The last day of 2024 is here. It’s been a long year, a hard year, a good year. Looking back over this year, I’m thankful that I can know more of the God’s character and himself each year and also see his hand over time conforming me into the likeness of Jesus Christ. He has been good to me and blest me with much. I’m thankful for the many opportunities that He has brought into my life, especially the opportunity to build my own house!
At the beginning of the year, I made a New Year’s resolution to not check any news sources for one year. While it may seem like a silly resolution, I had my reasons. It started with a quote that my sister shared in our family chat from entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli about news and journalism, analogizing the effect of news on the mind with the effect of sugar to the body.
I looked up the source of the quote and found it came from a book that he wrote a dozen years ago on 100 common cognitive biases: The Art of Thinking Clearly. Reading an article on his website, I found his view of news intriguing. I eventually bought the book (after the new year) but before that I decided to try giving up all sources of news for one year, as my own experiment.
December 31st, 2023 was the last day I visited a news site. And now, coming to the 31st of December 2024, I have not become completely uninformed about what is happening in the world. I know Donald Trump won the presidential election, Biden removed the HIMARS rockets’ geofencing restrictions on Ukraine, and Houthi groups in Yemen attacked US warships in the Red Sea area many times, among other noteworthy events. The one significant thing that I missed for a time (that I am aware of) was the fall of the Alawite regime in Syria.
The effects of my news experiment have been interesting. For a few months, I didn’t notice much of a difference but overtime I began to see some changes in my thought process. Essentially, I came away with the same benefits that Dobelli mentions: “clearer thoughts, more valuable insights, better decisions, and much more time”. I began to think more clearly and deeply about important things. This has led to deeper long range planning. Curiously, I also seemed to find a stronger drive to bring those plans to fruition. It was as if before, the news was a drag on my decision making and execution mental circuits.
The best part about not reading the news is that you rely on your social network more. The focus of my life has become more localized and human-scaled. The news I have gotten this year has all been filtered thru friends and family. I feel the resulting social interaction pays a higher dividend than the news facts themselves. (Although, there are situations where arguably, events should be directly monitored.)
News will help you know what’s happening in the world, but it will not help you understand the world. For that you need books or in-depth articles that take into account the subtle complexities of everyday life. In his book, Dobelli gives three reasons why news should be avoided. One reason, he explains, is that our brains respond differently depending on the type of information:
First, our brains react disproportionately to different types of information. Scandalous, shocking, people-based, loud, fast-changing details all stimulate us, whereas abstract complex, and unprocessed information sedates us. News producers capitalize on this. Gripping stories, garish images, and sensational “facts” capture our attention. Recall for a moment their business models: Advertisers buy space and thus finance the news circus on the condition that their ads will be seen. The result: Everything subtle, complex, abstract, and profound must be systematically filtered out, even though such stories are much more relevant to our lives and to our understanding of the world. As a result of news consumption, we walk around with a distorted mental map of the risks and threats we actually face.
In conclusion, I think it’s good to know what’s going on, but only to the extent that it enables you to gain a better understanding of the current state of affairs. News is like a speedometer, telling how fast the car is traveling but not where you are – for that you need a map. That is where in-depth articles and books really shine.
Overall, looking back on my experiment, I feel like I have gained improved thought processes over this last year. Some of that could be due to not checking the news. While I’m not sure I’ll completely stay away from all news feeds in the future, I’m not in a hurry to check them as soon as I wake up tomorrow morning. 🙂
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.
1 Chron. 12:32
