News – bad for you
Rolf Dobelli says, here:
That:
“News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and
aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The
solution? Stop consuming it altogether.”
What he very much does not
say, actually, is stop consuming it altogether. What he does say is that it is those addictive, short, sharp glances at the headlines in particular are bad, and that those
short sharp glances add up, time-wise, and do you no good, happiness and productivity-wise. They also have an
adverse effect on your ability to take in longer, deeper articles and pieces of
writing. Stuff that needs concentration and thinking about, rather than passive
scanning.
There’s an article refuting
the idea, from a journalist claiming that moderation, not stopping altogether,
is the answer.
She actually starts the
article “as with all things, moderation
is the answer…”, or something like that. I decided to moderate my
overwhelming desire to quote people correctly.
Anyway:
First of all, what Dobelli
said made sense. When I finish one thing, before starting another, I get
tempted into a quick butchers at the Guardian online headlines. More often than
not I’m left angry (for example, we’re all in it together Osborne leaving the
richest 1% better off and hitting the poorest 25%; the immigration rubbish
spouted, escalatingly, by all parties; the BBC excluding the Greens, with more of
the vote than the Lib Dems and the only guys doubting the sense of austerity,
from the election debates) or bemused (Dec getting married? Why would I want to
know that and isn’t he wed to the other one…Ant?; ‘strictly’ what, exactly?; of
course rightwingers like Cliff Richard, they like Clarkson, Thatcher, and
Lloyd-Webber musicals, that's what ‘conservative’ means), no better off, no
better informed and certainly no happier.
What he says is avoid the
short and the sharp, but by all means attack the long, the difficult, the
demanding and the complex. He does not advocate a blackout, but suggests taking
a more proactive and discerning approach.
Secondly, that’s the big
mistake, right there: the presumption of moderation over excess in all things.
The idea that it’s moderation or the unhealthy highway to hell. My (moderate)
way or the highway. There’s a lot of that sort of intolerance and jackboot
approach from the supposedly softer disciplines. I can understand Dobelli and
he makes gut-instinct good sense. It is exactly the moderation, the dipping in
and out of issues without ever digging deeper for a true understanding that
sells copies of the Daily Mail and keeps the Sky News viewing figures high.
I’m going to give the no
news is good news approach a go and see if I’m happier and more productive.
In the process, I might
just strike a blow for excess over moderation.
No comments:
Post a Comment