid the echo chamber, even if you have to read/deal with topics you find unsavory.

 

[Ze Frog]

Yes, I was reading the National Post and then I found I was getting into it too much...LoL. Too many comments that I agreed with in the commentary after the news stories.

If you find some news outlet that you find agreeing with your ideals too much, take a second and realise, it's likely not a good thing as a real news piece should neither cater to one viewpoint or another. It's nice to find people that share our views or ideals in social circles, but the news and such we should feel it's roughly even split regardless as then we know that all sides go have equal voice and representation.

There's certain people or groups I despise, yet I feel they should have their say, and I will listen to views I don't agree with as it forms the basis of learning and understanding. Sometimes you can then understand why someone has a different opinion, and sometimes even find some sort of sympathy or connection to it at which point you can realise that actually sometimes people who differ in opinion actually have more in common than not, or sometimes even the same goals albeit with a different idea of how to get there. World would likely actually be a lot worse if we all thought exactly the same way, sometimes differing views are actually what maintains the balance where both sides in whatever it may be kind of prevent the other from veering off course.

 

[egellings]

To try and steer this back away from being political, I will say... the minute you think there's a "good" cable news and a "bad" cable news, you're sliding down a very slippery slope. I've found that the format does a dramatic disservice to the ideas it supposedly supports, no matter who or what the ideas are.

Or let me put it this way - if you watch cable news and you don't immediately feel offended at the insult to your intelligence... something is wrong.

"The medium is the message" is actually a literal statement... and was meant to be very pertinent to television. Something to chew on.

I rate the quality of a news service by how much opinion that gets mixed into the news feed. "Just the facts, m'am, just the facts, thank you. Save the opinions for the editorial section.

 

[G|force]

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

It works a treat for Paul A.

 

[Chr1]

Dunetastic!

Absolutely/Hell yeah
(Bi-La Kaifa)

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'd prefer something close to neutral fact reporting. People have enough unintentional bias without intentionally shaping what and how they report.

A bad example to me is NPR and Fox News. NPR should change its name to National Democratic Party Radio. That is effectively what they are. Fox news is just as bad for the Republican party. Some are worse (eg, MSNBC-LSD as I refer to it). Finding something that even makes a genuine attempt to simply report news or investigate beyond the headline is not easy. Yet with what is available it should be easier than ever. The need or temptation to monetize has created just the opposite result.

 

[Ron Texas]

Oh my, this is the absolute worst thing to do. It's how Google and Facebook algorithms work. They take the readers bias and magnify it by feeding them more and more bias of the flavor the reader prefers. The fact that most of the streams are fabricated lies or half truths is never considered important. You are much better off reading nothing than be feed propaganda.

I agree with your assessment of the Facebook algorithm. It only provides what I am likely to agree with which gets boring at times. I avoid Google altogether. Whether it's propaganda is in the eyes of the beholder. Even if it is on my side of the aisle I can spot when it's propaganda. I doubt that reading nothing is better than reading one side of the story.

One should observe that a candidate for elected office might be described as being close to the center or way out on the extreme edge depending on the point of view of who is giving out the labels. The same item can either be a fact or a belief depending on who is giving out the labels.

 

[Timcognito]

If a news organization has few or no reporters on the ground, does not allow or even invite or interview people on both sides of an issue, takes a side on a topic or headline, does not show the facts behind what they present but still calls themselves a news organization, that is a propaganda organization. We used to have the equal time clause for broadcast news but "cable" never adopted it. I think if its called NEWS then it should fact based on scene reporting on topics with both sides interviewed on controversial stories.

 

[antcollinet]

For my sins, here in the UK I "trust" the BBC.

So do I.

They (like ALL sources) have some biases, but they don't publish lies.

 

[amper42]

I'd prefer something close to neutral fact reporting. People have enough unintentional bias without intentionally shaping what and how they report.

A bad example to me is NPR and Fox News. NPR should change its name to National Democratic Party Radio. That is effectively what they are. Fox news is just as bad for the Republican party. Some are worse (eg, MSNBC-LSD as I refer to it). Finding something that even makes a genuine attempt to simply report news or investigate beyond the headline is not easy. Yet with what is available it should be easier than ever. The need or temptation to monetize has created just the opposite result.

I'm listening to NPR right now. They are talking about preparing and selecting eggs. The host indicates organic eggs may taste better as the chickens are feed less antibiotics and a better meal. I guess the organic part is the left wing politicians at work?
In addition, half the airtime for NPR is actually a live stream from the BBC so they must be the other left wing group? I could go on, but comparing FOX who was fined $787 million for intentionally lying on air with NPR has me laughing a bit too much!

 

[Ron Texas]

If a news organization has few or no reporters on the ground, does not allow or even invite or interview people on both sides of an issue, takes a side on a topic or headline, does not show the facts behind what they present but still calls themselves a news organization, that is a propaganda organization. We used to have the equal time clause for broadcast news but "cable" never adopted it. I think if its called NEWS then it should fact based on scene reporting on topics with both sides interviewed on controversial stories.

Equal time was thrown out. I believe it was held to violate the freedom of speech of the news organizations. I hate to tell you, but people differ as to what is a fact.

 

[Timcognito]

I hate to tell you, but people differ as to what is a fact.

Not the most that come ASR. Few alternate facts here. Just measurable ones.